E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

201 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughthe requires to meet, his immediate needs, without deprivingsomeone else; and to deprive someone else of what he needswould be violence. He cannot hold on to possessions withoutdepending on violence to defend his possessions. A votary ofnon-violence, then, can hold anything in excess of what heneeds only as a Trustee for others.A non-violent society is a non-exploitative society. Itcan be non-violent only when it assures economic equality.Equal distribution is the ideal. 34 "To bring this ideal into being,the entire social order has to be reconstructed. A society basedon non-violence cannot nurture any other ideal." 35 It is notpossible to end disparities and achieve economic equality whilethe present pattern and prerogatives of ownership prevail.Instruments of production as well as the produce should belongto those who work. A change can not come, throughphilanthropy. It can come only through a change in theconception of ownership. Capitalists should understand that theold order cannot survive. The dawn of the day of the toiler is athand. 36 It had to come, — through violent dispossession ornonviolent abdication of the socially injurious and odiousattributes of ownership. It is for the capitalists to choose. Theycan court destruction or opt for Trusteeship which will permitthem to retain the stewardship of their property 37 and functionas Trustees for the Daridranarayan. "We invite the capitalist toregard himself as trustee for those on whom he depends formaking, the retention, and increase of his capital." 38It they were not willing to accept this transformation inthe meaning of ownership, they would have to face arevolution. 39 "They (the capitalists) know that I desire to endcapitalism almost, if not quite as much as the most advancedsocialist or even communist. But our methods differ, ourlanguages differ.” 40 Gandhi was engaged in solving the sameproblem that faced 'scientific' socialists. 41 In fact, he was