E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

209 Contextualising Gandhian ThoughtTo sum up: Firstly, the results of violence are transitory andillusory; secondly, violent revolution may reverse the positionof labour and capital, but not result in the elimination ofexploitation. Thirdly, the violent elimination of the evil doerdoes not necessarily result in the elimination of the system.Fourthly, if the State suppresses capitalism by violence. It willbe caught in the vicious cycle of violence. Fifthly, violentaction that removes the entrepreneur may result in the paralysisand retardation of the economy which, in turn, will occasionchain reactions. Trusteeship will avoid these evils, and permitsociety to use the talent of the entrepreneur without the evil ofexploitation.Trusteeship then has to be understood as part of thescenario of a non-violent revolution, as an instrument in theSatyagrahi's struggle for economic equality and the eliminationof classes. The Satyagrahi will make every effort to persuadethe holders of capital that Trusteeship is the alternative todestruction. But if all his attempts at persuasion fail, he willresort to corrective mass action— to the supreme and infallibleremedy of (Satyagraha) non-violent non-cooperation within theindustrial system as well as the political system.No society can exist without nuclei of power. Some ofthese may be associations that one chooses voluntarily. Some,like the state, may be entities that one does not choose, but oneis born into. Both are nuclei of power. They may vary inrange,- in the power that they have to ensure compliance, in thecoercive power at their command, The State, of course, is therepository of sovereignty and the paramount concentration ofpower in its territory. Irrespective of size and the quantum ofpower, every institution in society, every association ofindividuals who come together for a common purpose andcollective action of one kind or another, in one field or another,is a nucleus of initiative and power, delegated by its members