E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 'Theory of Trusteeship… 204constantly being astonished these days at the amazingdiscoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far moreundreamt of and seemingly impossible discoveries will bemade in the field of non-violence."Gandhi recognised the existence of class conflict. Buthe did not believe in the inevitability of class war. Nor did hebelieve that the solution or resolution of class conflict lay inaccentuating class conflict and eliminating one class or theother. "In India, a class war is not only not inevitable, but it isavoidable if we have understood the message of non-violence.Those who talk about class war as being inevitable have notunderstood the implications of non-violence or have understoodthem only skin-deep." 45One who believes in non-violence cannot, therefore,believe in the inevitability of class war. 46 Firstly, because hebelieves in the power of Satyagraha to influence the mind ofthe exploiter, and secondly because he believes in the power ofSatyagraha or non-violent noncooperation to enable theworkers to prevent exploitation and paralyse the exploiter.The first of these beliefs is supported by two arguments:One, man is capable of being educated, or 'reformed'; two,since Satyagraha or non-violence derives from love, theSatyagrahi can (a) soften or relax the mind of the 'adversary' byforestalling the syndrome of fear and aggression, thus makinghim amenable to an examination 'of the Satyagrahi's point ofview; and (b) enable the 'adversary' to realise that theSatyagrahi is not seeking to injure the true interests of hisadversary; that he is in fact striving to protect and salvage thetrue interests of the 'adversary' by reconciling (dovetailing) itwith those of others, thus neutralizing or removing theovergrowth that had attracted attacks.A man can see reason if there is a judicious appeal to