Compiled by a

Non- graduate in Literature

*

John Ruskin

(8 February 1819 – 20 January 1900)

John Ruskin was the leading English art critic

of the Victorian era.

He was also

an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist,

a prominent social thinker and

philanthropist. 2

Ruskin wrote on subjects ranging from

geology to architecture,

myth to ornithology,

literature to education, and

botany to political economy.

3

4

His writing styles and literary forms were equally

varied. Ruskin penned

essays and

treatises,

poetry and lectures,

travel guides and manuals,

letters and even a fairy tale.

An elaborate style characterized his earliest writing

on art. Later he preferred a plainer language

designed to communicate his ideas more

effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasized the

connections between nature, art and society. He

also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks,

plants, birds, landscapes, and architectural

structures and ornamentation. 5

6

Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first

volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in

defence of the work of J. M. W. Turner in which he argued

that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". His

work increasingly focused on social and political

issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in

emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor

of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established

the Ruskin School of Drawing.

7

In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the

workmen and labourers of Great Britain",

published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–

1884). In the course of this complex and deeply

personal work, he developed the principles

underlying his ideal society. As a result, he

founded the Guild of St George, an organization

that endures today.

8

*Unto This Last

In a chapter in his Autobiography

(Part IV, Chapter XVIII) entitled 'The Magic Spell of a Book'

Gandhiji wrote how he read Ruskin's Unto This Last on the

twenty-four hours' journey from Johannesburg to Durban.

'The train reached there in the evening. I could not get any

sleep that night. I determined to change my life in accordance

with the ideals of the book.... I translated it later into Gujarati,

entitling it Sarvodaya.'

9

At the end Gandhiji gave us a summary of the teachings of

Unto This Last as he understood it:

1. The good of the individual is contained in the good of all.

2. A lawyer's work has the same value as the barber's, as all

have the same right of earning their livelihood from their

work.

3. A life of labour, i.e. the life of the tiller of the soil and the

handicraftsman is the life worth living.

10

Swaraj really means self-control.

Only he is capable of self-control who observes the rules

of morality, does not cheat or give up truth, and does his

duty to his parents, wife and children, servants and

neighbours.

Such a man is in enjoyment of Swaraj, no matter where

he lives.

A State enjoys Swaraj if it can boast of a large number of

such good citizens.

11

*

* British rule in India is an evil, but let us not run away with the

idea that all will be well when the British quit India.

*The existence of British rule in the country is due to our disunity,

immorality and ignorance. If these national defects were

overcome, not only would the British leave India without a shot

being fired but we would be enjoying real Swaraj.

12

Gandhiji wrote…

Let us pray that India is saved from the fate that has

overtaken Europe, where the nations are poised for an

attack on one another, and are silent only because of the

stockpiling of armaments. Some day there will be an

explosion, and then Europe will be a veritable hell on earth.

Non-white races are looked upon as legitimate prey by

every European State. What else can we expect where

covetousness is the ruling passion in the breasts of men?

13

Gandhiji wrote…

India must indeed have Swaraj

but she must have it by righteous methods. Our Swaraj must

be real Swaraj, which cannot be attained by either violence or

industrialization. India is a desert because we are corrupt. It

can become a land of gold again only if the base metal of our

present national character is transmuted into gold. What can

transform this is a little word of two syllables – Satya (Truth). If

every Indian sticks to truth, Swaraj will come to us of its own

accord.

14

Gandhiji wrote _ We thus see that

money is only an instrument which makes for misery as well

as happiness. In the hands of a good man it helps in the

cultivation of land and the harvesting of crops. Cultivators

work in innocent contentment and the nation is happy.

But in the hands of a bad man, money helps to produce say

gunpowder which works havoc among its manufacturers as

well as among its victims.

Therefore THERE IS NO WEALTH BUT LIFE.

15

Gandhiji wrote…

That country is the richest which nourishes the

greatest number of noble and happy human

beings;

that man is richest who, having perfected the

functions of his own life to the utmost, has also the

widest helpful influence, both personal and by

means of his possessions, over the lives of others.

16

Ruskin made the connection from individual

creativity to the ‘big picture’ of social stability. He

showed that societies may establish apparently

rational systems, which are intended to ‘cure’

inefficiencies, but which as a side effect silence

individual voice and strangle independent creativity,

and so ultimately create a much greater sickness.

17

John Ruskin and William Morris,

as I want to reiterate their core points and connect

them with today’s issues. Then everything else is boiled

down into a set of five key principles, namely:

1. A new understanding of creativity as process, emotion,

and presence

2. The drive to make and share

3. Happiness through creativity and community

4. A middle layer of creativity as social glue

5. Making your mark, and making the world your own

18

THERE IS NO WEALTH BUT LIFE.

Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and

of admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes

the greatest number of noble and happy human beings; that

man is richest who, having perfected the functions of his

own life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence,

both personal and by means of his possessions, over the

lives of others (Ruskin, pp.125-26).

19

The desire of the heart is also the light of the eyes. No scene

is continually untiringly loved, but one rich by joyful human

labour; smooth in field, fair in garden; trim, sweet, and

frequent in homestead; ringing with voices of vivid existence.

. . . As the art of life is learned, it be found at last that all

lovely things are also necessary—the wild flower by the

wayside, as well as the tended corn; and the wild birds and

creatures of the forest, as well as the tended cattle; because

man doth not live by bread only, but also by the desert

manna; by every word and work of God (Ruskin, p. 134).

20

Consider whether luxury would be desired by any of us, if

we saw clearly at our sides suffering which accompanies it.

Luxury is indeed possible in the future—innocent and

exquisite; luxury for all, and by the help of all; but luxury at

present can only be enjoyed by the ignorant; the cruelest

man living could not sit at his feast, unless he sat blindfold.

Raise the veil boldly; face the light; and if, as yet, the light of

the eye can only be through tears, and the light of the body

through sackcloth, go thou forth weeping, bearing precious

seed, until the time come, and the kingdom, when Christ’s

gift of bread and bequest of peace shall be Unto this last as

unto thee. . . (Ruskin, p. 138).

21

In insisting that there is no wealth but life, and that the

only economics worth its name is the one that extends

the blessings of wealth to all, even the least and the

last, Ruskin poses the same challenge to us today that

he posed to the Manchester School 150 years ago. And

by insisting that the good of the individual is contained

in the good of all—indeed, is bound up with the fate of

the poorest, the most despised, the most oppressed—

Gandhi brings us an even greater challenge.