________________
India whereas Acharya Tulsi's purpose was the regeneration of humans on spiritual
ethical grounds.
The Sarvodaya Shramdana Movement
A. T. Ariyaratne, a Buddhist layman, launched the Sarvodaya Shramdana
Movement in Sri Lanka in 1958. He notes: "We in Sri Lanka were inspired by this
Sarvodaya thought of Gandhi and the Bhoodan-Gramdan action of Acharya Vinoba
Bhave. "52 In forming the ideology of the movement, Ariyaratne believed that the
Buddhist Dhamma teachings would provide a blueprint for a new social order and a
nonviolent revolution. Interestingly, he redefined Gandhi's Sarvodaya "Welfare of All"
as “Awakening of All."54 As noted by a human development theorist Dennis Goulet:
"Sarvodaya reinterprets the Middle Path for the technological age.”55 Goulet's assessment
implies that Ariyaratne adopted appropriate technology in his developmental projects
while remaining true to his Buddhist tradition.
The Chipko Movement
By 1970, the Chipko Movement, which had a great impact in Northern India, was
led by two followers of Gandhi - Sunderlal Bhauguna and Chandi Prasad Bhatt.
"Chipko," loosely translates as hug, was a movement that originated in the Indian
52 Ē TĪ Āriyaratna, Buddhism and Sarvodaya: Sri Lankan Experience, Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series no. 168 (Delhi, India: Sri Satguru Publications, 1996), 3.
53 George D. Bond, Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Re-Interpretation and Responses (Motilal Banarsidass Publ., 1992), 243.
54 George Doherty Bond, Buddhism at Work: Community Development, Social Empowerment and the Sarvodaya Movement (Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2004), 2.
5 Denis Goulet, Survival With Integrity: Sarvodaya at the Crossroads (Marga Institute in association with Overseas, 1981), xviii.
29
