E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 'Theory of Trusteeship… 200unless the character of ownership is altered to make them equalbeneficiaries of the assets, with equal rights and responsibilitiesin management, as equal partners in a common enterprises. 30Gandhi offered Trusteeship as an alternative. Capitalwas power. Labour too was power. Either could be usedconstructively or destructively. Both should, therefore, holdtheir power in trust. 31 Trusteeship would transform the veryconcept of ownership, both for the owners of capital andlabour. It would snap the link of ownership with private profitand link it to social profit, possessions being held in trust forthe welfare of all. Trusteeship thus would take one to an area inwhich the concepts of possessions and property that provide thevocabulary as well as the instruments of measurement in bothCommunist and Capitalist theory will cease to apply. Itprovides one with a glimpse of the social potential of what, forlack of a better word, may be described as 'integral altruism', or'mutualist socialism'.Like aparigraha, ahimsa (non-violence) too led Gandhito the concept of Trusteeship. Gandhi saw that the idea ofTrusteeship was inherent in the ideology of ahimsa. 32 He alsosaw that Trusteeship was an inescapable stage in themethodology of a non-violent revolution. That it was seen as astage did not mean that in every case it was considered asmerely transitional. It could also be a stage that yielded theresult that one was seeking. In that sense, therefore, it was botha 'means' and an 'end'. Hence, Gandhi claimed "no other theoryis compatible with non-violence." 33A society that accepts non-violence has to be a nonacquisitivesociety. A votary of non-violence cannot hunger forpossessions. He cannot acquire more than others withoutexploiting the labours of others in some manner. Exploitation isa form of violence. He can not hold more possessions than what