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APARIGRAHA - THE HUMANE SOLUTION
more and more possessions by the owner.
Whatever may be the philosophical and practical implications of trusteeship and the difficulties in implementation of this principle, but it cannot be denied that the moral principle of iccha-parimāņa is fully reflected in trusteeship and it seems extremely difficult to doubt the moral basis of this principle. And as it often happens the zeal and the intention of the pioneer unfortunately is not carried forward by the followers with the same enthusiasm. It is possible that Gandhiji's trusteeship may not offer a final solution, but it is certainly a good transitional solution for a society involved in continuous growth of riches and the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. Aparigraha, socialism and communism
Socialism and communism are political philosophies that arose as a reaction to the individualistic thought, which implied state intervention in the affairs of the members of the state for the good of society as a whole. A chain of theories developed in this direction with major or minor changes as utopian socialism, democratic socialism, nationalist socialism, fabianism, scientific socialism etc. It is not important here to go into the details of these philosophies and their differences. Our aim here is only to understand a powerful philosophy which tries scientifically to propagate economic equality for the welfare of all. The essence of these philosophies is that state intervention will help reduce economic disparity among the members of the state, and social and economic exploitation of the less privileged becomes extinct. In other words a 'classless society' is the ideal. Thus this philosophy is essentially based on the economic restructuring of society for human development. It is not wealth or property alone, but every material thing required for human living, which is necessary for man's physical needs. In this broad sense economics is the basis of socialism.
Marx became the most outstanding thinker and the promulgator of socialism or communism, in addition to many other thinkers of this philosophy. His aim was to establish a classless society where everyone works according to his ability and gets his economic share according to
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