| There was thus
socialism' within this limited sphere. The units thus composed competed with one another.
There was thus recognition of the principle of competition as among the groups formed on
the basis of relationship. No one was compelled by law to remain within the fold. He could
rebel and get away from his relatives. But so long
as he remained within it, he was entitled to be looked after. For a man with a larger
earning capacity, to leave the fold with the selfish object of excluding his relatives
from sharing in the fruits of his toil was considered an offence against the culture of
the land. There was thus a semi-coercive basis for the system. The modern conception of
communism is a Statewide and State-enforced system, to which serious objections are raised
by individualists.
The sutranthazaal idea is a very old compromise
between the two systems. The problems are millenniums old, and the varying solutions too
are of like age. If evils can be pointed out against a system of family dependence, so
also can serious objections be pointed out against Statist socialism. Even as adherents of
the latter admit the defects, but plead that we must choose the lesser of two evils and
suggest various remedies and adjustments to mitigate the defects, so also can the plan of
life be defended, and mitigated in respect of defects. |
