“We build the road, and the road builds us.” What Sarvodaya, a SriLankan 'no-poverty, no-affluence' movement, can teach the rest of us
Twitter can be amazing for picking up leads to the future, often by reference to an unheralded and undervalued past. As the posts sped past the other day, we were caught by this exchange (pictured below), from the bioregionalist Richard Flyer and the “metamodern homesteader” Jason Snyder:
So what is “Sarvodaya in Sri Lanka”? Here’s their history from their About page:
Dr. A. T. Ariyaratne founded Sarvodaya in 1958, when he established the concept of Shramadana (Sharing of one’s Time, Thoughts, Labor and Energy); gathering volunteers to come together and build a road in an impoverished rural village of Sri Lanka.
Today, the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement (officially known as “Lanka Jathika Sarvodaya Shramadana Sangamaya”) is Sri Lanka’s most broadly embedded community-based development organization network. Sarvodaya works with 26 district centres, 325 divisional centres and over 3,000 legally independent village societies in districts across the country, including war-torn northern and eastern provinces.
The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement seeks a no-poverty, no-affluence society in Sri Lanka through community based efforts and volunteerism.
One can travel for days to the most remote mountain settlements and still find signs of Sarvodaya: a seamstress who got her start from a loan through her village bank; a healthy child who benefits from home visits by a young mother trained by Sarvodaya in early childhood development; a well tapped with a hand pump made through Sarvodaya efforts. Or perhaps a hand-hewn road that brings poor villages into physical and psychological touch with the outside world.
It is in the building of such roads that the movement actualizes its most moving testimony of greatness. In village after village where hopelessness and poverty ruled, Sarvodaya has engaged people to live by the motto: We build the road and the road builds us.
Rooted in ancient Sri Lankan traditions, Sarvodaya’s philosophy is based on the teachings of Buddhism and celebrates the involvement Sri Lanka’s bikkus (local monks), who play an active role in village life.
However, we also take pride in sharing our mission with all who find value in the work of our organization. One can visit a participating village and see houses built by Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims next to one another. And the proud new homeowners will eagerly tell of their close friendships despite different religious and cultural traditions friendships that come from working together for common goals.
Quoted in Apostle of Peace, Joanna Macy described the unique value of Sarvodaya:
While many capitalists and Marxists take spiritual goals to be quietistic, mystical, drawing one off into private quests, Sarvodaya’s goal and process of awakening pulls one headlong into the realworld and into the Movement’s multi-faceted programmes for health, food, education and productive enterprise.
More here. We are thoroughly intrigued, and are keen to find out more, from participants and experts. The range of Sarvodaya is extraordinary. It’s divided into “Units” covering Disaster Management, Early Childhood Development, International, Rural Technical Services, Woodwork and Exports, Community Health, the Sarvodaya Institute of Higher Learning, and support for the activities of more then 3,000 legally independent village Sarvodaya Shramadana Societies.
We’ve also found this analysis of Sarvodaya’s “transcendental radicalism”:
This radicalism is transcendental in that radical social change is necessarily and explicitly based on personal development within a spiritual context, that is, through mindfulness, meditation, and retreat, but also through trying to make a work of art of personal and group relations and following a [distinctly Buddhist] lifestyle. Conventional political radicalism is transcended in that radical personal change is also included as an essential part of the process of fundamental social change.
For most people and in the short term this development may in spiritual terms be quite modest: just becoming a little more human. But this is nonetheless significant, as is also the overarching spiritual perspective within which it takes place. This engaged spirituality is concerned with creating at the same time social conditions which will both relieve affliction and also support and foster personal growth.
Transcendental radicalism achieves social change through grass-roots initiatives of individuals and groups working in a spirit of community self-help and self-reliance. This reflects the tradition of self-reliance in Buddhist practice . . . . Emphasis is upon the development of networks of such groups and communities and the avoidance of hierarchical elites. Those who do the thinking also implement the decisions and those who implement the decisions also do the spade-work and take responsibility for it.
It follows that there is much emphasis on many different kinds of active learning, particularly from practical experience, and in a group, and through open dialogue, both for personal development and community and social development.
In the fourth place, transcendental radicalism is marked by its use of positive and active nonviolent strategies, which recognize the common humanity of the adversary and his dignity and autonomy. Change can only come through creative interaction (both inside and outside the movement) and the avoidance of negative forms of coercion even if they stop short of physical violence. . . . In particular, to appropriate the Buddhadharma to fortify one's own racial or national identity is grievously to pervert the Buddhadharma.
This is a conservative radicalism which seeks to foster all that is best in traditional culture and practice, and particularly the sense of community, regional and ethnic identity. Change has to be authentic and organic in character, from the roots, rather than imposed, mechanistic and manipulative. The old way of doing things, or some adaptation or evolution of it, may still be the best way. There is a particular concern to pioneer a Third Way of social and cultural development alternative to either Western capitalist-style "development" or communist-style socialism.
Transcendental radicalism is pluralist, nonsectarian, fraternal and openminded in its relations with other belief systems, whether secular or religious, which share the same broad human values and concerns.
Seventhly, this engaged spirituality thinks globally as well as acting locally, and is particularly concerned with communication and co-operation between people of the First and Third Worlds.
More here. Recent news from Sarvodaya includes a fund to support community enterprises and their microfinancing.
Although there is a developed and competitive formal financial market in Sri Lanka, borrowing for SMEs is not easy as it requires a tedious process. And micro financing was seen as a remedy for this.
Ariyaratne said there are about 30,000 villages in Sri Lanka and over 70 percent of the population still lives in rural areas. “Anything that’s happening in those villages really will decide the future of the country,” he said.
“And the poverty is also confined to rural areas and the plantation areas. So that is the practical importance of focusing on the grassroots communities.”
“Fundamentally Sarvodaya believes in the evolving system of governance and also to create resilient economies at the local level.”
He said the COVID-19 pandemic has proven when the national economy gets disrupted, it’s the rural economy which is self-sustaining and self-sufficient, will survive and production and services even mobility is possible at a micro level.
“So that is the model that we believe will provide a very stable base for social and economic development in the country,” Ariyaratne said.
SDF caters to the bottom of the pyramid market through over 5,600 community-based organizations called Sarvodaya Societies.
The over 9-billion-rupee total asset worth company was originally started to create a rural-area centric business to keep the savings of rural depositors in the same area and to serve needy entrepreneurs.
Also see their YouTube and Twitter channels for further updates.
In terms of our interest in cosmolocalism and CANs, we’re obviously interested in the resilience, ethos and mobilisation of the Sarvodaya movement - though it’s clear that their motivational structure and ethos is spiritual and social-Buddhist. But in their ability to weave together a social fabric, across a polarised (indeed war-torn) and resource-challenged society, it may be that Snyder is right - and we could have much to learn for the future. But your input on Sarvodaya much welcomed.