E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi's 'Theory of Trusteeship… 220between employer and employee, owner and workers.The capitalist system or the status quo is the anti-thesisof such a system, since it leads to concentration, inequality andexploitation. In fact, both the capitalist system and Statecapitalism have yielded to the lure of greed and giganticism.Neither of these systems therefore can lead to the equaldistribution of power and wealth. These systems and theattitude that sanctify them are of no avail.Where then should we look for a solution? Gandhi wasconvinced that the solution lay in trusteeship.Where the title was legitimate he would permit theowners of property to act as trustees. They could retainownership or stewardship as trustees. A trustee would have noright to higher remuneration than those who are thebeneficiaries of his trust. He would be entitled to a commissionthat would be commensurate with the value of his work tosociety. He would have no right to bequeath what he washolding in trust except on the condition that the successor tooacted as a trustee, and the State approved of the transfer. Hewould have the opportunity to use his special talents to increasethe wealth or the society of which he is a member. The societywould benefit from his talents, and he would have the incentiveof notional ownership, and the social recognition that hisextraordinary talents deserved, but his ownership would havebeen freed from the motive of private profit and the power thatcomes from private ownership. The trustee would beaccountable; answerable to society, and if he failed to live uptothe rigorous test of trusteeship, he would be removed eitherthrough Satyagraha or through State action.It is not only material possessions or the accumulationof material goods that generates power. There are other sources