Gandhiji’s doctrine of trusteeship:

• Trusteeship is a socio-economic philosophy that was put forward by Gandhiji. This philosophy provides a means by which the wealthy people would be the trustees of trusts that looked after the welfare of the peopleJn general. He gave this principle by taking inspiration from the ‘Bhagwad Gita’ and the ‘Ishopanishad’.
• As per the ishopanishad, ‘All that is created on the earth is because of God and hence we must relish it after surrendering it’.
• Through the doctrine of trusteeship, Gandhiji says that if a person has inherited and accumulated large amount of wealth he should form a trust of excess wealth and use it for the betterment of the deprived.
• He also said that a person requires only as much wealth as is necessary for a dignified living and that the excess wealth belongs to the society.
• The owners of wealth and capitalists can voluntarily act as trustees of their wealth. These trustees should be allowed to maintain their possessions. Then the trustees should use their talent to increase the wealth, not for their own sake but for the sake of the nation that too without exploitation.

Important aspects of Gandhiji’s doctrine of trusteeship:
1. Convincing the rich (Change of heart):

• Gandhiji was a worshipper of truth and non-violence. He advocated that a person needs to voluntarily follow the principle of trusteeship i.e. not by force or unwillingness.
• The philosophy of trusteeship was Mahatma Gandhi’s unique contribution as a tool to social change. He called it ‘the technique of change of heart’.
• He did not consider it appropriate to seize the wealth of rich or collect it by imposing high taxes on the rich and then redistributing it.
• Trusteeship to him meant – ‘Being responsible for one’s life, as well as for the life of the neighbour’. The rich can accumulate wealth because of resources obtained from the society and because some people remain poor. Hence the excess wealth of the rich must be used for benefitting the poor by forming a trust. Then the rich should themselves undertake activities for the welfare of the poor.

2. Duty instead of right:
As per Gandhiji the rich should feel the responsibility of using the excess wealth for benefits of the society rather than just maintaining their right over wealth.

3. Awareness, referendum and social change:

• Trusteeship is a source of revolution or radical social change.
• One cannot enforce it. One should take it up voluntarily for bringing the social change.
• Gandhiji did not promote the idea of very high taxes and forceful seizure of wealth of the rich.
• He believed that a public opinion can be built for bringing about a social change

4. Importance of the interest of the whole society:

• Gandhiji believed in working for the greater good. He believed that it was good that a large number of people get the benefit of welfare instead of few individuals.
• Hence, Gandhiji emphasized on large scale production of goods which could fulfill the necessity of the large population.

5. Compensation to the trustee:
Gandhiji believed that the state should have provision to compensate the trustees for their service.

6. Opposition to nationalization:

• Nationalization refers to transferring ownership of resources owned by private individuals to the state.
• Gandhiji opposed the idea of nationalization of resources for production and abolishing the property rights owned by the private individuals for bringing economic equality in the state.
• He believed such nationalization would decrease the morals and ethics of people and turn them against the state.
• Gandhiji opined that he would allow rich capitalists and landlords to retain the ownership of their possessions but would convince them to become trustees and use their wealth for good of the society.

7. Appointing the successor:

• Gandhiji’s idea of trusteeship aimed at appointing a successor to the wealth of the trust.
• According to him, the legal owners of wealth should become the official trustees. The trust should not be entrusted to the society or the state.
• The actual owner should act as a representative of the society. This way the society will own the resources indirectly.
• The current trustee can name the successor who would be the trustee after her/his death. The new trustee would also be a representative of the assets of the trust and not the owner of the assets. The state must monitor the functioning of the trust.
• The state or society cannot seize the property of the trust. The successor should be appointed through a legal procedure.

8. State control:

• When the owners do not form a trust of their wealth voluntarily, the state under certain cases can direct the use of private wealth with minimum force or violence.
• Gandhiji suggested this only for some forms of wealth and not for all types of wealth. This can be done after evaluating the ways in which wealth was accumulated.
• The state can take control of some types of private property after providing adequate compensation to the owner.
• In the context of principle of trusteeship, Gandhiji stated three forms of ownership. They are:
  1. Ownership with the private sector
  2. Formation of a trust
  3. Ownership with the public sector.
• Gandhiji also expressed his thoughts regarding, ‘Swadeshi movement’, co-operation, importance to small, cottage and village industries, equality, dignity of women, etc.
• His thoughts focused on welfare and humanism.
• Modern day economists take reference from Gandhiji’s views from tin,e to time to provide a new direction to the world.
• One can also find solutions to the problems of poverty, unemployment, inequality, concentration of economic power, etc. in principles given by Gandhiji.