John Ruskin's 1860 book "Unto This Last" greatly inspired Mahatma Gandhi. Ruskin criticized the prevailing economic theories of his time and emphasized morality and human welfare. He argued employers should improve worker conditions and pay fair wages. Gandhi was deeply moved by the book, saying it gripped him and kept him up all night. He felt his convictions were reflected in it. Gandhi summarized the key teachings as the good of all being more important than individuals, all work having equal value, and a life of labor and craftsmanship being most worthwhile. The book had a profound and instant impact on Gandhi and influenced his concept of "Sarvodaya," or welfare of all.

1. Presented by :
Bhatt Riddhiben D.
riddhi28bhatt@gmail.com
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. 1) Ruskin demands that the business elite improve the conditions of the
lower classes out of moral responsibility.
2) Though no socialist, Ruskin proposes government intervention in regard
to education, vocational training, and more.
3) Ruskin wants employers agree on rates of pay for each category of work
and give workers more employment security than day labor.
4) Ruskin was a very early environmentalist who recognized how much
human beings lose when they are denied sunlight, fresh air, and open
meadows.
5) He makes clear his great abhorrence of war.
6) 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