Responsibility goes with wealth — Swraj Paul

`If human nature were perfect, wealth will have an in-built set of responsibilities,’ the NRI industrialist from London said, musing on how `wealth is relative’ and how some of those looked upon as wealthy were not really rich at all.

`This is because they believe that wealth is a trust and so the money that they generate is constantly re-invested. This re-investment is what benefits society,’ Lord Paul said.

Noting that spiritual leaders in India from the Buddha to Mahatma Gandhi had asked humankind to think in terms of something larger than self-aggrandisement and acquisition of wealth, he said the one responsibiilty of wealth that was the most difficult to accept was that of self-restraint.

`Unfortunately, restraint is not born in us, but must be taught by example,’ Lord Paul said and added that `this is where we all have a responsibility to uphold our traditional moral values.’

Lord Paul said social responsibility was a part of India’s history that needed to be renewed today, what with the global situation having imparted a new urgency to the old question of an individual’s relationship to society.

Noting that many still lived in circumstances barely fit for human existence, he said if this had to be changed, revolutions and physical coercion had not worked, and only one alternative was left — some kind of evolutionary process.

This was not, Lord Paul said, something new to India, as its greatest thinkers had always urged that the best change was that which came from a change of heart. This was the lesson of our freedom struggle, he said.