E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 'Theory of Trusteeship… 218should be imposed by law. To do so would have been contraryto his philosophy of non-violence. Law has to be based on thesanction of public opinion. Those who believe in trusteeshipshould therefore first forge the sanctions for the institution inthe minds of people. When an atmosphere of acceptance hasbeen created, statutes that give legal recognition to theinstitution should be adopted by the State. A beginning may bemade at the base, at lower levels like the Panchayat, 82 where itmay be easier to get acceptance for the idea, and to generate thesocial ethos necessary for the success of the idea.Gandhi was clear that one did not have to wait for alaw, or the Greek Kalends, till everyone accepted the theory oftrusteeship. 83 One who believed in it could and should start withhimself. 84 Gandhi himself would start by asking all owners ofcapital, all owners of property and riches to become trusteesand hold their property in trust. He would refashion theeconomic system to facilitate this transformation. He wouldpersuade the holders of capital to see the writing on the wall;that they would face violent dispossession if they did notvoluntarily agree to a transformation in the nature of ownershipitself; that the choice was between class war and voluntaryacceptance of trusteeship; that trusteeship would allow him toretain stewardship of his possessions and to use his own talentto increase wealth, not for his own sake, but for the sake of thenation, and, therefore, without exploitation. 85 He would offer allcapitalists an opportunity of becoming statutory trustees". 86 Ifall this effort at persuasion fails, he will resort to non-violentnon-cooperation to open the eyes of the capitalists and to elicitconsent to the change. "If however, inspite of the utmost effort,the rich do not become guardians of the poor in the true senseof the term, and the latter are more and more crushed and die ofhunger, what is to be done? In trying to find the solution to thisriddle, I have lighted on non-violent non-cooperation and civildisobedience as the right infallible means. The rich cannot