Gandhi on Providence and Greed - 1649 Words

Gandhi on Providence and Greed Y. P. Anand and Mark Lindley Although Gandhiji is often quoted as having said, â€Å"Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not enough for any man’s greed,† we would like to point out that he said something significantly different instead,1 but that 15-20 years earlier, his view in regard to food had indeed amounted to what the famous alleged statement says. The alleged statement is a distorted version of a remark attributed to him by a first-hand witness, Pyarelal, in a chapter entitled â€Å"Towards New Horizons† in Part II of Mahatma Gandhi – The Last Phase (1958 and later editions). Describing some views expressed by Gandhi in 1947, Pyarelal wrote: â€Å"In addition to the economic and the†¦show more content†¦It refers normally to something that is impersonal, and is thus not a god, and yet is utterly beyond human control. However, the passage in question shows that Gandhi included under this same heading the ethical precepts of non-stealing and non-possession of others’ property. And indeed when he used the same term in a similar statement five years later, his English translator rendered it as â€Å"God†: â€Å"God never creates more than what is strictly needed for the moment, with the result that if anyone appropriates more than he really needs, he reduces his neighbour to destitution. The starva- 4. We extend kind thanks to Dr. Varsha Das, Director, National Gandhi Museum, for translating for us the passages cited in Gujarati. tion of people in several parts of the world is due to many of us seizing very much more than we need.†5 And meanwhile, at a public meeting in Switzerland on 8th December 1931, Gandhi said (in English): â€Å"There would be no poverty on Earth if we made a sacred resolution that we would have no more than we need for our creature-comforts. And it would not do for a millionaire to sluggishly say that he owns millions because he needs those for his creature comforts. On the contrary, a man who is poor willShow MoreRelatedExploring Corporate Strategy - Case164366 Words   |  658 Pagesthat is, expensive to produce but inexpensive to reproduce. The manufacturing cost of drugs is usually tiny compared with the amortised cost of RD that led to the discovery. Setting prices that attempt to recoup RD therefore looks like corporate greed in comparison with the very low prices that can be charged for generics. Some companies damaged the industry’s overall reputation. In the USA, pharmaceutical ï ¬ rms paid over $2bn in ï ¬ nes between 2000 and 2003 in cases brought by the US Justice DepartmentRead MoreLogical Reasoning189930 Words   |  760 Pagesdispute. ────CONCEPT CHECK──── Briefly state a counterargument to the following argument: Communism is better than capitalism because communism is designed to promote cooperation among equals whereas capitalism is designed to promote competition, greed, and the domination of one person by another. ────165 Let’s now try to handle all at once many of the points made about argumentation. An answer to this question might distinguish goals from actual practice and point out the specific resultsRead MoreManagement Course: Mba−10 General Management215330 Words   |  862 Pagesto the situation he or she is in and to the nature of the followers. This view is consistent with the situational approach taken throughout this book, yet is barely widely accepted. The belief does not easily fade away that General Patton, Mahatma Gandhi, Vince Lombardi, Golda Meir, and Martin Luther King—or the heads of AOL, GM, Microsoft, and John Hancock—must have had exactly the same qualities. Throughout this and the next chapter, we will be using the terms manager and leader interchangeably