Gandhian Philosophy of Sarvodaya
Paper
Presented by-
Dr.Shubhangi
Rathi ,Bhusawal &
Prof.Sunil
Neve,Bhalod -Yawal
21st
century is the era of globalization. New economic policy of globalization moves
on to make the world a global village. New challenges and problems have emerged
before humanity. The belief that all emergent problems –ecological, social,
economical, political and moral-could be resolved by discoveries and
technological innovations persists, filatures in the past notwithstanding. What
is happening today is in line with what Gandhi almost predicted in Hind Swaraj
as he prepared its manuscript in 1908.Gandhi put forward four main goals before
humanity, so as to move towards its destiny. These are Swaraj, Non-voilence,
Swadeshi and Sarvodaya. These are the main pillars of the thesis he has
propounded in the Hind Swaraj.In this paper an attempt is made to focus on
Sarvodaya as one of the pillars to bring Hind Swaraj.
Meaning of Sarvodaya:
Sarvodaya is a term meaning 'Universal Uplift' or 'Progress of All'. The term was first
coined by Mohandas Gandhi
as the title of his 1908 translation of John Ruskin’s tract on political economy,
‘Unto This Last’, and Gandhi came to use the
term for the ideal of his own political philosophy1. 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 India society.
The word Sarvodaya came into, the reading of John
Ruskin’s book, ‘Unto This Last’ not only made a deep impact on
Gandhiji’s life, but it turned out to be a very important turning event of his
life. He was so impressed by the book and its thoughts that he started changing
his style of life from the very next day. He published a brief summary of this
book in Gujarati and named it as Sarvodaya. The author of this article
has translated it as “Welfare of All”.
Another version more popular is “Good of
All.” This word did not have great currency when Gandhiji was alive.
Inspirations from Ruskin’s Book:
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."2 Gandhi advances the concept of
Sarvodaya, which were the based on three basic principles:
·
That the good of the individual is
contained in the good of all.
·
That a lawyer’s work has the same value
as the barber’s in as much as all have the same right of earning their
livelihood from their work.
·
That is a life of labour, i.e., the life
of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman is the life worth living.
The
first of these I knew. The second I had dimly realized. The third have never
occurred to me. ‘Unto This Last’ made
it clear as daylight for me that the second and third were contained in the
first. I arose with the dawn, ready to reduce these principal to practice.”3
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 (samasa) 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.)4 The ideal which Gandhi strove to
put into practice in his ashrams was, he hoped, one that he could
persuade the whole of India to embrace, becoming a light to the other nations
of the world. The Gandhian social ideal encompassed the dignity of labor, an
equitable distribution of wealth, communal self-sufficiency and individual
freedom.5
Simple
Living & High Thinking:
Mahatma
Gandhi was of the firm view that the earth provides enough to satisfy every
man’s needs, but not for every man’s greed. In the Sarvodaya society of his dream,
therefore, every member will be free from any greed for limitless acquisition
of material wealth and more and more luxurious living and they will follow the
motto of simple living and high thinking. Everyone will, thus, get ample
opportunity to produce and earn sufficiently through honest work for decent and
dignified living. Consequently there will be no problem of unemployment. Of
course, obviously, income of different people may be different, depending on
their talent, ability and effort. But those who will earn more will use the
bulk of their greater earnings for the good of the society as a whole. In such
a society, all wealth, including land, will be assumed as common property to be
utilized for the welfare of all. If an individual has more than his
proportionate portion, he becomes a trustee of the excess wealth for the
benefit of the less fortunate members of the society. As regards use of
machinery in economic activity, Gandhi said that “If we feel the need of
machines, we certainly will have them. But there should be no place for
machines that concentrate power in a few hands and turn the masses into mere
machine-minders, if, indeed, they do not make them unemployed.” In order,
therefore, to minimize use of machines in a Sarvodaya society, Gandhi strongly
advocated that everyone should do some productive physical work at least to
earn his/her daily bread as was also advocated by Leo Tolstoy – the great
Russian thinker and writer and everyone should uphold the dignity of labour
irrespective of the type of honest labour performed by an individual.6
The Sarvodaya Movement has as its
target the establishment of a whole network of such self-supporting village
communities. The family relationships which are confined at present to the
blood group will be extended to cover the whole village where distinctions
based on race, creed, caste, language and so forth will completely be
eliminated. Agriculture will be so planned that all the people will have enough
to consume. Industry will be conducted on a cottage basis till all the people
in the village are gainfully employed. The needs of the village will be
determined by the people of the village themselves, through Village Council,
representative of the whole village.
Principles of the Sarvodaya:
·
There is no centralized authority, and
there is political and economic atmosphere in the villages.
·
Politics will not be the instrument of
power but an agency of service and Rajnity
will yield place to Loknity.
·
All people will be imbued with the
spirit of love, fraternity, truth, non-violence and self-sacrifices. Society
will function on the basis on the non-violence.
·
There will be no party system and
majority rule and society will be free from the evil of the tyranny of the
majority.
·
The sarvodaya society is socialist in
the true sense of the term. All calling will be the same moral, social and
economical values. The individual personality has the fullest scope for
development.
·
The sarvodaya society is based on
equality and liberty. There is no room in it for unwholesome some competition,
exploitation and class-hatred.
·
Sarvodaya stands for the progress of the
all. All individual should do individual labour and follow the ideal of non
possession. Then it will be possible to realize the goal of: from each according
to his work and to each according to his needs.
·
There will be no private property, the
instrument of exploitation and the source of social distinctions and hatred.
Similarly, the profit motive will disappear, rent and interest to will go.
Essential Conditions for Sarvodaya:
·
The Sarvodaya Movement is based on
Truth, Non-violence and Self-denial.
·
The Sarvodaya Movement makes a sincere
and bold attempt to create the necessary atmosphere to bring together such
individuals with an unwavering faith in the Welfare of All
·
The gain to the individual would be
small. The development of each quality depends upon every other. If all the
qualities are improved a little, then the individual would gain more.
·
Just as a child legs, fingers, ears, in
fact all the parts of the body grow together into a man, so a man’s potential
must develop harmoniously in all directions.
·
When a balloon is blown up all the parts
of the skin must stretch together or else the balloon will be distorted. So, man’s
all qualities must be developed together.
·
Families, groups, villages and towns are
composed of individuals. So too, the potential of families, groups, villages
and towns must develop simultaneously and harmoniously in all directions.
The
life-giving environment of a fish is water. It supplies a fish with all it
requires. Man’s environment is other men and their work. A fish living in
impure water does not develop its potential to the full. So, a man living in an
environment contaminated with hatred, violence, distrust, competition and
selfishness does not develop his potential to the full.
A
fish living in pure water can develop its potential to the full. So too, a man
living in an environment filled with compassion, non-violence, mutual trust,
co-operation and selflessness can develop his potential to the full.
The present of the motive production
is profit to the producer, but in the Sarvodaya Society production is meant for
consumption and all will derive benefits. The desire to grab and get on as we
find today will yield place to concern for others and mutual sharing. Land and
other types of property will exist for the good of one and all.
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, J. P. Narayan, Dada Dharmadhikari,
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.7
Sometime after his death, the mantle of leadership
of the Gandhian fraternity fell on late Acharya Vinoba Bhave. It was he who
found that if Gandhiji’s entire philosophy is to be described in one word, then
Sarvodaya was the most appropriate word. Later on, he also conceived the idea
of a loose fraternity of believers in truth and non-violence as Sarvodaya
Samaj. When Shri Jayaprakash Narayan joined the Gandhian fraternity, he was
also greatly instrumental in popularizing the expression, Sarvodaya, i.e.,
“Good of all.” Mahatma Gandhi dreamt of transforming
India into such a Ramrajya after
liberation of the country from the yoke of British rule. But, unfortunately, soon after India’s
independence, the life of the Father
of our Nation was cruelly ended by an assassin’s bullet.
An
ideal of Sarvodaya is Stateless Society Vinoba Bhave, the chief exponent of
Sarvodaya, spoke to establishing a society in which people are free from
exploitation and oppression, Sarvodaya is against the state in the present
form, even if it tries to prompt social welfare, as is based on methods of coercion.
As well as they are apposed to democracy as a form of government prevailing in
countries like Britain, USA, and India, as it is based on the party system. The
party system is an evil, as it breaks people in to groups, compels them to
conspire against one another and gives rise to the tyranny of the majority.
Representative democracy, as it prevails now, is not truly representative; only
the majority is represented and the minority which is sometime substantial is
left out. Their will be a loose federation of autonomous village, in which
there is almost self-sufficiency.
Conclusion:
So,
lastly we can conclude that Sarvodaya is an agency of Service for Common Welfare
Sarvodaya sets its face squarely against the politics of power and
exploitation. It lays great emphasis on moral and spiritual values. It seeks to
create new social and economical values. The concept of possession yields place
to the concept of trusteeship. People will work for the good of all and family
feeling will animate the entire community. There will be fullest scope for
freedom, fellowship and equality.
The
state is to be an agency of power. Gramrajya is a base of non-violence.
Sarvodaya stands for good of all and not for the good of any particular
individual or class. Bhoodan at the early stage, Gramdan at a later stage and
Sampattidan will bring about a change of heart. The rich and poor will give up
their ideas of attachment to private property and will strive to work for the
good of all.
But
reality is Sarvodaya ideals are not
practicable. Though the ideals of sarvodaya will be noble.Nobady can find fault
with them, in the actual world. They will be found wanting. It will be almost
impossible to establish a society strictly on the basis of great principles by
Mahatma Gandhi and others. Sarvodaya doctrines are soaring and it is doubtful
whether they can rest on the earth. The poor record of Panchayat Raj in India
bears testimony to the backward condition in which people are.In the highly
competitive world, one country can not succeed in having Gramraj.Unless all
states in the world accept the Sarvodaya idea. The chances of having it is a
particular country like India are bleak. As well as, it is difficult to bring a
change of the heart in the human being, who is given to selfishness. People donated
useless land in response to the Bhoodan.
So,
need of the present era is ‘Act Locally and Think Globally’
Note:
1.
Bondurant, Joan. Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict.
(Princeton, 1958) p 156.
2.
Autobiography,
part IV, chapter xviii.
3.
Ibid.
4.
See Bondurant (1958), pp. 156-159.
5.
Bondurant (1958), chapter 5.
6.
B.K.Gokhale: Political Science ( Theory
& Govt. Machinary);Himalaya Publishing House
8. R.P.
Mishra: Rediscovering Gandhi; Volume I: Hind Swaraj-Gandhi’s Challenges to
modern Civilization;page 11
Reference Books:
I.
M.K.Gandhi: Village Swaraj;Navjivan
publishing House,Ahamadabad
II.
R.P. Mishra: Rediscovering Gandhi;
Volume I: Hind Swaraj-Gandhi’s Challenges to modern Civilization;Concept
Publishing Company, New Delhi
III.
J.C.Kumrappa:Economy of
Performance;sarva Seva Sangha Prakashan,Rajghat;sixth Edition 1997
IV.
B.K.Gokhale: Political Science ( Theory
& Govt. Machinary);Himalaya Publishing House
VII.
GANDHI ON SARVODAYA (UNIVERSAL WELFARE) Seminar: January
17, 2004Dr. James Tepfer (jtepfer@hotmail.com)
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