Swaraj and Sarvodaya; Lok-Samgraha Compared with Utilitarianism
RAS Mains, Paper II, Unit I, point 5: "Gandhian ethics" (the Lok-Samgraha side touches the Gita point; see page 4.4; the Utilitarian side is on page 6.4)
- Updated for the Jan 2026 syllabus
- Read time: about 12 minutes
Exam weight (our count from the real 2018-2024 papers)
2 questions: 2023 Part B Q9 (5 marks, "What according to Gandhi is the ideal of Swaraj?") and 2024 Part C Q12 (10 marks, "Present a comparative evaluation of Utilitarianism, Sarvodaya and Lok-Samgraha as an inspiration for administration"). Together with means and ends (2021) and trusteeship (2018), this is the part of Gandhi that has come as 5-mark and 10-mark answers. This is our own count, not RPSC information.
30-second summary
Remember
- Swaraj for Gandhi is self-rule: first rule over oneself, then the capacity of all people to control authority. It is not just the exit of the British.
- "Real Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused."
- Swaraj must be felt by the poorest: "the poor man's Swaraj", an India where "the poorest shall feel that it is their country".
- Sarvodaya means the welfare (rise) of all: Gandhi took the name from his Gujarati rendering of Ruskin's Unto This Last, whose first lesson is that the good of the individual is contained in the good of all.
- Against Utilitarianism ("the greatest good of the greatest number"), Gandhi set "the greatest good of all". Lok-Samgraha (Gita 3.20, 3.25) is the Indian ideal of holding society together for its welfare through duty and example.
Part A box (each line 15 words or fewer)
Remember
- Question (our practice question, not a PYQ): Define Sarvodaya.
- Answer: Sarvodaya means the welfare of all, including the last person, not just the majority. (14 words)
- Ready line 2: Gandhi's Swaraj: self-rule, self-restraint, and the people's capacity to check authority. (11 words)
- Ready line 3: Utilitarianism seeks the greatest good of the greatest number; Gandhi, of all. (12 words)
1. Swaraj: what Gandhi meant
Rule over oneself. "It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves" (Hind Swaraj, 1909, ch. 14). In the final chapter, point 1 of his summary: "Real home-rule is self-rule or self-control" (ch. 20).
Self-restraint, not licence. "The word Swaraj is a sacred word, a Vedic word, meaning self-rule and self-restraint, and not freedom from all restraint which 'independence' often means" (Young India, 19 March 1931, p. 38).
Capacity to control authority. "Real Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of authority by a few, but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be attained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority" (Young India, 29 January 1925, p. 41).
Freedom from dependence. "Self-government means continuous effort to be independent of government control, whether it is foreign government or whether it is national" (Young India, 6 August 1925, p. 276).
Swaraj for the poor. "The Swaraj of my dream is the poor man's Swaraj" (Young India, 26 March 1931, p. 46); and "Swaraj is to be for all... emphatically including the maimed, the blind, the starving, toiling millions" (Young India, 1 May 1930, p. 149).
The India of his dreams. "I shall work for an India in which the poorest shall feel that it is their country, in whose making they have an effective voice; an India in which there shall be no high class and low class of people; an India in which all communities shall live in perfect harmony" (Young India, 10 September 1931, p. 255).
Swaraj has four faces (our summary): personal (self-control), political (people's control over authority), economic (the poor man's Swaraj), moral (non-violent means: "the way to it is passive resistance: that is soul-force or love-force", Hind Swaraj ch. 20).
2. Sarvodaya: welfare of all
Origin of the word. Gandhi read Ruskin's Unto This Last on a train journey to Natal and "translated it later into Gujarati, entitling it Sarvodaya (the welfare of all)". He understood its teachings to be: "1. That the good of the individual is contained in the good of all. 2. That a lawyer's work has the same value as the barber's, in as much as all have the same right of earning their livelihood from their work. 3. That a life of labour, i.e., the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman, is the life worth living" (Autobiography, Part IV, ch. 18).
Unity of man. "I believe in the essential unity of man and, for that matter, of all that lives. Therefore, I believe that if one man gains spiritually, the whole world gains with him and, if one man falls, the whole world falls to that extent" (Young India, 4 December 1924, p. 398).
Last equal to the first. "...a republic of every village in India... in which the last is equal to the first or, in other words, no one is to be the first and none the last" (Harijan, 28 July 1946, p. 236). The same passage pictures society as "oceanic circles", with the outer circle not wielding power to crush the inner but giving strength to it.
After Gandhi. Vinoba Bhave led the Sarvodaya movement; its best-known step was Bhoodan, which began with a landowner's gift at Pochampally, then in Andhra Pradesh, on 18 April 1951 (secondary source: Wikipedia).
3. Utilitarianism and Gandhi
(our comparison; see page 6.4)
Bentham's formula is "everybody to count for one, nobody for more than one"; Mill: "actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness" (Utilitarianism, ch. 2 and 5). The test is the greatest happiness of the greatest number.
Gandhi's reply: "A votary of ahimsa cannot subscribe to the utilitarian formula (of the greatest good of the greatest number). He will strive for the greatest good of all and die in the attempt to realize that ideal... The greatest good of all inevitably includes the good of the greatest number, and therefore, he and the utilitarian will converge in many points in their career but there does come a time when they must part company" (Young India, 9 December 1926).
Mahadev Desai's diary records Gandhi saying of the greatest-number doctrine that it "means in its nakedness that in order to achieve the supposed good of fifty-one per cent, the interest of forty-nine per cent may be, or rather, should be sacrificed. It is a heartless doctrine" (Diary of Mahadev Desai, vol. I, p. 149).
4. Lok-Samgraha
(details on page 4.4)
Gita 3.20: Janaka and others reached perfection through action alone; "you should act, seeing also the lokasamgraha". Gita 3.25: "as the unwise act attached to action, so the wise should act unattached, wishing lokasamgraha" (Mahabharata 6.25.20 and 6.25.25, critical text).
Meaning: holding the world together, public welfare through selfless duty and one's own example.
5. Comparative table: Utilitarianism, Sarvodaya, Lok-Samgraha
(our comparison, for 2024 Part C Q12)
| Test | Utilitarianism | Sarvodaya | Lok-Samgraha |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core idea | Greatest happiness of the greatest number | Welfare of all, the last person included | Sustaining society through duty and example |
| Ground | Consequences (sum of happiness) | Unity of life, ahimsa, equality | Duty done without attachment; example of the wise |
| View of the minority | Can be overridden | Must not be sacrificed | Included, through a sense of duty to all |
| Method | Cost-benefit, policy calculation | Service, self-sacrifice, voluntary change | Conduct, leadership by example |
| Inspiration for administration | Appraisal and prioritising of schemes | Antyodaya (starting from the last person), inclusion | Integrity, public-good motive, leading by example |
| Limits | Can crush a minority; happiness is hard to measure | Hard to measure and to prioritise; depends on voluntary change | Who counts as "the wise"? Risk of idolising authority |
6. The administrator's use
(our application)
Swaraj: make citizens able to check authority: RTI, social audit, gram sabha, public hearings.
Sarvodaya: start every scheme from the last person; ask in each plan "who is left out?"
Utilitarian tool, Sarvodaya limit: use cost-benefit for ranking, but set a floor for rights and the weakest.
Lok-Samgraha: the officer's own conduct teaches the office.
Worked examples (documented, with year)
Panchayati Raj, Nagaur, 1959.
Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the Panchayati Raj system at Nagaur in Rajasthan on 2 October 1959, chosen as Gandhi's birthday; Gandhi had wanted Gram Swaraj through Panchayati Raj, and Rajasthan was the first state to implement it (secondary source: Wikipedia). This is Swaraj in the form of village self-government.
Bhoodan, 1951.
On 18 April 1951 at Pochampally, a landowner donated land to Vinoba Bhave, beginning the Bhoodan movement (secondary source: Wikipedia). A voluntary, non-violent step in Sarvodaya.
Antyodaya Anna Yojana, 2000.
Launched on 25 December 2000 for the poorest of the poor, and first implemented in Rajasthan (secondary source: Wikipedia). The scheme starts from the last person, in the Sarvodaya spirit. Gandhi's own phrase for this idea was "the last" (Harijan, 28 July 1946).
Dandi, 1930.
The Salt March shows Swaraj as the capacity of ordinary people to defy an unjust law non-violently and accept the consequences (secondary source: Wikipedia; compare Hind Swaraj ch. 17 on passive resistance).
How to use in an answer
For Swaraj: self-rule, self-restraint, people's capacity over authority, poor man's Swaraj. For the comparison: define each, table the contrast, pick Sarvodaya as the moral floor and a tool for administrators.
Thinkers and quotes box
| Name | Idea | Usable line |
|---|---|---|
| Mahatma Gandhi | Swaraj as self-rule | "It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves" (Hind Swaraj, ch. 14) |
| Mahatma Gandhi | Capacity to control authority | "the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused" (Young India, 29 January 1925) |
| Mahatma Gandhi | The poorest | "the poorest shall feel that it is their country" (Young India, 10 September 1931) |
| Mahatma Gandhi | Sarvodaya | "the good of the individual is contained in the good of all" (Autobiography, Part IV, ch. 18) |
| Mahatma Gandhi | Against the greatest number | "He will strive for the greatest good of all" (Young India, 9 December 1926) |
| Mahatma Gandhi | Last and first | "no one is to be the first and none the last" (Harijan, 28 July 1946) |
Diagram: concentric rings and a ladder
Self (self-rule, self-restraint)
Left diagram, concentric circles: innermost . Caption: .
Family and village (gram sabha, panchayat)
District and State
Nation
Outer circles give strength to the inner (Harijan, 28.7.1946)
Utilitarianism: greatest number
Right diagram, three columns: . A line below: .
Sarvodaya: greatest good of all
Lok-Samgraha: duty and example
Floor: the last person must not be left out
How the concept was asked before: Swaraj came once (2023 Part B); a comparison of three ideals came once (2024 Part C). The comparison style may return with other pairs (our view; see also page 4.4).
Common mistakes
Remember
- Defining Swaraj as political freedom only; add self-rule, self-restraint and the poor man's Swaraj.
- Writing that Sarvodaya is the same as Utilitarianism; Gandhi explicitly rejected "the greatest number" in favour of "the greatest good of all".
- In the comparison, giving three paragraphs of definitions with no table, no limits and no administrative use.
Self-check (5 questions)
Remember
- Quote one line from Hind Swaraj on Swaraj.
- Where did Gandhi take the word Sarvodaya from?
- How does Gandhi's greatest good of all differ from the utilitarian formula?
- Which Gita verses carry the idea of lokasamgraha?
- Give one administrative practice that expresses Swaraj and one that expresses Sarvodaya.
Mini case study
Illustrative exampleHypothetical case (काल्पनिक केस)
Rohit is a Block Development Officer. The gram panchayat of Karanpur has sent him its annual development plan, which is to be passed by the gram sabha. The sarpanch has drawn up the plan by himself: it includes a new community hall near his own street but nothing for water supply in the remote hamlet of Dhani Roop, whose residents are among the poorest and are mostly absent from gram sabha meetings. The sarpanch says: "The gram sabha will pass it anyway; people are busy with their work."
- Stakeholders
- Rohit, the sarpanch, the people of Dhani Roop (especially women), other villagers, the panchayat secretary, the district administration.
- Issue and clashing values
- the formal approval of a plan against real participation, and the benefit of the majority near the centre against the needs of the poorest. Values: Swaraj (people's control), inclusion, justice, Sarvodaya.
- Three options
- (a) Accept the plan as it is, since the gram sabha will pass it. Pro: quick; no friction with the sarpanch. Con: a paper Swaraj; the poorest remain unheard; water issue continues. (b) Reject the plan and impose his own priorities. Pro: includes Dhani Roop's water. Con: it overrides local self-government, and the sarpanch may resist. (c) Ask the panchayat to hold the gram sabha with prior notice in Dhani Roop (or a ward sabha there), explain the plan in plain words, invite the residents' priorities, add the water supply with costing, and record attendance of women and the poor; the plan then goes to the gram sabha for decision. Pro: self-rule and inclusion together. Con: delay and effort.
- Best option and supporting value
- option (c). Values: Swaraj as people's capacity to control authority, Sarvodaya (last person first), constitutional participation, patience.
Lesson
Action: Short term: conduct a ward sabha at Dhani Roop with a notice; revise the plan with the community's priorities; guide, do not dictate. Long term: publish the plan and budget on a wall in the hamlet; schedule the gram sabha in the evening; train members in social audit; monitor attendance of women and weaker groups.
Practice Questions
Practice questionabout 50 words
"What according to Gandhi is the ideal of Swaraj?"
Model answer
For Gandhi, Swaraj is self-rule, "when we learn to rule ourselves" (Hind Swaraj), joined with self-restraint, not licence. Real Swaraj is the capacity of all people to resist and control authority when it is abused. It must be the poor man's Swaraj, reached by non-violent means, and must be felt by the poorest.
Practice questionabout 100 words
"Present a comparative evaluation of Utilitarianism, Sarvodaya and Lok-Samgraha as an inspiration for administration."
Model answer
Utilitarianism seeks the greatest happiness of the greatest number; it suits cost-benefit appraisal of schemes but may sacrifice a minority. Gandhi rejected this formula: his Sarvodaya seeks "the greatest good of all", beginning from the last person, so it sets a moral floor for welfare schemes and for inclusion. Lok-Samgraha (Gita 3.20, 3.25) asks the officer to act without attachment for public welfare and to teach by example. Their limits: happiness is hard to measure, Sarvodaya depends on voluntary change, and Lok-Samgraha may idolise authority. A sound administrator uses utilitarian tools for ranking, Sarvodaya for inclusion and Lok-Samgraha for conduct.
Real PYQs
2023Paper II, Part B, Q95 marks
What according to Gandhi is the ideal of Swaraj?
2024Paper II, Part C, Q1210 marks
Present a comparative evaluation of Utilitarianism, Sarvodaya and Lok-Samgraha as an inspiration for administration. (Spelling "Lok-Samgraha" is kept as in the paper.)
How to Write This Answer
Introduction
three ideals, one aim: welfare
Body
- each ideal in two lines, the table of contrast, administrative use
Conclusion
use together: tool, floor, conduct
Value addition
- Young India 9-12-1926, Autobiography IV.18, Gita 3.20 and 3.25, Antyodaya Anna Yojana
One-page Revision
- Swaraj = self-rule, self-restraint (HS ch. 14, 20; YI 19.3.1931)
- capacity of all to resist authority (YI 29.1.1925)
- poor man's Swaraj (YI 26.3.1931)
- India of my dreams (YI 10.9.1931)
- Sarvodaya from Unto This Last (Autobiography IV.18), 3 lessons
- unity of man (YI 4.12.1924)
- last equal to first, oceanic circles (Harijan 28.7.1946)
- "greatest good of all" vs greatest number (YI 9.12.1926; Mahadev Desai diary I p.149)
- Lok-Samgraha Gita 3.20, 3.25
- Utilitarian tool, Sarvodaya floor, Lok-Samgraha conduct
- Nagaur 2.10.1959 (secondary)
- Bhoodan 18.4.1951 (secondary)
- Antyodaya Anna Yojana 25.12.2000 (secondary)
- Case: BDO Rohit, Dhani Roop left out of the gram sabha plan, option (c) ward sabha plus inclusion.