To all the ‘ists’ out there

Real socialism has been handed down to us by our ancestors who taught : “All land belongs to Gopal; where then is the boundary line? Man is the maker of that line and he can, therefore, unmake it.” Gopal literally means shepherd; it also means God. In modern language it means the State, i.e. the People. That the land today does not belong to the people is true. But the fault is not in the teaching. It is in us who have not lived up to it. I have no doubt that we can make as good an approach to it as is possible for any nation, not excluding Russia, and that without violence. The most effective substitute for violent dispossession is the wheel with all its implications. Land and all property is his who will work for it. Unfortunately the workers are or have been kept ignorant of this simple fact.

Harijan, 02-01-1937