Sarvodaya Movement

The term for the social movement called Sarvodaya is a compound, formed from two Sanskrit words, meaning the uplift (udaya) of all (sarva). The term was first used by Mahatma Gandhi and later taken up by reform movements in India and Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan movement, Sarvodaya Shramadana, has developed a broad international reputation in recent years.

The term Sarvodaya was coined and popularized by Mahatma Gandhi in his 1908 translation of John Ruskin's critique of the Industrial Revolution, Unto This Last of 1860. Gandhi translated the work using the title Sarvodaya, a term that he felt Indian readers would associate with the spirit of the text: a call for political, moral, and economic development from the ground up, focusing especially on the uplift of ...