Sarvodaya

Sarvōdaya ( '' sarv-'' "all", '' uday'' "rising") is a Sanskrit term which generally means "universal uplift" or "progress of all". The term was used by Mahatma Gandhi as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin's critique of political economy, ''Unto This Last'', and Gandhi came to use the term for the ideal of his own political philosophy. Later Gandhians, like the Indian nonviolence activist Vinoba Bhave, embraced the term as a name for the social movement in post-independence India which strove to ensure that self-determination and equality reached all strata of Indian society. Samantabhadra, an illustrious Digambara monk, as early as the 2nd century A.D., called the ''tīrtha'' of ''Mahāvīra'' (24th Tirthankara) by the name ''sarvodaya''.

Origins and Gandhi's political ideal

Gandhi received a copy of Ruskin's ''Unto This Last'' from a British friend, Mr. Henry Polak, while working as a lawyer in South Africa in 1904. In his ''Autobiography'', Gandhi remembers the twenty-four-hour train ride to Durban (from when he first read the book), being so in the grip of Ruskin's ideas that he could not sleep at all: "I determined to change my life in accordance with the ideals of the book."''Autobiography'', part IV, chapter xviii. As Gandhi construed it, Ruskin's outlook on political-economic life extended from three central tenets:

Four years later, in 1908, Gandhi rendered a paraphrased translation of Ruskin's book into his native tongue of Gujarati. He entitled the book ''Sarvodaya'', a compound (sandhi) he invented from two Sanskrit roots: ''sarva'' (all) and ''udaya'' (uplift) -- "the uplift of all" (or as Gandhi glossed it in his autobiography, "the welfare of all").

Although inspired by Ruskin, the term would for Gandhi come to stand for a political ideal of his own stamp. (Indeed, Gandhi was keen to distance himself from Ruskin's more conservative ideas.) The ideal which Gandhi strove to put into practice in his ashram, an equitable distribution of wealth, communal self-sufficiency and individual freedom.

Sarvodaya movement

Gandhi's ideals have lasted well beyond the achievement of one of his chief projects, Indian independence ('' swaraj''). His followers in India (notably, Vinoba Bhave) continued working to promote the kind of society that he envisioned, and their efforts have come to be known as the Sarvodaya Movement. Anima Bose has referred to the movement's philosophy as "a fuller and richer concept of people's democracy than any we have yet known." Sarvodaya workers associated with Vinoba Bhave, Jaya Prakash Narayan, Dada Dharmadhikari, Ravishankar Maharaj, Charu Chandra Bhandari, Dhirendra Mazumdaar, Shankarrao Deo, K. G. Mashruwala undertook various projects aimed at encouraging popular self-organisation during the 1950s and 1960s, including '' Bhoodan'' and '' Gramdan'' movements. Many groups descended from these networks continue to function locally in India today.

Beginning on the one year anniversary of the immersion of Gandhi's ashes, an annual Sarvodaya mela or festival has been held at Srirangapatna and at Tirunavaya. At the latter site, it was instituted by K. Kelappan (Kelappaji).''Tourist Guide to Kerala'', Chennai: Sura, 2008,
p. 40

Further reading

* ''The Sarvodaya Movement: Gandhian Approach to Peace and Non Violence'', by S. Narayanasamy. New Delhi, Mittal Publications, 2003. .

See also

* '' Indian Opinion''
* A. T. Ariyaratne
* Hermann Kallenbach
* Totaram Sanadhya
* Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, a Sri Lankan organization based on the principle of Sarvodaya.

References

External links

The Sarvodaya Movement in India in the 1950s

{{John Ruskin

Gandhism
Social history of India
Hindi words and phrases
Critique of political economy