Discuss Gandhi’s approach to property in relation to trusteeship. (Answer in 250 words)

- Discuss Gandhi’s approach to property in relation to trusteeship. (Answer in 250 words)
Introduction
Gandhi denied absolute private ownership without abolishing possession. Trusteeship is his answer: wealth beyond need is held by its possessor for society, so property becomes a stewardship whose title is service rather than acquisition.

Body
1. The moral premise: drawing on the Isha Upanishad's injunction to enjoy through renunciation, Gandhi held that taking more than one needs is theft. His vows of asteya and aparigraha make this a discipline, not a sentiment.
2. Possession without ownership: the rich man may earn by legitimate means and keep a decent livelihood, but the surplus is not his — he holds it for the community. Talent too is held in trust.
3. Not laissez-faire: the 1942 practical trusteeship formula, drafted with Kishorelal Mashruwala, gives the trustee no right of ownership, has the state fix his remuneration, subjects the choice of successor to state approval, and provides for nationalisation where trusteeship fails.
4. Non-violent compulsion: Gandhi preferred conversion of the heart but sanctioned satyagraha, strikes and non-cooperation against the owner. The Ahmedabad mill strike of 1918 and the Majoor Mahajan Sangh are his own model.
5. Continuous with his economics: bread labour, swadeshi, limitation of wants and village self-sufficiency make trusteeship part of a whole rather than an isolated device.
6. Practical afterlife: Vinoba Bhave's Bhoodan and Gramdan from 1951 applied it to land.

Conclusion
Critics from Nehru and Jayaprakash Narayan to Ambedkar and the Marxists judged it utopian — a change of heart is no substitute for a change of structure, and the trustee remains judge in his own cause. Yet Gandhi's insistence that property carries an obligation rather than an entitlement survives him, and Article 39(b) writes it into the Constitution.