Document <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <?xml-model href="http://www.tei-c.org/release/xml/tei/custom/schema/relaxng/tei_all.rng" type="application/xml" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" href="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LEAF-VRE/code_snippets/refs/heads/main/CSS/leaf.css"?> <TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0" xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"> <teiHeader> <fileDesc> <titleStmt> <!-- The title, author, and/or editor here should identify the original document that you are encoding. If you don't have information for one of these, or if you have multiple individuals, you can repeat the particular element--> <title>Sarvodaya VIII</title> <author>Gandhi</author> </titleStmt> <!-- I'm still trying to figure out the best way to present the project information, but will add that asap --> <publicationStmt> <authority>Karline McLain</authority> <date>2026</date> <availability> <!-- --> <licence/> </availability> </publicationStmt> <sourceDesc> <p>Born digital edition</p> </sourceDesc> </fileDesc> <xenoData><rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#" xmlns:rdfs="http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#" xmlns:as="http://www.w3.org/ns/activitystreams#" xmlns:cwrc="http://sparql.cwrc.ca/ontologies/cwrc#" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:dcterms="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/" xmlns:geo="http://www.geonames.org/ontology#" xmlns:oa="http://www.w3.org/ns/oa#" xmlns:schema="http://schema.org/" 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"@id": "https://leaf.bucknell.edu", "@type": "as:Application", "rdfs:label": "LEAF-Writer", "schema:softwareVersion": "4.1.0" }, "oa:hasSelector": { "@id": "https://leaf.bucknell.edu/sites/default/files/2026-05/sarvodaya-viii.xml?note_annotation_20260512144309934#Selector", "@type": "oa:XPathSelector", "rdf:value": "TEI/text/body/div/head/note" } }, "oa:hasBody": { "@type": "cwrc:NoteScholarly", "dc:format": "text/plain", "rdf:value": "This is the eighth in a series of essays that Gandhi published in his weekly newspaper Indian Opinion wherein he provided a paraphrase of John Ruskin's essay \"Unto This Last.\" This essay was foundational to Gandhi's decision to found his first community, Phoenix Settlement, and to his philosophy of universal wellbeing (sarvodaya)." }, "as:generator": { "@id": "https://leaf.bucknell.edu", "@type": "as:Application", "rdfs:label": "LEAF-Writer", "schema:url": "https://leaf-writer.lincsproject.ca/", "schema:softwareVersion": "4.1.0" } }]]> 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See \"Sarvodaya IX\" for the next (and last) installation." }, "as:generator": { "@id": "https://leaf.bucknell.edu", "@type": "as:Application", "rdfs:label": "LEAF-Writer", "schema:url": "https://leaf-writer.lincsproject.ca/", "schema:softwareVersion": "4.1.0" } }]]> </rdf:Description> </rdf:RDF></xenoData></teiHeader> <text> <body> <!-- You can give an element an attribute – think of it like an adjective for the element as a noun --> <div type="essay"> <head>Sarvodaya VIII<note type="scholarNote">This is the eighth in a series of essays that Gandhi published in his weekly newspaper Indian Opinion wherein he provided a paraphrase of John Ruskin's essay "Unto This Last." This essay was foundational to Gandhi's decision to found his first community, Phoenix Settlement, and to his philosophy of universal wellbeing (sarvodaya).</note></head> <dateline> <title>Indian Opinion</title> <docDate>July 4, 1908</docDate> </dateline> <div> <head>Even-Handed Justice [continued]</head> <p>Wealth is like a river. A river always flows towards the sea, that is, down an incline. So, as a general rule must wealth go where it is needed. But the flow of wealth, like the course of a river, can be regulated. Most of the rivers run out their courses unregulated, their marshy banks poisoning the wind. If dams are built across these rivers to direct the water flow as required, they will irrigate the soil and keep the atmosphere pure. Similarly the uncontrolled use of wealth will multiply vices among men and cause starvation; in brief, such wealth will act like a poison. But the selfsame wealth, if its circulation is regulated and its use controlled, can, like a river whose stream has been properly harnessed, promote prosperity.</p> <p>The principle of regulating the circulation of wealth is ignored altogether by economists. Theirs is merely the science of getting rich. But there are many different ways of getting rich. There was a time in Europe when people sought to acquire wealth by poisoning owners of large estates and appropriating their possessions. Nowadays, merchants adulterate the food sold to the poor, for example, milk with borax, wheat flour with potato flour, coffee with chicory, butter with fat and so on. This is on the same level as getting rich by poisoning others. Can we call this either an art or a science of getting rich?</p> <p>Let us not, however, assume that by “getting rich” economists merely mean “getting rich by robbing others.” They should point out that theirs is a science of getting rich by legal or just means. It happens these days that many things which are legal are not just. The only right way, therefore, to acquire wealth is to do so justly. And if this is true, we must know what is just. It is not enough to live by the laws of demand and supply. Fish, wolves and rats subsist in that manner. Bigger fish prey on smaller ones, rats swallow insects and wolves devour even human beings. That for them is the law of nature; they know no better. But God has endowed man with understanding, with a sense of justice. He must follow these and not think of growing rich by devouring others – by cheating others and reducing them to beggary.</p> <p>Let us examine what then the laws of justice regarding payment of labor are.</p> <p>As we stated earlier, a just wage for a worker will be that which will secure him the same labor, when he needs it, as he has put in for us today. If we give him a lower wage, he will be underpaid, and if more, overpaid.</p> <p>Suppose a man wants to engage a worker. Two persons offer their services. If that man who offers to accept a lower wage is engaged, he will be underpaid. If there is a large number of employers and only one worker, he will get his own terms and will very likely be overpaid. The just wage lies between these two points.</p> <p>If someone lends me money which I have to repay after a time, I shall pay him interest. Similarly, if someone gives me his labor today, I must return him an identical quantity of labor and something more by way of interest. If someone gives me an hour of labor today, I should promise to give him an hour and five minutes or more. This is true of every kind of worker.</p> <p>If, now, of two men who offer me their services, I engage the one who accepts the lower wage, the result will be that he will be half-starved while the other man will remain unemployed. Even otherwise, if I pay full wages to the workman whom I employ, the other man will be unemployed. But the former will not starve, and I shall have made just use of my money. Starvation really occurs only when the due wages are not paid. If I pay due wages, surplus wealth will not accumulate in my hands. I shall not waste money on luxuries and add to the poverty. The workman whom I pay justly will in turn learn to pay others justly. Thus the stream of justice will not dry up; instead it will gather speed as it flows. And the nation which has such a sense of justice will grow happy and prosper in the right direction.</p> <p>According to this line of reasoning, economists are found to be wrong. They argue that increased competition means growing prosperity for a nation. This is not true in fact. Competition is desired because it reduces the rate of wages. The rich become richer thereby and the poor poorer. Such competition is likely to ruin a nation in the long run. The right law of demand and supply should ensure the payment of a just wage to a workman according to his worth. This, too, will mean competition, but the result will be that people will be happy and skillful, for, instead of being obliged to underbid one another, they will have to acquire new skills to secure employment. It is for this reason that men are drawn to government service. There, salaries are fixed according to the gradation of posts. The competition is only with regard to ability. A candidate does not offer to accept a lower salary but claims that he is abler than others. The same is the case with the Army and the Navy, and that is why there is much less corruption in these services. But only in trade and commerce is there unhealthy competition, as a result of which corrupt practices, such as fraud, chicanery, theft, have increased. Furthermore, goods of poor quality are manufactured. The manufacturer wants a lion’s share of the price for himself, the workman to throw dust in the eyes of others and the consumer to exploit the situation to his own advantage. This poisons all human intercourse, there is starvation all round, strikes multiply, manufacturers become rogues and consumers disregard ethical considerations. One injustice leads to numerous others, and in the end the employer, the operative and the customer are all unhappy and meet with ruin. A people among whom these corrupt practices prevail comes to grief in the end. Its very wealth acts like a poison.</p> <p>This is why men of wisdom have held that where Mammon is God, no one worships the true God. Wealth cannot be reconciled with God. God lives only in the homes of the poor. This is what the British profess, but in practice they place wealth above everything else, estimate the prosperity of the nation by the number of its rich, and their economists formulate precepts for everyone to get rich quickly. True economics is the economics of justice. That people alone will be happy which learns how to do justice and be righteous under all conditions of life. All else is vain, a kind of moral perversity that presages doom. To teach the people to get rich at any cost is to teach them an evil lesson.<note type="scholarNote">Gandhi continued his paraphrase of Ruskin's "Unto This Last" in his weekly newspaper. See "Sarvodaya IX" for the next (and last) installation.</note></p> </div> </div> </body> </text> </TEI>
