Pathak 1

Sairantri Pathak

Dated, 28 August, 2019

My contribution to achieve Gandhiji's vision of sarvodaya

John Ruskin, like many other Victorian writers, were making use of traditional institutions

like religion for social purpose. Unto This Last, is one of the biblical stories of the Old

Testament, in which the owner makes equal payments to all the workers, even to one who

comes last when the work is finished. The owner says, “I will treat all equally, hence my

payment will go even unto the last.” The philosophy of this story influenced Gandhi so much

so that it was translated into Gujrati and then in Hindi. Gandhi used the term “Sarvodaya”, a

Sanskrit term meaning 'universal uplift' or 'progress of all', as the title of his 1908 translation

of Ruskin's tract on political economy, and came to use the term for the ideal of his own

political philosophy.

The two pillars of Gandhi’s political philosophy are truth and non-violence. All his

progressive social and political movements were carried out by means of “nonviolent

resistance”, sometimes also called “civil resistance”. Gandhi, thus, popularized the practice of

achieving goals such as social change through symbolic protests, civil disobedience,

economic or political noncooperation, or “satyagraha”. Gandhi's deep commitment and

disciplined belief in non-violent civil disobedience as a way to oppose forms of oppression or

injustice has inspired many subsequent political figures, including Martin Luther King Jr. of

the United States, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Nelson Mandela and Steve Biko of South

Africa, Lech Wałęsa of Poland and Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar. Gandhi's work in South

Africa, for the improved rights of Indian residents living under the white South African

government inspired the later work of the African National Congress. Many, especially

Mandela, languished for decades in jail, while the world outside was divided in its effort to
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remove apartheid. Martin Luther King Jr., a young Christian minister and a leader of the Civil

Rights Movement, seeking the emancipation of African Americans from racial segregation in

the American South, traveled to India in 1962 to meet Jawaharlal Nehru. The two discussed

Gandhi's teachings, and the methodology of organising peaceful resistance.

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. Often called “Acharya”

(Sanskrit for teacher), he is best known for the “Bhoodan Movement”. He is considered as a

National Teacher of India and the spiritual successor of Mohandas Gandhi. Bhave's religious

outlook was very broad and it synthesized the truths of many religions. This can be seen in

one of his hymns "Om Tat Sat" which contains symbols of many religions. His “Jay Jagat”

i.e. "victory to the world" finds reflection in his views about the world as a whole. Bhave

observed the life of the average Indian living in a village and tried to find solutions for the

problems he faced with a firm spiritual foundation.

Lanza del Vasto, western disciple of Mohandas K. Gandhi, worked for inter-religious

dialogue, spiritual renewal, ecological activism and nonviolence. In 1957, during the Algerian

War, del Vasto started a movement of protest against torture. He fasted for 21 days. In 1958,

he demonstrated against the nuclear power plant in Marcoule, France, which produced

plutonium for nuclear weapons. In 1963, he fasted for 40 days in Rome during the Second

Vatican Council, asking Pope John XXIII to stand against war. In 1972, he supported the

farmers of the Larzac plateau against the extension of a military base while fasting for 15

days.

India, in its present time, is writhing under severe inequalities in respect of economy, politics,

gender, casteism, and others. We have witnessed various types of non-violent movements
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being carried out by common peoples of the country to protest against such inequalities. The

dalit movements, anti-corruption movements, anti-Semitism movements, anti-communalism

movements, environment preservation movements, women’s rights movements, LGBT

Movements, were all carried out through the spirit of non-violence; and in many cases such

movements helped to bring about social and political changes in our country. I, therefore,

heartily support the philosophy of non-violence, and I think it is the best possible method to

bring about positive changes in our society. Whenever I see the equal rights of people are

being violated, the individual rights of people around me are being crushed, I try my best to

stand by those people and protest against such kind of exploitation. It is not only in our

society, but also in my school, in my family, I see such kind of exploitation of human rights,

and such kind of injustice torment me heavily.