Sarvodaya Simplified
B. Vivekanandan
SARVODAYA: THE OTHER DEVELOPMENT by Detlef Kantowsky Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1981, 228 pp., 75.00
Jan-Feb 1981, volume 5, No 1/2

‘SARVODAYA’ movement launched by Mahatma Gandhi and pursued by others like Vinoba Bhave and Jayaprakash Narayan in India, and A.T. Aryartne in Sri Lanka, has attracted the attention of scholars an over the world. The move­ment, which is aimed at development without dehumanization, is a challenge to the modern urban-industrial culture devoid of humane approach.

Sarvodaya has underlined the fact that material well being of man alone can hardly bring him happiness since the ‘economic man’ alienates himself from the social affection and from the society as well. Therefore, as Jayaprakash Narayan once said, ‘the cities have become great human forests’ with econo­mic and social relationship ‘utterly im­personal’ and created a new civilization which turned even neighbours into stran­gers. Moreover, according to him, ‘In a material civilization man has no rational incentive to be good’. However, Sarvo­daya is emphatic that in pursuit of deve­lopment if the rules of morality are broken, happiness and contentment can never be achieved.

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