E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

239 Contextualising Gandhian ThoughtGandhi was dissatisfied with the economic order as it existed inhis time. I suppose we too are dissatisfied with the economicorder as it exists today. We want a just economic order. At theinternational level, we are, at least till quite recently, we were,among those who demanded a New Economic order. We wantthe new economic order to be based on justice, and equality,internationally and nationally. A just economic order has to bea non-exploitative economic order, because an exploitativeorder can be maintained only by fraud and force, and these willsooner or later lead to violent social conflict. An exploitativeeconomic order can not therefore ensure peace, and withoutpeace there can be no progress. Gandhi therefore believed thatour effort in the economic field should be to build up a nonexploitativeeconomic order. He identified four pre-requisitesof a non-exploitative or non-violent economic order.Firstly, he believed that a society that sanctified andextolled greed, and prescribed it as the prime motive of one'sactivity in any field was bound to be rent by conflict andexploitation. One cannot pursue greed without creating andcountenancing inequality, exploitation, jealousy and potentialconflict. If the desire for acquisition and aggrandizement is nottempered, exploitation and its progeny will make theirappearance. In fact, the interdependence that is inevitable inhuman society demands a measure of altruism, and not theblind and unenlightened pursuit of self-interest at the cost ofothers. Gandhi therefore identifies Aparigraha or abstentionfrom acquisitiveness as a first requisite, and sinceinterdependence calls for a measure of love for each other,Gandhi wants that love should substitute greed as the motive ofour activity.Secondly, Gandhi believes that we have no right to holdor sequester what we have not produced, or what we do notneed. Any such sequestration is a subtle form of theft. So hebelieves that a non-exploitative society can be built only on the