Sarvodaya

Topic: Equality and Social Justice · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

Sarvodaya means "the welfare of all" (sarva = all, udaya = rise). It is Gandhi's ideal of an equality that lifts every person, not just the majority or the strongest. Gandhi first used the word as the title of his 1908 Gujarati paraphrase of John Ruskin's Unto This Last. After 1947, Vinoba Bhave carried the idea forward through the Bhoodan and Gramdan movements, and Jayaprakash Narayan (JP) carried it forward through Total Revolution.

It matters because it is the Indian, non-violent idea of social justice. Its marks are clear in the Gandhian Directive Principles of the Constitution and in today's debates on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Explanation

Origin: from Ruskin to Gandhi

• The book: H.S.L. Polak gave Gandhi Ruskin's Unto This Last to read on a train journey to Durban [1].
• What Ruskin said: the book criticised capitalism.
• What Gandhi did next:
• In 1904, after reading the book, he set up the Phoenix settlement near Durban [2].

• There, he and his friends lived by their own physical labour [2].

• The word: in 1908, Gandhi retold the book in Gujarati in his own words (a paraphrase) and named it Sarvodaya.

The three lessons at the heart of Sarvodaya

• The good of the individual lies in the good of all.

• One person cannot truly gain from another person's loss.

• A lawyer's work has the same value as a barber's.

• Everyone has the same right to earn a living from their work.

• This is equality of dignity in work.

• A life of labour is worth living.

• The life of a farmer or a craftsman, who works with their hands, is the life most worth living.

How Sarvodaya differs from other ideas of equality

• It rejects utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the idea of the "greatest good of the greatest number".
• Under that idea, a minority can be left behind if the majority gains.

• Sarvodaya asks for the good of all, with no one left out.

• It starts with the last person. This is antyodaya (the rise of the last). The poorest person is lifted first.

• Its method is moral, not forceful.
• Change comes through persuasion and a change of heart, without violence.
• Its economic tool is Trusteeship. The rich keep only what they need and hold all extra wealth as trustees for society, like a guardian who looks after property for someone else [1].

Limits

• It depends on goodwill. Trusteeship relies on the rich agreeing to share. Nothing can force them to do so.
• Persuasion has limits. Movements built on a change of heart reached many people, but they did not last, because nothing enforced them [4].
• Ambedkar's objection: the victims of caste could not wait for their oppressors to change their hearts. They needed rights that are guaranteed by law and can be enforced in court.

In the Constitution and practice

1. Gandhian Directive Principles (Part IV)

• Directive Principles of State Policy (DPSPs) are guidelines the state must follow when it makes laws. Courts cannot enforce them (Article 37).
• Several DPSPs carry the Sarvodaya ideal of village self-rule, dignity of labour and care for the weakest:

Article	What the state should do
Art. 40	Organise village panchayats as units of self-government
Art. 43	Secure a living wage and a decent life for workers, and promote cottage industries
Art. 46	Promote the educational and economic interests of SCs, STs and weaker sections, and protect them from injustice and exploitation
Art. 47	Raise nutrition and public health, and prohibit intoxicating drinks and harmful drugs except for medical use
Art. 48	Organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern lines, and prohibit the slaughter of cows and calves

2. Bhoodan and Gramdan (Vinoba Bhave)

• Bhoodan ("land-gift") began at Pochampalli on 18 April 1951. Bhave was a leading disciple of Gandhi and founded the Bhoodan Yajna [5].
• How it began:
• Bhave was touring villages in what was then the Hyderabad region (now Telangana).

• He appealed for land for a group of landless Dalits, and a landholder offered it [4].

• Aim: to lift the rural poor by giving them privately owned land [4].

• Method: land reform through a change of heart, not government action [4]. This is trusteeship in practice.
• Gramdan ("village-gift") went further. The whole village gave its land to the village community, so the community, not individuals, owned it.

3. Total Revolution (JP), 1974

• Jayaprakash Narayan's Total Revolution (Sampoorna Kranti) called for change in politics, the economy, society, culture and education at the same time.
• It took Sarvodaya out of the villages and into mass politics.

4. CSR: trusteeship turned into law

• Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013 makes large companies spend part of their profit on social causes [3].
• Who must spend: a company with net worth of ₹500 crore or more, or turnover of ₹1,000 crore or more, or net profit of ₹5 crore or more in a financial year [3].
• How much: at least 2% of the average net profits of the last 3 years [3].
• On what: the activities listed in Schedule VII [3].
• In force from: 1 April 2014 [3].
• Original rule (2014): a company that did not spend the money had to give its reasons in its Board's Report ("comply or explain") [3].

Don't confuse with

• Utilitarianism: aims at the "greatest good of the greatest number". Sarvodaya aims at the good of all, starting with the last person.
• Trusteeship: is the method (the rich hold extra wealth for society). Sarvodaya is the goal (the welfare of all) that trusteeship serves.
• State socialism (Marx; Ambedkar's States and Minorities, 1947): the state takes or runs property, by force if needed. Sarvodaya relies on a voluntary change of heart, without violence.
• Sapta Kranti (Lohia) vs Total Revolution (JP, 1974): Lohia called for seven revolutions against separate inequalities. JP's Total Revolution came from the Sarvodaya tradition and called for change in all parts of life at the same time.

Prelims Hooks

• Sarvodaya (1908) was Gandhi's Gujarati paraphrase of Ruskin's Unto This Last. Trap: it was not based on Tolstoy or Thoreau.
• H.S.L. Polak gave Gandhi Unto This Last on a train journey to Durban [1]. The Phoenix settlement (1904) near Durban followed [2].
• Bhoodan began at Pochampalli on 18 April 1951 under Vinoba Bhave, founder of the Bhoodan Yajna [5]. JP's Total Revolution came in 1974.
• Gandhian DPSPs: Art. 40 (panchayats), Art. 43 (living wage, cottage industries), Art. 46 (SCs, STs and weaker sections), Art. 47 (prohibition, nutrition), Art. 48 (cow slaughter, agriculture). Courts cannot enforce them (Art. 37).
• CSR (Gandhi's trusteeship in law): Section 135, Companies Act 2013. Companies must spend 2% of average net profit of the last 3 years on activities in Schedule VII. In force from 1 April 2014 [3].
• Antyodaya means "the rise of the last". It is the starting point of Sarvodaya.

Mains Points

• Voluntary trusteeship vs compulsory CSR.
• Section 135 turns Gandhi's moral appeal into a legal duty [3].
• For: it guarantees money for social causes.
• Against: it can become box-ticking, and it shifts welfare duties from the state to companies.

• The question: is trusteeship still trusteeship once the state forces it, or is CSR really a tax under another name?

• Persuasion vs guarantees: Gandhi and Ambedkar.

• Sarvodaya trusted the conscience of the powerful. Bhoodan reached far but did not last, because nothing enforced it [4].
• Ambedkar wanted rights guaranteed by law, reservations and constitutional morality.

• The Constitution uses both. Gandhian DPSPs, which courts cannot enforce, sit alongside Fundamental Rights that courts can enforce, such as Art. 15(4), 16(4) and 17.

• Sarvodaya as a test for welfare policy today.

• The antyodaya principle (lift the last person first) offers a standard for judging schemes. Do the benefits reach the poorest, or only the average?
• Village self-rule under Art. 40 links Sarvodaya to the debate on giving real power to panchayats.

Related concepts

• Trusteeship
• Sapta Kranti
• Ambedkar's idea of a just society

Read more

• Indian thinkers on equality and justice: Gandhi, Lohia, Ambedkar