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Trusteeship and Ahimsa

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Trusteeship and Ahimsa Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad Trusteeship, Corporate Social Responsibility & Peace Chapter: 4 Theoretical Counters on Trusteeship Introduction This chapter deals with theories and concepts of Trusteeship, Corporate Social Responsibility and Peace. Trusteeship, CSR and peace are three pillars of the study. All three have been deliberated upon in details. An effort has been made to interlink these concepts. The ultimate objective of peace in the society through CSR on the principle of Trusteeship has been kept in mind throughout the deliberations. The foundation material on these concepts and their interlinking would help in correct understanding of the concepts which are prerequisites for proper analysis of case studies. When Gandhji brought the idea of Trusteeship, he was ridiculed for it but Gandhiji was confident and he believed that Trusteeship theory would survive all other theories as it had the sanction of philosophy and religion behind it. According to him, no other theory was compatible with nonviolence. Trusteeship and Power The concept of Trusteeship flows from the ideals of aparigraha and ahimsa. Gandhiji’s idea of Trusteeship originated from his unique and revolutionary approach to the phenomenon of power. Aparigraha and Ahimsa are ethical ideals but power is a social phenomenon. Bertrand 10 Russel described power as ‘the fundamental concept in social science’. 10 Bertrand Russell, Power (George Allen and Unwin), p.9 R.N.Prasad (Registration No. 108654) Page 36 Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad Trusteeship, Corporate Social Responsibility & Peace There has been quest for power throughout the history of human being. The people fought war for grabbing power. Kingdoms were defeated and won as there was quest for Power. However, Gandhiji was against the ‘capture of power’. He did not believe in capture of power by a few as it would bring no justice to the people. Instead he advocated for accrual of power to many. He advocated for Trusteeship as a means to achieve ‘Accrual of power’ to many. Therefore, Gandhiji had a broad meaning of Trusteeship and he wanted this concept to be propagated for changing the very concept of power. Gandhiji viewed ‘power’ as a problem. Gandhiji wanted ‘Power’ to be freed from obsession with domination and coercion. He wanted ‘power’ to be related to promotion of self restraint along with initiation and mobilization of collective action in pursuit of social objective. So, for Gandhiji, Trusteeship was an answer to the problem of Power and Inequlity. Power grows if a) there is centralization of it in few hands, b) the people who are in power, do not believe in sharing things with other and c) the people on which power is exercised, are not ready to resist the atrocities which they suffer. Power has to be tamed and transformed by a) minimizing concentration (it must not lie in few hands), b) fostering an attitude of trusteeship in those who hold power, and c) maximizing the readiness and ability to resist the abuse of power. The means of achieving it is 1) decentralization, 2) trusteeship, and 3) Satyagraha. Power must be backed by ethical ideals of Ahimsa and Aparigraha which teaches exercise of restraint. Ethical norms or principles are not meant for exclusively those who seek salvation but they relate to man’s conduct in society. So, these ethical principles are not meant for personal life of R.N.Prasad (Registration No. 108654) Page 37 Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad Trusteeship, Corporate Social Responsibility & Peace individual only and have relevance to the lives of aggregate/society. What is good for the part of the body, has to be good for the whole body. Trusteeship and Aparigraha Aparigraha is the ethical ideal of non-possession 11 . It means renunciation of ownership voluntarily. Isopanishad exhorts – Enjoy by renouncing, do not cling to possessions, whose is wealth? The above words are not for only those who want salvation. These words apply to those people, too, who are tempted by material wealth/gains. These words guide people through the zones of conflict in society. These words describe relationship of men with objects. Man should use these objects but must not get obsessed with these objects. There is no problem with the object, problem lies in obsession (aasakti) which creates greed and weakens the man. Due to obsession, people want more and more of things irrespective of their needs. One section of the society has collected the things which are much more than is required to satisfy their present needs and on the other hand, there is section of people who are starving and they do not have their basic requirements taken care of. Such situation creates conflicts in the society. Conflicts result into disharmony and unrest and there is chaos and peace is disturbed. There is tendency to grab/capture the power to collect more and more and society is put into war mode. There is class struggle resulting into hatred, violence and blood. Whole fabric of the society gets broken. Gandhiji advocated for a code of conduct for the individual and society. The individual should abstain from acquisitiveness and possessions. Since body itself is a possession so absolute non-possession cannot be practiced. As long as body is there, absolute non-possession is not a 11 M.K, Gandhi, from Yeravda Mandir (Navjivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad), September, 1931 R.N.Prasad (Registration No. 108654) Page 38 Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad Trusteeship, Corporate Social Responsibility & Peace possibility. However, one must examine each and every desire/need that leads to possessions very carefully. He must concentrate on the things which are essential and must get rid of things which are not essential. One needs a house to live in, but must not desire for a house costing millions of rupees when his needs can be taken care of, in few thousands/lakhs. So, one must distinguish between needs and wants. One must reduce one’s wants to barest minimum. The thought of obsession is dangerous. People (with thought of obsession) confuse civilization with multiplication of wants. Thought of obsession takes away one’s peace of mind. Society with such people becomes place for unrest. Possession means ‘retention for future use’ which in turn creates power struggle as one will be able to retain his possession only if he is able to defend it. One will not be able to defend one’s possessions unless he uses force himself or he is dependent on force of others. Therefore a person who believes in non-violence, will have to opt for the path of non- possession. Accumulation of things is against the Fundamental Law of Nature. Nature creates neither more or less. If X tonnes of rice is needed to take care of the surviving human beings and other living ones on this earth at time T, God would make sure that this amount of rice is present on this earth at that moment. So, as per this law, none should be hungry. But, there is starvation on this earth. People are unable to have two meals a day. The reason is – Principle of Aprigraha is not being followed. Therefore, whoever appropriates more than the minimum is guilty of theft 12 as per Gandhi. 12 Harijan,10 October 1948 R.N.Prasad (Registration No. 108654) Page 39 Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad Trusteeship, Corporate Social Responsibility & Peace When a man is born on this earth, he does not bring anything with him apart from his body. Whatever, he acquires; he gets it from society only. In fact, he depends on the resources which nature and society have created. Therefore, he must replenish the resources which he has used. If he does not do, he is guilty of appropriating the fruits of someone’s labor. In case of nature, he is guilty of depletion of exhaustible and non- replaceable resources. Every human being owes a debt to the society when he is born and he will be guilty of theft if he does not work to repay the debt. So, he must respect his inherited right to use the resources created by others by repaying the debt by doing physical labour. Therefore, even the intellectual persons who earn their livelihood through intellectual labour, cannot escape this law. Hoarding or collection for future use is moral crime. Somebody has stored grains in his house for future but some body may be dying due to hunger at the present moment. Under Nature’s Law, he would be held guilty for the situation of hunger on this earth, irrespective of where he resides. In view of the above, a person should work for his bread, earn his livelihood without exploiting other, use the money earned by him to satisfy his minimum needs and be trustee of whatever surplus is left out and should not hesitate to spend it for welfare of society as and when such need arises. In society which believes and practices ‘aparigraha’, wealth will not be considered as index for fetching respect. People in such society will not go for multiplication of ever increasing wants and thereafter, accumulation of wealth. If there is accumulation of wealth, the sons of those who accumulated wealth, may not feel need for work. So in the R.N.Prasad (Registration No. 108654) Page 40 Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad Trusteeship, Corporate Social Responsibility & Peace society without aparigraha, a section of society will survive on accumulated wealth and will not feel need for work. However, in a society practicing aparigraha, everybody will have to work to satisfy his basic needs as there will be no inheritance of wealth. In such society, labour will have respect and people will leave together and practice non-violence. Work is a duty cast on man and therefore, everybody must work and hence, everyone has a right to honourable livelihood.
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