Maharashtra SSC Sarvodaya Vichar Grade flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Satyagraha

Gandhi's method of truth-force: resisting injustice through non-violent civil disobedience and voluntary self-suffering, without hatred or coercion of the opponent.

Ahimsa

Non-injury in thought, word, and deed. Gandhi treated it as active love and courage, not passive abstention from violence.

Salt March 1930

Gandhi's roughly 240-mile walk from Sabarmati to Dandi from 12 March to 6 April 1930, breaking the salt law to launch civil disobedience.

Swaraj

Self-rule. For Gandhi it meant individual self-control and village self-government, not merely the transfer of power to Indian elites.

Champaran Satyagraha

Gandhi's 1917 campaign in Bihar on behalf of indigo cultivators against oppressive tinkathia planting obligations; his first Indian satyagraha.

Vinoba Bhave

Born 11 September 1895 in Gagode, Maharashtra; Gandhi's foremost disciple, founder of Bhoodan, and first individual satyagrahi in 1940.

Pochampalli

Village in Nalgonda district, Telangana, where Vinoba began the Bhoodan land-gift movement in April 1951 after landless families asked for land.

Gitai

Vinoba Bhave's Marathi commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, written in Dhulia jail in 1932 and later published as a verse translation.

Brahma Vidya Mandir

Vinoba's community at Paunar Ashram, founded in 1959, dedicated to self-sufficiency, prayer, and study of the Gita.

Padayatra

Vinoba's walking campaign across India for Bhoodan, lasting about thirteen years, during which he collected voluntary land gifts village by village.

Sarvodaya

Welfare or uplift of all. Gandhi used the term for his 1908 Gujarati paraphrase of Ruskin's 'Unto This Last'.

Antyodaya

Uplift of the last and poorest person. In sarvodaya planning, priority is judged by benefit to the most marginalised.

Trusteeship

Gandhi's doctrine that owners hold surplus wealth as trustees for society, using it for public welfare rather than private consumption.

Gram Swaraj

Village self-rule: a decentralised, non-violent order in which the village community manages its own affairs and economy.

Ruskin's Three Lessons

Gandhi's summary: the good of the individual lies in the good of all; all honest occupations are equal; a life of labour is worth living.

Bhoodan

Voluntary gift of land, begun in 1951, redistributed without compensation to landless and Dalit families by the Sarvodaya movement.

Gramdan

Gift of a whole village: land is vested in the village assembly and cultivators hold use rights, an advanced stage beyond Bhoodan.

Bhoodan Yagna Act

State legislation, notably in Bihar, giving legal machinery to collect and distribute land donated under the Bhoodan movement.

Land Gift Limits

Bhoodan pledges often involved barren or disputed land, and distribution lagged far behind donations, weakening the movement's practical impact.

Nai Talim

Gandhi's craft-centred basic education, adopted at Wardha in 1937, using mother-tongue instruction and productive work to make schooling self-financing.

Harijan Sevak Sangh

Organisation founded in 1932 to fight untouchability and open temples, wells, and schools to Dalits; Gandhi edited its journal 'Harijan'.

Poona Pact 1932

Agreement between Gandhi and Ambedkar replacing separate electorates for Depressed Classes with reserved seats in joint electorates.

Constructive Programme

Gandhi's 18-point grassroots agenda, including communal unity, khadi, sanitation, and removal of untouchability, offered as an alternative to party politics.

Charkha

The spinning wheel, symbol of swadeshi and self-reliance, promoted by Gandhi and placed on the Congress flag as an economic programme.

Passive Resistance

A weapon of the weak, in Gandhi's view, because it may rely on pressure; satyagraha instead demands courage, discipline, and moral appeal.

Civil Disobedience

Open, non-violent breach of unjust laws with willingness to accept punishment, used to convert the opponent through moral pressure.

Gandhi's Fasts

Self-purification undertaken to change hearts, as in the 1932 fast against separate electorates and the 1947-48 fasts for communal peace.

Noakhali Mission

Gandhi's 1946-47 peace mission to riot-torn Noakhali, Bengal, where he walked village to village to restore communal harmony through satyagraha.

Jyotirao Phule

Maharashtra reformer (1827-1890) who founded Satyashodhak Samaj in 1873, wrote 'Gulamgiri', and opened schools for girls and Shudras.

B. R. Ambedkar

Dalit leader and jurist (1891-1956) who led the Mahad satyagraha in 1927, championed separate electorates, and chaired the Constitution's Drafting Committee.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy

Bengal reformer (1772-1833) who founded Brahmo Sabha in 1828 and campaigned against sati, banned in 1829 under William Bentinck.

Sarvodaya Today

Its relevance appears in panchayati raj, antyodaya targeting, environmental limits on greed, and voluntary land reform debates in contemporary India.