How to John Ruskin's "Unto the Last" inspired Mahatma Gandhi

How to John Ruskin's "Unto the Last" inspired Mahatma Gandhi presented by Ridhhi Bhatt

1. Presented by : Bhatt Riddhiben D. [email protected] Sem : 1 Roll No. : 16 PG Year : 2020-2021 PG Enrolment No. : 3069206420200004 How John Ruskin's 'Unto This Last' inspired Mahatma Gandhi?

2. Key Objectives Who is John Ruskin? Words of Ruskin Polemical Strategy in Unto This Last Unto This Last as Literature Gandhiji & Ruskin’s Unto This Last

3. Born 8 February, 1819 Died 20 January, 1900 (aged 80) Occupation Writer, art critic, draughtsman, watercolourist, social thinker Period Victorian era Notable works Modern Painters 5 vols. (1843–1860) The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) The Stones of Venice 3 vols. (1851–1853) Unto This Last (1860, 1862) Fors Clavigera (1871–1884) Praeterita 3 vols. (1885–1889) Subjects geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political John Ruskin Themes in the writings : Highly influential to works of other Brits, namely designer William Morris and architect Philip Web, both considered pioneers of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain.

4. We have thus, altogether, three great branches of architectural virtue, and we require of any building,— That it act well, and do the things it was intended to do in the best way. That it speak well, and say the things it was intended to say in the best words. That it look well, and please us by its presence, whatever it has to do or say. -("The Virtues of Architecture," Stones of Venice, Volume I) Words of John Ruskin Architecture is to be regarded by us with the most serious thought. We may live without her, and worship without her, but we cannot remember without her. -("The Lamp of Memory," The Seven Lamps of Architecture)

5. Ruskin is a brilliant prose stylist with a rare gift for striking and memorable phrasing. The prose style of Unto This Last mixes argument, satire, and deeply moving statements of his hopes for moral regeneration. Ruskin very consciously wrote Unto This Last in a simpler style than his art criticism so that it could be more widely read. Even so, his complex prose is difficult for modern readers. Ruskin also quotes scripture extensively and uses Biblical phrasing. He can write as an angry prophet. Although the book's structure is eccentric, Ruskin, regarded Unto This Last as his best-written book. Unto This Last is a deeply idiosyncratic masterpiece. Unto this last as Literature

6. Ruskin pugnaciously challenges the prevailing economic thinking of his day. Orthodox theory supported laissez faire capitalism and represented human beings motivated only by the desire for financial gain. Ruskin never bothers about data or statistics. Ruskin redefines key economic terms from a humanistic and Christian perspective. His Polemical Strategy in Unto This Last

7. Ruskin demands that the business elite improve the conditions of the lower classes out of moral responsibility. Though no socialist, Ruskin proposes government intervention in regard to education, vocational training, and more. Ruskin wants employers agree on rates of pay for each category of work and give workers more employment security than day labor . Ruskin was a very early environmentalist who recognized how much human beings lose when they are denied sunlight, fresh air, and open meadows. He makes clear his great abhorrence of war. Ruskin wants political economists to focus much more on how well people live. What Ruskin wants?

8. Gandhiji & Ruskin’s Unto This Last "The book was impossible to set aside, once I had begun. It gripped me.” Then, "I could not get any sleep that night.” Sounds like a thriller? No. "I determined to change my life in accordance with the ideals of the book.” -Gandhiji Recounts the experience in his autobiography, in a chapter titled 'The magic spell of a book’, Also says this was the book "that brought about an instantaneous and practical transformation in my life”. This was because he "discovered some of my deepest convictions reflected in this great book”.

9. Gandhi summarised Unto This Last's teachings in these three points: That the good of the individual is contained in the good of all. 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. That a life of labour, i.e., the life of the tiller of the soil and the handicraftsman, is the life worth living. The book gripped Gandhi so much that its teaching of the book appealed to Gandhi instantly and Gandhi paraphrased it into Gujarati as "Sarvodaya" (The welfare of all).

10. Dantwala M. L., “Gandhiji and Ruskin’s Unto This Last.” vol. Economic and Political Weekly Vol. 30, No. 44 (Nov. 4, 1995), pp. 2793-2795 (3 pages), 1995, www.jstor.org/stable/4403395?seq=1. Gill Cockram, Ruskin and Social Reform: Ethics and Economics in the Victorian Age (I.B. Tauris, 2007) and Stuart Eagles, After Ruskin: The Social and Political Legacies of a Victorian Prophet, 1870–1920 (Oxford University Press, 2011). Hanley, Keith; Hull, Caroline S., eds. (2016). John Ruskin's Continental Tour 1835: The Written Records and Drawings. Cambridge: Legenda. ISBN 978-1-906540-85-2 Marcus Waithe, “Ruskin John.” 2019, www.apollo-magazine.com/john-ruskin-bicentenary. Mehta Aashish, “How Ruskin’s ‘Unto This Last’ Inspired Mahatma Gandhi.” 2oo5, www.mkgandhi.org/newannou/how-unto-this-last-inspired-Mahatma-Gandhi.html. Robert Hewson, "Ruskin, John (1819–1900)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB) Oxford University Press, 2004; online edition. Scott Reyburn, “Why John Ruskin, Born 200 Years Ago, Is Having a Comeback.” Feb. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/02/05/arts/john-ruskin-bicentennial.html references

11. Thank You