My Non-violence

Chapter 125: Reduction of Landlord's Share

Q. There is a movement for reducing the share of the owner from half to one-third of the agricultural produce. What is your opinion about this?
Gandhiji welcomed the move for the reduction of the landlord's share from half to one-third. He thought the move was substantial. The land belonged to the Lord of us all and therefore to the worker on it. But till that ideal state of things came about, the movement towards the reduction of the landlord's portion was in the right direction.
But he warned the movers against the use of compulsion or violence. He could have no part or share in violence. It was a reform to be brought about only by the cultivation of healthy public opinion. The reformers must have patience. He believed implicitly in the aphorism: 'As the end so the means.' In his opinion it was pernicious to hold that so long as the end was good, any means, however violent or unjust, were justified. Many movements had come to grief by reliance on doubtful means.

Harijan,
23-2-1947