E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

197 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughteconomic efficiency in any industry did not permit it to beoperated on the basis of self employment, he would prefercooperative ownership or social control and in exceptionalcases, where this too was not possible, he would prescribe stateownership. 14He would thus want the State to take the responsibilityfor public utilities, electricity, ship-building and the like. But hewould wan every form of ownership, collective as well asindividual, to function on the basis of Trusteeship. 15When technology is liberated from the profit motive,industrial relations will undergo a revolutionary change. Ideasof superiority and inferiority will disappear when all work isregarded as of equal value, and even those who work with theirintellect engage in some form of 'sacrificial' physical labour(Bread Labour). 16 Disparities in incomes, and therefore wealth,will be marginal, related to disparities in wants, and not to thenature of one's work. Industrial relations then will scale downto those between persons who have a special responsibility fortaking managerial decisions, and all others who are working inthe undertaking. Gandhi believed in the full and equalparticipation of workers in the management of anyundertaking. 17This takes one to the question of undertakings that areowned by individuals, and, in the agricultural sector, to theposition of zamindars or landlords. A communist wouldnationalise the ownership of all undertakings, and all land. Hewould dispossess private owners of their ownership andtransfer all ownership to the State. Gandhi did not believe thatviolent dispossession and State ownership offered the answer tothe problem of exploitative ownership. 18 State ownership will,in practice, operate through the coercive apparatus of the Statewhich in reality becomes the managerial apparatus of the State