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Gandhi's Management Principles And Skills (Lecture Presented By Ambassador (Retd) Alan Nazareth, Managing Trustee, Sarvodaya International Trust, At The Gandhi Colloqium, Brussels On December 2nd, 2003)

Professor Fernand Vandamme, Charge d'Affaires of India Mr. R. P. Agarwal, Office bearers of the Flanders India Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Professors and students of University of Ghent, ladies and gentleman. I am greatly honoured to have been invited to deliver the keynote address at the 'Gandhi and Contemporary Policy' Forum in this historic city of Brussels, which has become even more historic since it was made the capital of the European Union. It is indeed gratifying that the topic chosen for this forum is 'Gandhi and Contemporary Policy'. As Gandhi thought, spoke, lived and died for Truth and Non violence, which are eternal and universal principles, Gandhi will be always be relevant in all places and times.

Gandhi is best known for his non violent 'satyagraha' strategy which won India its freedom, his strenuous efforts to eliminate untouchability, unemployment and poverty, and promote communal harmony. His contributions in the management field are rarely touched upon. My lecture is therefore focused on this aspect.

Whether management is classified as an art or a science, the notable fact about it is that it is relatively new. When Karl Marx was writing about class war being the dynamic of economic and political change in his Das Capital in the 1850's, neither were there managers nor the enterprises managers run. The largest manufacturing company then was a Manchester cotton mill employing fewer than three hundred people. It was owned by Marx's friend and collaborator Friedrich Engels. This mill - a very profitable one - had no "managers", only "charge hands" who themselves workers, supervised and enforced discipline over the others. 

At the turn of that century the only large permanent organization was the army. Its command and control structure therefore became the model for those enterprises building railroads, setting up steel mills, shipbuilding yards etc. This command model, with a few at the top giving orders and all others obeying them, remained the norm for many decades. But this began to change as specialization came in. By WWI a standard manufacturing firm had separate departments for engineering, research, manufacturing, sales, finance and accounting. 

During WWI large numbers of ordinary unskilled people had to be made productive almost overnight. In response to this need, the "scientific management" developed by Frederick W. Taylor at the turn of the century, was introduced for systematic training of blue collar workers. Major operations were analysed and broken down into simple individual operations that could be quickly learned. This began the era of assembly line mass production and the management, and colonies were valuable assets for marketing of the products thereof as they were captive markets. 

In the early 1930s, Britain's leading economist, Lord Keynes, advocated a remarkable new guideline for economic management in his book 'A Treatise on Money' : "For at least another hundred years we must pretend to ourselves that fair is foul and foul is fair; for foul is useful and fair is not. Avarice and usury and precaution must be our gods for a little longer still. For only they can lead us out of the tunnel of economic necessity into daylight". Though never publicly acknowledged this became an important ingredient in Europe's imperial management of its colonies in various parts of the world, where its trading companies had already taken out enormous wealth from these countries.

Although the theory and practice of management has undergone substantial change since the time of Fredick Taylor, Lord Keynes, Henri Fayol and Henry Mintzberg, its fundamental task remains the same i.e. to make people capable of joint performance through common goals, common values, the right structure and leadership, and the proper training and development of workers at all levels to perform their designated tasks to the best of their abilities. Management thus makes their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant by formulating simple and inspiring objectives to provide a common vision and the requisite motivation to achieve it. These basic tasks of management have become increasingly more challenging as industry, business, finance and society in general have become more interlinked and complex, and the labour force more specialized.

When Gandhi embarked on his satyagraha path, first in South Africa in the early 1900s, and then in India 1917 onwards, his strategy of non violent struggle based on "Confronting with the Truth", was incredibly novel and hardly credible. Much of the world was colonized and held in firm imperial grip, Laissez faire capitalism reigned supreme, and Nihilism, Anarchism, Communism and Fascism were gestating in various parts of the world. In India, gun wielding radical nationalists, drawing inspiration from Russian revolutionaries, were active. Between 1905 - 1920 a spate of assassinations of British officials occurred in India as also in England. Among those attacked but escaped unharmed were Vicerorys Lord Minto (in April 1909) and Lord Hardinge (in December 1912). At the 1919 Amritsar Congress session when Gandhi spoke about Truth and Non Violence, B. G. Tilak, a senior nationalist leader contemptuously retorted "My friend, Truth has no place in politics". Yet, within the next few months, Gandhi succeeded in getting the Indian National Congress and the Indian people, including amazingly the violence prone Pathans, to accept this unconventional strategy. In less than thirty years thereafter India became free. 

How did Gandhi achieve this? Gandhi had no training in management. He had studied law. Yet he managed to get his message across to the millions of his countrymen, to enthuse, inspire, train and lead them, to convince them that Satyagraha, Ahimsa and the Charka were potent and effective instruments for political, economic and social emancipation, that the mere 100,000 Englishmen in India could not continue to rule 350 million Indians if the latter refused to cooperate, and that all Indians, men and women, rich and poor, high caste, low caste and untouchable, had a vital role to play in the emancipation of India and of all subject peoples. Millions responded to his call, they spun cotton, they burnt foreign cloth, they made salt in defiance of the law, they submitted themselves to beatings, imprisonment and confiscation of their possessions but never retaliated with violence. When the leaders were arrested others, including women, immediately took their place. "He who fears fails" Gandhi had declared. This exhortation was heard and adopted. The moment fear was conquered, the British lost their psychological hold on India, and Indians became free long before Independence came. This was the most amazing transformation of a subcontinent, long gripped with lethargy and despair, into a landmass throbbing with national vigour and patriotic fervour, with disparate political, economic, ethnic, religious, cultural and social interests brought together, imbued with common purpose and goals, all ready to die for the cause but never to kill. 

The most important component of management is leadership and establishing an intimate rapport with the people being led. In this too Gandhi excelled. By identifying himself with the masses, dressing like them, living among them and empathizing with them, he won their respect and confidence, and their total allegiance. 

Judging from all the above remarkable achievements and the brilliant manner in which Gandhi selected and negotiated his satyagraha issues and planned and managed his campaigns, one cannot but conclude that he was either born with innate management skills or that he acquired them naturally during the course of his "Experiments with Truth" ; In his striving to find the greatest of all Truths - God - he must have discovered numerous lesser truths in various fields, including management.

Gandhi was neither a philosopher nor a theoretician. "I do not claim to have originated any philosophy, nor am I endeavouring to do so. I have simply tried in my own way to apply the eternal principles of Truth and Non Violence to our daily life and problems" He was a practical idealist and a man of action. His original thinking was mainly ethical and social rather than political, economic or managerial He wrote and spoke extensively and it is from the vast corpus of his speeches, writings and actual campaigns that his seminal ideas in various fields including management must be gleaned. There is at times inconsistency in his ideas. Indeed, one can discern the evolution of some of his ideas. He was, to use his own words, "growing from truth to truth." 

Gandhi ardently believed that Truth was an objective moral reality as real and mighty as God himself. Therefore Truth was what constituted the 'Right Path'. It was not 'Might which was Right' but 'Right which was Might'. Since Humans have been created "in the image of God" and have the "Divine Spark" in them they have to be motivated and governed by reason and love rather than by fear and violence. One has to live, and be ready to die, for Truth, Love and Righteousness, but never to kill. For him, there was no greater strength than the strength of the Human Spirit when it is imbued with Truth and unafraid to die, unarmed, upholding it. 

For Gandhi Truth was so important and fundamental that it was Divine, in fact God himself. "Truth is God" he often affirmed. Though a deeply religious Hindu himself, for him religion was "not the Hindu religion, but the religion which transcends Hinduism, which changes one's very nature and binds one indissolubly to the truth within and which ever purifies". His favorite hymn began with the line "He alone is a true devotee of God who understands the pains and sufferings of others". He affirmed that "The hands that serve are holier than the lips that pray". Gandhi's religion was synonymous with humanism. Dharma for him was the performance of duty not only by the citizens but also by the rulers. Fasting had long been part of the spiritual regimen of India. Gandhi made it a powerful weapon in the armoury of satyagraha. Gandhi's ashrams were not mere places for spiritual seeking; they also offered training in social service, rural uplift, elementary education, removal of untouchability and practice of non violence. 

Non violence for Gandhi "is the basis of the search for Truth" and means more than merely refraining from physical violence against another. It means purging oneself of all hatred and resentment against others and to sincerely love them inspite of all their faults and such injuries as they might have done to us. 

For Gandhi "Given a just cause, capacity for endless suffering, and avoidance of violence, victory is a certainty"; "The objective of all non violent activity is always a mutually acceptable agreement, never the defeat, much less the humiliation of the enemy" and "A non violent revolution is not a programme of seizure of power. It is a programme for transformation of relationship ending in a peaceful transfer of power"

In every satyagraha campaign the first step for Gandhi was to objectively ascertain the facts and the "truth and justice" of the issue being dealt with. In doing so a sincere attempt had to be made to ascertain the viewpoint of the opponent, however unjust and oppressive he might be, because even he has the 'Divine Spark' in him and therefore capable of being won over. The next step was to attempt to win over the opponent through moral suasion and persuade him to negotiate, at the same time making clear to him that his failure to respond positively would result in non violent resistance or "civil disobedience". If, inspite of all this, the opponent refused to negotiate, the next step was to impress the "non violent warriors" with the rightness of their cause, and ensure their willingness to suffer, if necessary to die for the cause, but never to hurt their opponent. The subsequent action was to inform the opponent, the public and the media, of the non violent campaign proposed to be launched, since the opponent had refused to negotiate. Concurrently, steps were taken to train the resisters in tactics of their "warfare" and suitable arrangements made for the care of those, and their families, who would be injured or killed, during the struggle. For raising the requisite finances for this, effective fund raising was organized and moral and patriotic appeals made to potential donors. If and when, as a result of the satyagraha, negotiations commenced, the resister's demands would be boldly presented but a sincere effort made to meet the opponents minimum demands so that a mutually acceptable agreement can be fashioned and the confrontational relationship transformed into one of amity. All commitments made in the agreement would be strictly adhered to and it would be used as a model for future agreements so as to bring about the general betterment of society. In striving for the latter goal the focus would on the poorest and most ostracized. The rich were called upon to use their wealth as Trustees of the disadvantaged. All existing laws were faithfully observed but where a law was clearly unjust it would be openly broken to highlight its injustice and to get it repealed or amended. Even as oppression, injustice and poverty was confronted and negotiated agreements made, thought was given to the creation of more equitable political, economic and social structures so as to ensure justice and a dignified and moral way of life for all. Gandhi had first outlined his vision of India's future in his 1909 booklet 'Indian Home rule' but provided his most fully developed social blueprint in his 1941 booklet : 'Constructive Program : Its Meaning and place'. It envisaged a society where self employment, the cooperative approach and full democratic participation commencing at the village level would gradually replace state control and urban dominance.

Gandhi embarked on a number of satyagraha campaigns - each of his fasts was also in the same category - the most important of which were the Ahmedabad textile mill workers grievances, Champaran Indigo cultivators exploitation, the Khilafat abolition issue, Bardoli peasants enhanced taxes, boycott of foreign goods, the Salt march, Harijan temple entry and the Quit India movement. Each of these is a good case study for Gandhi's management principles and skills, but I have decided to focus on the Champaran campaign as it was his first major campaign in India and one that established the basic principles and efficacy of the satyagraha strategy. Besides, it was undertaken in response to the pleading of an unknown and illiterate indigo peasant.

Most of the arable land in Champaran was divided into large estates owned by Englishmen and these were tilled by share cropper peasants. The chief commercial crop was indigo and the landlords compelled the tenants to plant 15% of their lands with indigo and all this crop was required to be surrendered to them. When the landlords learnt Germany had begun to produce synthetic indigo they released the peasants from the obligation to plant indigo but demanded substantial monetary compensation from them for this release which the peasants could not afford. They were therefore being threatened with eviction and confiscation of their goods. 

Having decided to go to Champaran, Gandhi went there by way of Muzzafarpur in order to get reliable information from Prof. J.B. Kripalani of the Arts College there. He arrived here on April 15, 1917. On the following days he had detailed discussions with Prof. Kriplani and some Indian lawyers who had handled the indigo peasants grievances. He then proceeded to Champran, where he called on the secretary of the British landlords association and requested information on the demands being made on the Indigo peasants. He was coldly rebuffed. He then requested a call on the British Commissioner of Tirhut Division, who accused Gandhi of being a trouble maker and ordered him to leave the area. Gandhi did not leave. Instead, he proceeded to Motihari, capital of Champaran Distict, accompanied by several lawyers. At the railway station a vast multitude awaited him. He was proceeding to a house which was to be his temporary abode and office, when he was served with a notice to leave that district immediately. He signed a receipt for the order but inscribed thereon that he intended to disobey it. The next day he received a summons to appear in court the following day. Thereupon, Gandhi telegraphed Rajendra Prasad at Patna to come to Motihari with some Indian lawyer friends, and also sent a telegram to the Viceroy. 

Next morning the court house was surrounded by thousands of Champaran peasants. Also present were Indian lawyers and journalists. In court Gandhi pleaded guilty. He was ordered released on bail until sentence was pronounced. He refused to pay the bail so the magistrate was constrained to waive the bail. Some days later Gandhi received a written communication from the magistrate that the Lt. Governor of Bihar had ordered the case be dropped..

Gandhi, with the assistance of Rajendra Prasad and his Patna lawyer friends now proceeded to conduct a wide ranging enquiry into the sufferings of the Champaran peasants. Depositions were taken from almost ten thousand peasants and detailed notes made on other evidence. Relevant documents were also painstakingly collected in spite of the vehement protests of the landlords. 

In June Gandhi was summoned to meet the Lt. Governor Sir Edward Gait. Before he went to this meeting he had detailed discussions with his followers, and gave instructions for relaunching satyagraha if he was detained. After his four separate meetings with the Lt. Governor, the latter appointed a Commission of Enquiry into the indigo growers grievances. The commission consisted of landlords, government officials and Gandhi as the sole representative of the peasants. The evidence Gandhi presented on the oppressive exactions levied by the planters was so damaging that they had no option but to agree to compensate the peasants. They asked how much they should pay and feared it would be substantial. . Gandhi asked for only 50% of the amounts unjustly extracted, but finally settled for just 25% to the great relief of the landlords. For Gandhi what was important was not the quantum of money but that the landlords concede they had wronged the peasants. Subsequent events justified Gandhi's stance. Some years later the British landlords gave up their estates in fvaour of the peasants, who thus became owners of these lands.. Before leaving Champaran, Gandhi got down to instituting education, health and sanitation arrangements for villagers. His wife Kasturba and son Devadas, and secretaries Mahadev Desai and Narahari Parikh took charge of each of these social activities for some time. 

Originally planned as a seven day visit Gandhi's Champaran stay ultimately lasted seven months. With his subsequent visits there, it took almost a whole year of his life. But it was a turning point in his life. It was the first clear proof that his satyagraha strategy worked and very effectively too. The Champaran campaign is clear proof of Gandhi's dedication to his own injunction and prime management principle : "Whenever you are in doubt or when the self becomes becomes too much with you, try the following expedient. Recall the face of the poorest and the most helpless man whom you have seen and ask yourself whether the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he be able to gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words will it lead to self rule for the hungry and spiritually starved millions of our countrymen? Then you will find your doubts and your ego melting away". Champaran is also proof that even in dealing with local issues Gandhi had the bigger picture in mind viz India's liberation not only from the British but from all oppression - of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy, illhealth, uncleanless and fear. Unlike the militant nationalists who directed their fire solely at the victimizers, Gandhi also focused on the victims. He urged them to shake off their servile attitude, to find their own voice and stand up against all oppression whether internal or external. For him " Real Swaraj will come not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be obtained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority." 

In the Champaran satyagraha, the issue was not chosen by Gandhi. It was thrust upon him. But in subsequent satyagrahas the issues were carefully selected by him so as to achieve mass mobilization and maximum impact within India and abroad. The salt satyagraha is the best example of this. Salt, an essential daily requisite for even the poorest in India, was abundant in the sea all along India's long coast line. Yet Indians were denied the right to make it. Only the colonial administration could make and sell it. Besides, a tax was added to it. Gandhi's decision to defy the salt law and march to Dandi to make salt there along with 78 of his disciples had an electrifying effect. Thousands joined him enroute. News about Gandhi and his followers breaking the salt law was carried in over 2000 newspapers abroad. The New York Times editorialized that whereas Britain lost America on tea, it was losing India on salt! 

Gandhi's selection of the Charka (spinning wheel) as a symbol of non violent resistance was also a masterful management stroke. Before his time spinning was primarily a female activity. By making this mandatory for all those joining the national struggle he not only brought a new discipline to the men, he also brought the women into the national movement. The "untouchables" too, who previously could only do scavenging, now had a new livlihood on par with the others. "The spinning wheel is the solace of the untouchable whom we have hitherto so sinfully despised" Gandhi affirmed. Most importantly however, the charka became the weapon of resistance against Britain's economic dominance of India as handspun clothes became the new garb of Indian nationalists and foreign clothes ended up in bonfires. 

Gandhi's success in bringing down the Empire which had proudly boasted that the sun never set on it, made such an impact globally that it not only inspired and galvanised resistance movements abroad, it also transformed management theory and practice. By the 1980s, Peter Drucker, the American management guru, in his 'The New Realities' was writing : "Because management deals with the motivation and direction of people in a common venture, it is deeply embedded in culture. A basic challenge managers therefore face is to identify those elements of the traditions and culture of their workers that can be used as management building blocks. Besides, as everyone like myself, who have worked with managers of all kinds of institutions for long years, have become aware, management is deeply involved with spiritual concerns - the nature of man, good and evil. Management is thus a 'liberal art' - liberal because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom, and leadership; art because it is practice and application.". 

Since the 1980s Management theory and practice have evolved further. The current concept is good corporate governance with emphasis on knowledge, discipline, transparency, equity, accountability, training, total quality management (TQM), safeguarding interests of all stake holders, customer relations management (CRM), corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental protection. Gandhi's management approach incorporated all these principles long before 1930. 

Concerning TQM, he wrote "Students must all do spinning in a scientific manner. Their tools shall always be neat, clean and in good order and condition, then their yarn will naturally be of the highest quality".

As for protecting the interests of all stake holders, it is notable that Gandhi availed of the first opportunity i.e. when he went to London for the 1931 Round Table Conference, to visit and explain the rationale of the boycott of foreign cloth he had launched in India, to the Lancashire textile workers whose jobs had been effected by this boycott. 

As for CRM, Gandhi enunciated this principle most clearly . "A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption on our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider on our business. He is a part of it. We are not doing him a favour by serving him. He is doing us a favour by giving us an opportunity to do so" 

Gandhi's strong CSR is clearly demonstrated by the fact that no sooner had an amicable solution been found for the Champaran Indigo cultivators grievances, he got down to initiating educational, health and sanitation facilities for these peasants, calling upon his own wife, son and two secretaries to assist in this. 

Urging the imperative need for environmental protection he had written as early as 1907, "The earth provides enough to provide for every man's need, but not enough for every man's greed". The United Nations Environmental programme (UNEP) has adopted this as its prime publicity slogan since the early 1990s. 

Today, the most fashionable management strategy is Six Sigma, which inculcates "transformational change through a breakthrough strategy"; "breakthrough design based on innovation and growth"; "optimal processes"; "Breakthrough lean focused on eliminating waste"; and asserts "Building Six Sigma acceptance begins with the development of solid communication strategies". Amazingly, everyone of these techniques was being applied by Gandhi over eighty years ago. 

A clear concept of rights and duties is also an important element in good management. Gandhi held that there was a close link between rights and duties. There could not be one without the other. Thus the right to free speech or to a free market can survive only if citizens ensured that these rights were not used to the detriment of society. Whenever a duty is not diligently performed it erodes the ability of society to protect the corresponding right. 

What are the implications of Gandhi's management principles for national political, economic and social policy making?

If these principles had been adopted in post independent India the following scenario would have emerged : India would have had a political and economic structure based on the village. The village panchayat elected by all adult men and women, would have been the country's primary political unit. It would have assessed and collected revenue, promoted and supervised cooperative farming, irrigation, and village industries, and managed schools and the police. Above the village panchayat would have been a hierarchy of panchayats - indirectly elected - at the district and provincial levels, and at the apex the national panchayat. The indirect election at every level, whereby people who know each other personally, would elect their representatives, would not have required extensive electoral campaigning and the colossal expenditures thereon which are the fecund cause of corruption in all democracies. Sadly, those who drafted the Indian constitution, had studied in Britain and the USA and borrowed heavily from British and US constitutional models. and paid little heed to Gandhi's ideas on this subject. They believed a strong central govt, modern industry and national planning, were essential to safeguard national independence and promote economic progress. However, in spite of enormous expenditures on industrialization and national development widespread poverty still prevails, social inequalities have widened and worst of all corruption has spread like cancer in every section of government and society. 

In the economic field too the village would have been be the basic unit in the Gandhian scheme. Its economy would have been based on the people's creative urges, and its growth tailored to complementarity of production and available/ easily replaceable natural resources in and around the village. Where production of a particular item required a higher investment than the village could afford it would be located in the closest town. Those who chose to work in it could continue to live in their own village homes. These small industrial townships would benefit form low cost rural labour and the capital generated by the "Green Revolution". They would also bring about improvement of local communication networks. 

Gandhi advocated the radical ideals of non-possession and austere consumption. He opposed consumption being made an end in itself as in modern consumption driven Western economies. In this he reflected the views held by Tolstoy, Ruskin and Thoreau. For him simplicity and the overall quality of life far outweigh material comfort and prosperity, and consumption driven economics are environmentally unsustainable. Some economic thinkers are now conceding the validity of Gandhi's views in this matter. 

Gandhi was not opposed to machinery, science and technology, as some of his critics have alleged. In 1924 when specifically asked why he was anti-machinery, he had replied : "How I can be anti-machinery when I know that even this body is a delicate piece of machinery? The spinning wheel is a machine, a little toothpick is a machine.... What I object to is the craze for machinery, not machinery as such. Today machinery helps a few to ride on the back of the millions". Subsequently he had also declared " I would welcome every invention of science made for the benefit of all" His insistence on "production by the masses and not mass production" was because of the mass poverty and unemployment suffered by India's rural masses which had been brought about by mass production by the industrialized West and the unrestricted imports of foreign goods into India. The de-industrialization of India, which took place during the colonial period and engendered the abysmal poverty of India is well described by Paul Kennedy in his book 'Preparing for the Twenty First Century'. He writes "India imported a mere 1 million yards of cotton fabric in 1814, but that figure had risen to 51 million yards by 1830 and to a staggering 995 million yards by 1870. The awful result, according to one calculation, was that whereas the British and Indian peoples had roughly similar per capita levels of industrialization at the onset of the Industrial Revolution in 1750, India's level was only one hundredth of the United Kingdom's by 1900".

Gandhi's approach to economics was primarily moral and humanistic. For him the only sensible economics is one that embraces human dignity and a quality of life necessary to promote it. He wanted economics to focus not just on how an individual is likely to behave but also how he ought to behave. His aim was to encourage individual behaviour in a direction that would provide ideal consequences for the economy as a whole. His focus was on the human condition and on what effected it either beneficially or adversely. This made him question the rationale of contemporary western civilization and modern industrial societies, which instead of safeguarding people's moral sensitivities destroys them and reduces human beings to the status of inanimate cogs in large factories or just makes them redundant through labour saving devices. . 

An innovative management concept which Gandhi developed to establish a link between ethics and economics was Trusteeship. This was based on the premise that the rich, rather than face the risk of a violent revolution or the prospect of having their possessions expropriated, would be willing to consider their riches as a gift from God and to utilize their wealth as Trustees of the poor. "A trustee is one who discharges the obligations of his trust faithfully and in the best interests of his wards." and "The workers instead of regarding themselves as enemies of the rich capitalist, should hold their labour in trust for those who are in need of it" During his lifetime, when capital and labour were viewed solely as factors of production, the trusteeship concept did not achieve much success. But in recent decades, as the sharp demarcation between capital and labour has begun to fade and employee stock options are tending to make labour part owner of the capital of an enterprise this concept, with its emphasis on the need to rise above partisan interests and establish a mutuality of interest, is beginning to be accepted and implemented. 

How would a firm applying Gandhian management principles behave? It would develop and adopt a clear set of ethical norms rather than wait for them to be imposed on it by legislation. It would diligently safeguard the interests not only of its shareholders but of all its stake holders, i.e. all those effected by its operations, whether within the firm or far removed from it. While acknowledging the need for high salaries for those shouldering great responsibilities, and showing outstanding performance, it would ensure an equitable balance between its highest paid and lowest paid employees. It would always be guided by Truth, consider its ethical norms as an asset rather than a liability and advertise its ethical practices in a way that builds its corporate brand equity. It would, to the extent feasible, participate in social action that would help its stake holders and improve social ethics. It would also be sensitive to environmental concerns.

Gandhi was quite opposed to state intervention in economic and social matters, because it impinges on the individual's rights and creativity. "I look upon an increase of the power of the state with the greatest fear, because while apparently doing good by minimizing exploitation, it does the greatest harm to mankind by destroying individuality, which lies at the root of all progress. I know of many cases where men have adopted trusteeship, but none where the state has really lived for the poor." Gandhi believed that direct appeal to people and their moral suasion could be effective instruments of economic intervention. He often sought to bring about beneficial economic change by getting individuals to change their economic behaviour e.g., campaign against foreign cloth and alcoholic consumption. The Bhoodan movement of Vinobha Bhave is another example. 

As far as budget formulation is concerned, Gandhi would have insisted that prime importance be given to agriculture is it is the largest component of India's GNP and steps taken to further augment this component. In the field of taxation Gandhi would have emphasized an equitable distribution of tax burdens over various sections of society. He would not have approved measures which wooed tax evaders with amnesty schemes. On balance of payments and fiscal deficits, while conceding these crisis areas need special attention, he would have insisted that expenditure on vital areas such as housing, health and education not be slashed but instead, administrative expenditure be cut and all wastage eliminated. He would have opposed improving the balance of payments by relying primarily on foreign investments and economic liberalization, irrespective of their effects on people's employment. He would have urged that small savings, particularly in the rural sector be tapped, and efforts made to shift savings from unproductive assets like gold into bank deposits. As India is the world's largest gold consumer the benefits of this shift are substantial. As for the power shortages, he would have focused on better power utilization and reducing power losses. For boosting India's exports he would have urged not only best quality production at the most economic price but also strenuous efforts to secure greater access for them in global markets. He would have insisted on a linkage between lowering tariff barriers in India to those in developed countries, either bilaterally or through global negotiations. 

Gandhi's persistent emphasis on Truth, which for him implied Justice, and the non violent consensual approach to conflict resolution, is very pertinent to the contemporary scenario. The spate of corporate scandals in Enron, Worldcom, Marconi and others, resulting in bankruptcies of those companies and loss of savings of thousands of their employees and share holders, highlights the calamitous risks corporate leaders take when they stray from Truth, on grounds of expediency, self interest or the compulsion to meet share holders expectations. The same holds true for political leaders who, in defiance of international law and world public opinion, invade and occupy countries on the false pretence of liberating oppressed people and establishing democracy among them, The devastating terrorist attacks in Iraq, Morocco, Djakarta, Istanbul and elsewhere in recent months are stark examples of the disastrous outcome of untruthful policies in international affairs, and a sobering lesson that though expediency might bring short term gains, it ultimately leads to disaster.. In the long run it is Truth alone that triumphs - 'Satyameva Jayate' as the ancient Sanskrit maxim states. 

Does truth and non violence work in international affairs? It does indeed. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's histoic visit to Jerusalem in 1977, and the successful outcome of his subsequent peace negotiations with Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin at Camp David with President Carter's good offices, is irrefutable proof that the non violent, negotiated path to peace does produce beneficial and enduring results for both parties even in the most intractable situations.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON GANDHI

1. Autobiography or The Story of my Experiments With        Truth by M.K.Gandhi

2. The Life of Mahatma Gandhi by Louis Fischer

3. Mahatma Gandhi _ A great Life in brief by Vincent Shean

4. Gandhi _ Hind Swaraj and other writings by Antony Parel

5. Gandhian Non Violence by M. Sonelcite

6. The Power of Non Violence by Richard Gregg

7. Non Violence in Action by Dennis Dalton

8. Origins of Non Violence by Martin Green

9. Tolstoy and Gandhi by Martin Green

10. Non Violent Revolution in India by Geofrey Ostergard

11. Non Violence _ Ethics in Action by Doris Hunter 

12. The Matchless Weapon _ Satyagraha by James Mathews

13. Gandhi against the Tide by Antony Copley

14. The way is the Goal by Johann Galtung

15. On the Salt March by Thomas webb

16. The Politics of Non Violent Action by Gene Sharp

17. Civilian Defence by Gene Sharp

18. Gandhi on Non Violence by Thomas Merton

19. Gandhi_s Way by Mark Jurgensmeyer

20. Conflict Resolution & Gandhian Ethics by Thomas Weber

21. Gandhi and His Ashrams by Mark Thomson

22. In the footsteps of Gandhi by Catherine Ingram

23. Gandhi and the Non Conformists by James Hunt 

24. Mahatma Gandhi _ An American Profile by Srimati kamala

25. Treatise on Money (1930) by John Maynard Keynes.

26. Gandhi in the Post Modern Age by Sanford Krolick

27. Trusteeship _ The Gandhian Alternative by Martk Lutz.

28. The Story of Civilization : Volume 1 by Will Durant

29. The New Realities by Peter Drucker

30. Inclusive Economics : Gandhian Method and Contemporary Policy by Narendar Pani