SOURCE: "The Theory and Practice of Sarnodaya," in The Meanings of Gandhi, edited by Paul F. Power, The University Press of Hawaii, 1971, pp. 79-89.

In the following excerpt, Bose discusses the development of Gandhi's principle of Sarvodaya and its continuing application in Indian society.

It was in South Africa that Gandhi first read Ruskin's Unto This Last. The book led to an immediate transformation in his way of life. Later he prepared a paraphrase of the book in Gujarati and published it in Indian Opinion which he had founded in South Africa to help the cause of satyagraha. The Gujarati version bore the title of "Sarvodaya." Literally, the word means "the welfare of all" in contrast to the concept of "the greatest good of the greatest number." To bring out the distinction clearly, Gandhi wrote in 1926:

A votary of ahimsa cannot subscribe to the utilitarian formula. He will...