Gandhis way of life: Satyagraha and Sarvodaya

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, also referred to as Father of Indian Nation, Mahatma Gandhiji or Bapu, was what we could describe as a contemplative man of action, an activist, a practical philosopher and not an academic theorist. That is why it does not come as a surprise to us that Gandhi himself said about his autobiography that through it he wished to tell the story of his numerous experiments with truth. He also admits that his life consists of nothing but these experiments. The experiments we hear of, cover the fields of policy, spirituality, society, religion and morality. At the very outset on page x of the introduction of his autobiography he reveals that the goal of all of his experiments is to achieve Moksha (salvation). This might imply that he sets forth to achieve a religious goal, but, as we shall see later, for him the above described fields could not be divided into water-tight compartments. Gandhi was so engrossed with the presentation of the normative character of his thoughts that he said: If I has only to discuss academic principles, I should clearly not attempt an autobiography. But my purpose being to give an account of various practical applications of these principles, I have given the chapters I propose to write the title of The Story of My Experiments with Truth.1 For the purpose of the discussion, these principles could broadly be divided in following two broader categories: (1) Satyagraha which includes truth and non-violence, religion, morality, and also Gandhi attitude towards women, (2) Sarvodaya, Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave.

M. K. Gandhi, An Autobiography, The Story of my experiments with truth, Navajivan Trust, Ahmedabad, India, 1927, p. xi.

Satyagraha:

The literal meaning of the term Satyagraha is clinging to truth.2 It implies insisting on truth while striving for basically a social cause. It was used by Gandhi as a political instrument to coerce the government to redress public grievances. The first time Gandhiji he employed it, he resorted this instrument against humiliating laws enforced by the South African Government on Indians who lived there. After his return to India it became his main pedestal to launch various movements such as Non-violence movement (192022), Non-cooperation movement (1930-34), and Quit India Movement (1942-44) etc. against the then British government. Moreover, he organized Satyagraha in Champaran, Kheda and Bardoli for the resolution of the disputes between British Government and Indian peasantry. Still smaller movements of Satyagraha, Domestic Satyagraha3 and Miniature Satyagraha4, as Gandhi liked to call them, were resorted by him to obtain the solution of indigenous problems of the Indian society, such as eradication of untouchability5, entry of lower castes into temples etc. Looking at these movements we come across a broader sense of the term Satyagraha which stands for an attitude of mind which is as pious as a faith in God an attitude which, in turn, is applicable in all walks of life.

Satyagraha consists of two words: satya means truth and Agraha means to insist. Thus, it stands for to insist for something while being in truth. 3 Gandhi maintains that he took vow of Domestic Satyagraha in 1908. He tried to persuade his wife Kasturba during her illness that she should give up salt and pulses for some time as Gandhi was of the view that by doing thatshe would recover sooner from the peculiar ailment. Ba challenged him, and said that even he could not give up these, which in turn led him to take a vow to give up salt and pulses for one year. For the complete story, please seethe chapter on Domestic Satyagraha, in Gandhis autobiography.. 4 The first Miniature Satyagraha was resorted by Gandhi in South Africa while being in a military training camp for volunteering his services during First World War. Gandhi describes this in his Autobiography, pp. 293-5. 5 A caste based social system in which lower castes are treated as untouchables.

It is worthy of note as to how the word Satyagraha came into existence. In Johannesburg Gandhi led a resistance movement protesting against the Asiatic Law Amendment Ordinance which was introduced in Transvall Legislative Council in 1906. As the movement proceeded, Gandhi admits that the Principal called Satyagraha came into being before that name was invented. He did not like it to be called passive resistance as then it was susceptible to be characterized by violence and hatred whereas it was meant to be a weapon of the weak. Faced with the difficulty of finding a suitable term, Gandhi actually advertised a contest through his newspaper Indian Opinion of a suitable title for the principal. The suggestion which appealed to him the most, was Sadagraha (Sat: truth, Agraha: firmness), and in order to clarify it more he termed it Satyagraha. In the formulation of Satyagraha, Gandhiji was influenced bymany sources. It can be traced essentially to the Gitas ideal of Karmayogin, says B. Kumarappa, and also to Jesus Sermon on the Mount; and recently to the writings of Thoreau, Ruskin and more especially Tolstoy. But his practical application of it in the social and political spheres was entirely his own.6 Gandhi was impressed with the idea of non-violence from Jainism and the elements of peace and compassion from Buddhism. Even if he was impressed with many scriptures and thinkers, the unique formulation of Satyagraha in action was unforeseen prior to Gandhi. In Gandhism, Satyagraha is an umbrella concept. It includes each and every aspect of Gandhian thinking such as truth, non-violence, religion, morality, fearlessness, anti-untouchability, swadeshi, and control of craving.

B. Kumarappa, in his editorial note to M.K.Gandhi, Satyagraha, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1951, p. iii.

(1) Truth and non-violence are the two most significant aspects of Satyagraha. He derives Sat, i.e truth from the Vedantic conception of God as Sat, Chit and Ananda (truth, consciousness and bliss). Among the three aspects of God, Gandhi maintains: Sat or Truth is perhaps the most important name of God. In fact, it is more correct to say Truth is God, than to say that God is Truth. 7 Admitting truth to be most fundamental principle of his life, Gandhi says: This truth is not only truthfulness in word, but truthfulness in thought also, and not only the relative truth of our conception, but the Absolute Truth, the Eternal Principal, that is God. There are innumerable definitions of God, because His manifestations are innumerable. They overwhelm me with wonder and awe and for a moment stun me. But I worship God as Truth only. I have not yet found Him, but I am seeking after Him. I am prepared to sacrifice the things dearest to me in pursuit of this quest. Even if the sacrifice demanded be my very life, I hope I may be prepared to give it.8 It is his most absolue metaphysical view of truth that he recommends for truthful dealings even in the least things of life, is the only secret of pure life.9 (2) Just like Truth, Non-violence is also an essential element of Satyagraha. In fact, the basis of truth is non-violence.Gandhi regarded them two sides of the same coin as the greatest truth is the unity of all life, Truth can be attained only by loving service of all, i.e by non-violence. The weapon of the Satygrahi is therefore non-violence. Satyagraha, in the narrower sense in which it is ordinarily understood, accordingly means resisting evil through soul-force or non-violence. 10 Gandhi believed in the Jainist concept of Ahimsa (non-injury) which is most rigorous form of non-violence.
7 8

Young India, July 30, 1931. M.K.Gandhi, An Autobiography: My experiments with truth, Op. Cit, p. xi. 9 Young India, December, 25, 1925. Quoted in Anima Bose: Mahatma Gandhi, A Contemporary Perspective, B. R. Publishing Corporation, Delhi, p. 6. 10 B.Kumarappa, Op.Cit, p. iii.

Satyagraha aims at reaching the conscience of the opponent and motivates him to change his behaviour. It believes that the conscience of a human being is virtuous and moral. When a man changes his behaviour under external coercion such as under the threat of any kind of violence and becomes moral, the change is superficial as it is not a return to his good conscience. Such a change in never lasting. In order to bring a lasting change in the personality of the opponent, Satyagrahi (the person who has taken the vow of Satyagraha) non-violently appeals to his conscience and facilitates him to change his attitude and behaviour in such a manner that does not feel any external compulsion. Gandhi followed non-violence through out his Satyagraha movements, and at those times when he felt that movement was getting violent he swiftly acted for its withdrawal.This happened in 1922, when Non-cooperation movement was at full swing. Hearing that the movement had become violent at Chauri Chaura, Gandhiji announced its immediate withdrawal.11 (3) Along with truth and non-violence, Satyagraha is primarily a moral principle as it believes in the piousness of both end and means. It is in this that Gandhi differs from the Marxist view that end justifies means. All along his struggle for Indias freedom he always sticked to the inner purity and morality of programmes and movements.The moral exaltedness of Satyagraha could be gathered from its characteristic that it preaches to hate evil and not the evil-doer as it believes that the evil-doer could be converted into a good human being. Gandhiji maintained morality and religion to be one and same thing. For him, religion divorced from morality is like sounding brass good only for making noise and breaking heads.12 And he admonishes: I reject any religious doctrine that does not
11

Chauri-Chaura is a place in Gorakhapur district of Uttar Pradesh (United Province of British India), where during the Non-cooperation movement a group of Satyagrahis captured a police station, caged all the eleven policemen inside and burnt them alive. 12 Harijan, October 31, 1936.

appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality. 13 While still in his teenage-years a religion of the spirit ingrained in Gandhi. He was convinced that truth and morality form the very essence of all religions. He admits: one thing took deep root in me the conviction that morality is the basis of things, and that truth is the substance of all morality. Truth became my sole objective. It began to grow in magnitude every day, and my definition of it also has been ever widening. 14 Thus for Gandhi, truth, non-violence, morality and religion all constitute one single whole. (4) The principal of Satyagraha is reflected in Gandhis attitude towards women. Womens condition in a society owes much to the cultural moorings. Although no culture would grow under the subjugation of their women, the socio-economic-educational condition of women depends on psyche of the society at large. In ancient Indian society the status of women was comparatively better as compared to the medieval period. The condition of Indian women improved with the arrival of English rule and introduction of different means of modernity such as Railways, Postal Services, and education for women. Even before the arrival of Gandhiji on the Indian national scene, womens cause were taken up by Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Lord William Venting, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Vivekananda and others. However, the status of women in Indian society was still pathetic. Although women in general are forced to tolerate what is called male sovereignities even in todays civilized world, Indian women at the time of Gandhi were subjected to such evil systems as purdah, devadasis, and sati.15 Anima Bose points out:
13

M.K.Gandhi, My Religion, Compiled and edited by Bhartan Kumarappa, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1955, p.3. 14 M.K.Gandhi, An Autobiography, Op. Cit., p.29. 15 The presence of these evils canstill be felt in todays rural India. Whereas devadasi system belongs to south India, purdah and sati are basically found in north India. The systems of devdasi and sati are disappearing thanks to the enactment of laws against these systems. (a) In purdah system a married women covers up her face, much like burka of a muslim lady, while in her husbands house for her life time so that any elder person of either the same family or of the society cannot see her face. (b) A devdasi means dasi

By the time Gandhiji arrived on the Indian scene, the evils had become a part of the accepted way of life. So much so, women themselves saw honour in some of these degrading customs and hugged them. Time also lent a halo to prejudice, injustice and ignorance. Gandhiji pinpointed some of these evils with extra-ordinary sensitivity and clarity. Among the social evils he exposed and condemned were the customs of purdah, dowry, child marriage, bondage of jewels and the social and family compulsion of wearing them; the condition of those women whose husbands died, devadasis, the dual standard for men and women with regard to the emphasis on chastity, and the condition of the unfortunate women who had no choice but to take to prostitution. 16 Through his weekly journals Young India and Harijan, Gandhiji relentlessly devoted himself to the cause of better conditions for the women. He found elements such as child marriage, objections to widow remarriage, lack of womens education, purdah and dowery17 as impediments in the development of a society. Gandhi was against purdah system and asked a relevant question: Why do our women not enjoy the same freedom that men do? Why should they not be able to walk out and have fresh air? 18 Against the then plight of woman, he said in 1927 that the humanity would not progress until women are caged and confined in their houses and little courtyards 19 When Gandhi was reported about an incident of misbehaviour towards a female student, he wrote: I invite (you) to invite a
(servant) of deva (God), i.e. servant of God. In this system upon the death of the husband the widow would go to the temple and through a ritual would be married to God. She works in the temple and is covertly subjected to the lust of the priest of the temple. (c) In the Sati system, after the death of her husband, the wife burns herself alive along with the funeral pyre of the dead body of the husband. The Governors general Lord William Bentinck (1828-35) and Raja Ram Mohan Roy worked tirelessly to stop this evil system. 16 Anima Bose, Mahatma Gandhi, A contemporary Perspective, Op.Cit, P.85. 17 It is a social system which exist even in the modern India in its most cruel form. In this system, parents of bridegroom ask for money from the parents of the bride for getting her married. This system creates so many problems and often creates discord in the family and causes even death of the bride. 18 Young India, February 3, 1927. 19 Young India, March 24, 1927.

crusade against the rude behaviour of students. God helps only those who help themselves.20

Gandhis attitude towards women is an attitude of a true Satyagrahi. As Satyagraha consists of truth and nonviolence, it cannot but be a just principle in which there is a place for bias. Any kind of bias on the basis of sex, caste, religion or region falls into either of these categories of violence: violence of thought, violence of action or violence of language. Hence it is to be discarded by a Satyagrahi. Gandhi realized the gender inequality and the need for womens empowerment. He writes the following in Young India: Of all the evils for which man has made himself responsible, none is so degrading, so shocking or so brutal as this abuse of the better half of humanity to me, the female sex, not a weaker sex.21 Gandhi admits that he enjoyed true relationship with his wife Kasturba only when he decided to treat her (Kasturba) differently than he used to do, restored to her all her rights. 22 He believed that men and women are one in their inner structure. He says: the soul in both is the same. The two live the same life, have the same feelings.23 Women--- is gifted with equal mental capacities. She has the right to participate in minutest detail in the activities of man, and she has the same right freedom and liberty as he.24 In 1947, while meeting a group of American women, he reiterated the same faith in womans ability: You have got freedom. You can become a power for peace---(if you) apply your minds to the science of non-violence..God has vouchsafed to women the power of non-violence more than to man..Women are the
20 21

Harijan February 4, 1939. Young India, September 15, 1921. 22 Ibid. 23 Harijan, February 24, 1940. 24 M.K. Gandhi, Woman and Social Injustice, p.4 5. Quoted in Anima Bose, Op.Cit, p.78.

natural messengers of the gospel of nonviolence if only they will realize their high estate.25 The question naturally arises as how women are better than men in performing non-violence? In order to find answer to this question one would recall an event of Satyagraha. Gandhiji called a conference of women at Dandi on April 13, 1930. The conference resolved that women that have been assembled would picket liquor and toddy shops of Gujrat and convince people not to go to these shops. Such a resolution by a woman conglomeration was very significant as it assured Gandhiji about womens participation in Satyagraha. The picketing of liquor shops and foreign cloth shops by male volunteers of Satyagraha had resulted into violence and that is why it didnt succeed completely. To succeed such an act Satyagraha it has to be peaceful till the end. To be peaceful, Gandhi writes: it must never be a matter of coercion but conversion, moral suasion. Who can make a more effective appeal to the heart than woman? 26 About his realization of the woman power, Gandhiji says: I have nursed this thought now for years. When the woman of the Ashram (Office of the Satyagraha) insisted on being taken along with men something within me told me that they were destined to do greater work in this struggle than merely breaking salt laws.27 Gandhiji was also admired my women in general and those women who were his co-workers in particular. Anima Bose says, His letters to maniben, Miraben, Amrit Kaur and the Ashram sisters amply prove the dedication and loyalty and effective work that they offered totally and unstintingly to the leader who was their Bapu.28

25
26

Pyarelal: Mahatma Gandhi, the Last Phase, Vol. II, In Conversation, p. 103. M.K.Gandhi, Satyagraha, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad, 1951, p.325. 27 Ibid. 28 Anima Bose, Op. Cit, p. 91.

To put this section in brief: Gandhis principal of Satyagraha aims at changing the conscience of the opponent. Gandhi employed this in South Africa and thereafter in India against the British-Indian government. It is a concept which imbibes truth, non-violence, morality, religion, womens equality and other thoughts of Gandhiji.

Sarvodaya, Gandhi and Vinoba Bhave:

The term Sarvodaya literally consists of sarva and udaya which stands for uplift of all. The genesis of the concept and practice of Sarvodaya in the form of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (universal family) can be traced to Vedas and other ancient scriptures of all cultures, i.e as a humanistic viewpoint Sarvodaya is as old as human civilization itself. According to Gandhiji, Sarvodaya is a paraphrase to John Ruskins book Unto This Last. The ideology of Sarvodaya was applied to human life conditions by Gandhis followers Acharya Vinoba Bhave and later Jai Prakash Narayan, with the help of many movements such as Bhoodan,Gramdan, Sampattidan, Jeevandan, Shramdan etc. The ideology basically concentrates on the uplift of humanity irrespective of class, caste or gender. It is not the uplift of economically poor only but it emphasizes on the removal of all kinds of weaknesses such as economic, moral or spiritual. It is: a new thought. It avows the indivisible unity of life. It refuses to divide life into water-tight compartments. It does not split life into opposite categories life individual versus society, society versus state, national versus international, secular versus religious, individual salvation versus social progress. These divisions are unreal and mischievous. They have

created the present chaos. There is one law and one way which is universally valid. What is good for individual is good for society. There is no real conflict of interests. Wellbeing is indivisible.29 Not to mention that such a unity of mankind could only be obtained through internal or spiritual level as apparently we confront with diversity and atomism. The attitude of Sarvodaya resembles that of Sthitprajna of BhagvadGita30 and Bodhisattva of Mahayana Buddhism,31 i.e. an attitude which imbibes a sense of empathy for all beings. Thus, the essence of Sarvodaya is that we should prepare to make sacrifices for the good of others, and external suffering involved in it should give us inner satisfaction. Externally we should suffer but internally we would be happy.32 In brief, following features of Sarvodaya could be gleaned from its various applications:33 (a) It is an all-pervasive ideology and could be seen as entailing at least some features of other ideologies as well. (b) Sarvodaya is a philosophy of life: social, economic, political and ethical. (c) Sarvodaya is not a reaction to any ism. Although it originated in India, it is applicable worldwide, in different forms. (d) It does not differentiate between oneself and other beings. In it all the conflicts, inner and outer merge into one.
29 30

Vishwanath Tandon, Selections from Vinoba, Sarva Seva Sangh Prakashan, Varanasi, 1981, pp. 103-4. Sthitprajna (sthita + prajna: a person who has achieved unflickering state of mind), a pivotal notion of Bhagvad Gita, describes a human being who has realized the Ultimate Reality and hence does his mind not vacillate in the vagaries of life. Such a realized person lives like a Jivan Mukta of Advaita Vedanta and acts for the welfare of Loksamgrah, i.e. welfare of all beings. 31 Like Gitas notion of Sthitaprajna, Bodhisattva of Mahayan Buddhism is a person who has attained Nirvan and he imbibes attributes of Matri (friendliness), Karuna (compassion), Mudita (happiness) and Upesksa (indifference towards his own welfare). 32 Vishvanath Tandon, Op.Cit., p. 105. 33 Ibid., pp. 105-7.

(e) Sarvodaya is a peaceful revolution and hence negates the common belief that revolution and peace are contradictory. It does not endorse the view that the cause of peace is war and the cause of war is peace, and believes in all the forms of nonviolence (Ahimsa) physical, mental and linguistic. (f) It believes in: (1) manual labour and is not against a certain kind of industrialization and science, (2) end of private ownership of land, (3) Nai Talim (new education) for all children of a village, and (4) classless and casteless society). (g) Sarvodaya accepts the scope of change in its ideology, taking into account the prevailing condition of the society. The above described features of Sarvodaya bring it closer to Marxism and Socialism. However, the fact is that Marxists of India did not accept Sarvodaya. rather they described it to be the then Indian Governments propaganda. Nonetheless, it is not opposed to even Marxism as it endorses disappearance of the state, government of persons to be replaced by the government of things, abolitions of exploitation man by another man, and the principle from each according to his capacity to each according to his needs. But, as opposed to the Marxist views on social transformation through classwar and establishment of the rule of proletariat in the place of Bourgeousie, Sarvodaya maintains that irrespective of his class the change should begin at the level of individual itself. Further, as opposed to Marxism, Gandhi emphasized on the piousness of means and ends both. Sarvodaya does not endorse Marxist view that goodness of end justifies means.

Let us now consider various stages through which the movement of Sarvodaya gained momentum in the independent India. After Gandhis demise his followers met at Sevagram and the Sarvodaya Samaj (a brotherhood for the upliftment and welfare of one and all) came into existence in the year 1948. It was decided that annual conferences of Sarvodaya movement would be held in various parts of India. The first such conference was held at Indore in 1949. First three years of Sarvodaya movement spent in searching its route in the context on new situation obtained after independence. The first practical application of Savodaya occurred in the form of Bhudan Yajna (donation of land) Telengana district of Andhra Pradesh in 1951. The third annual conference of Sarvodaya movement was held at Sevapuri (1952), which later proved to be the foundation stone of the movement, and it declared: the Sarvodaya Samaj aims at the establishment, on the basis of truth and non-violence, of a classless and casteless society in which there is no exploitation and everybody gets full opportunity for individual growth and development.34 It was observed by the Sarvodaya Samaj that the main obstacle of the objective had been the rampant economic inequality in the country. To tackle this problem Vinoba formally launched the Bhoodan Yajna movement which had already initiated in Andra Pradhesh. The basis of the movement was Gandhian tenet Sabai Bhumi Gopal Ki(all land belong to God) the land does not belong to any particular individual but to God, i.e., society in common. It was decided at Bodh Gaya conference of Sarvodaya (1954) that Bhoodan Yajna alone was not sufficient to achieve the ideal state of Sarvodaya society. Insufficient amount of land donated under the Yajna was not enough for the upliftment of the poor peasants. Therefore it was decided at this conference that Sadhan Dan or gift of
34

Suresh Ram, Vinoba and his Mission, Akhil Bharat Sarva Seva Sangh, Kashi, India, 1954, p. 487.

subsidiary means of production is necessary for the rehabilitation of the landless peasants. Thus it was decided that the natural corollary of Bhoodan is Sampattidan Yajna or donation of property, which aimed at the evolution of such society in which means of production such as land does not remain in one hand, rather they belong to the community in common. It emphasized its earlier resolution that any individual possessing property is not its owner but is a trustee of the society. It is to be pointed out here that it reflects Gandhis idea of Trustiship to make a trust of entire agricultural land. In the scheme of trustiship, no one would be left with private land and everybody would get food from the trust as per the need. Sarvodaya conference (1959) decided that the establishment of peace through non-violent means is necessary for the establishment of Gram Swaraj (Village Rule). In order to achieve this, a programme of Shanti Sena (peace brigade) was launched. It is obvious from its programmes that Sarvodaya movement emphasized on bringing change in the inner structure of the society, i.e it emphasized on reforming individual to bring about a reform in the system. A critique of Sarvodaya movement is that it should not have taken donation of lands from small farmers. The critic says that there was no reason to take donation of land from a small farmer and thus turn them into a landless specially when the motive of the movement was to empower landless peasantry. In his reply to such a critique, Vinoba says: how can we induce the rich to give land?. When thousands of people give dan (donation), then this will exert a moral influence on the rich.35 Moreover, Sarvodaya did not emphasise that all should donate everything, it rather asked for one sixth of their land from a middle class peasant and everything from a big landlord except leaving for him
35

Vinoba Bhave, Crossroads, Nov. 2, 1952.

what is needed for his subsistence. As regards the relevance of Sarvodaya movement in the contemporary state of affairs, it can be evaluated in the context of certain problems of the modern world. Various social problems such as exploitation of workers and peasants by the owners of industries and farms, unemployment, consumerism and the like could be tackled with Sarvodaya. The horizon of Sarvodaya is so vast that it envisages complete life situation in its subject matter. It is a term, pregnant with so much meaning that the more we ponder on it and practice it, the more meaning we discover in it. 36 Vinoba had complete faith in the efficacy of Sarvodaya. He admonishes: I have not the least doubt that the world will either have to accept Sarvodaya or annihilation. There is no third alternative, and it is certain that in this age of science the world will accept Sarvodaya. It may take time, but that is beside the point.37 Notwithstanding the above pronouncements the fact is that at present Sarvodaya movement has lost its lustre which it contained at the time of its genesis, and it is a dying movement. One of the reasons of setback to the noble movement of Sarvodaya is that it now lacks inexorable guidance of such avid followers of Gandhi as Vinoba. However, the success of Sarvodaya should not so much be judged on the basis of its achievement of the external targets. This movement opened out new avenues of non-violent action for the development of Lok-Shakti or the peoples strength as a result of which a ground has been prepared for the transition from the centralized Swaraj (Self-rule) to the decentralized Gram Swaraj (village self-rule). Recently, reconstruction of Panchayati Raj (local government) institutions which were brought through seventy first and seventy second amendments in the Indian constitution actually show that Indians are again going
36 37

Vinoba Bhave, Quoted in Vishwanath Tandon, Op. Cit., p. 104. Ibid., p. 108.

back towards Sarvodaya ideology. To put this section in brief: the idea of Sarvodaya aims at the welfare of all human beings and it was organized as a movement by Vinoba Bhave, a staunch follower of Gandhi after the independence of India.

Conclusion:

Satyagraha and Sarvodaya represent Gandhis way of thinking, living and devoting oneself to the social cause. They are not only two principles of Gandhiji, in fact they imbibe each and every element of Gandhian ideology. That is to say that Gandhijis various thoughts could be found in these two principles. Satyagraha is basically a philosophy of action which aims at changing the conscience of the opponent so as to make him ally and friend. There are multiple aspects of Satyagraha. It is an umbrella concept in Gandhis thought and action. It consists of Gandhis thoughts on truth, nonviolence, morality, religion, and his attitude towards woman. Gandhiji resorted this for the first time in the South Africa and then during Indias freedom struggle as a nonviolent movement. He did not use Satyagraha only as a political instrument to motivate the British Government to be sympathetic to the public and ultimately to achieve independence, but he used this also as a weapon to eradicate evil customs prevalent in the society. Gandhiji paraphrased John Ruskins book Unto This Last as Sarvodaya, and his follower Vinoba alongwith others put this into practice through various movements. Sarvodaya aims at the welfare of all human beings and in certain respects it is different from Marxism and at the same time imbibes elements of various other ideologies. The

movement of Sarvodaya began after the demise of Gandhi in 1948. Although the movement, which was socialistic in its content, could not succeed in achieving its objective, current changes in the pattern of Indian local government and decentralization of power could be traced to the ideology of Sarvodaya. It appears on the surface that Gandhis principles of Satyagraha and Sarvodaya belong to different domains. Whereas Satyagraha was employed for political and social purposes, the purpose of Sarvodaya was to eradicate economic disparity among Indians. Moreover, on the one hand Satyagraha was resorted during Indias freedom struggle, on the other, the ideology of Sarvodaya could see the day of practical application only after India achieved its freedom. Notwithstanding this, both these concepts are complementary to each other. The essence of Sarvodaya is Satyagraha as change in the behaviour of the rich could occur only when in his conscience he feels empathy for the poor or daridranarayan (God in the form of an economically poor human being) as Gandhiji used to mention. Thus, Satyagraha is the basis of Sarvodaya as without an appeal through Satyagraha, Sarvodaya cannot get implemented.
Kali Charan Pandey Lecturer in Philosophy Government College, Dharmshala, Himachal Pradesh, India-176215 Ph. 01892-227120