An Analysis of a Book Close To My Heart - Gandhi's Hind Swaraj

Hind Swaraj: A text that should be read by every human. So simple yet so meaningful.

Having revered Gandhi and his ideals over the years, my tryst with Hind Swaraj was a rather unpleasant one, for I came face to face with a Gandhi with whom I didn’t agree on many grounds. However, multiple readings of the text helped me understand those views better which on my first reading, I had outrightly rejected. And by the time I had finally put it down one last time, I knew Gandhi better than ever and more importantly had a better understanding of his worldview, which in turn helped me enrich mine. However, this is not to say that I stopped disagreeing with him, but rather I could understand better what shaped our notions so differently so as to create that disagreement. Hence, when it comes to relevance of Gandhi’s ideas embedded in Hind Swaraj, I would like to classify them in three categories, the ones that still hold relevance, the ones I felt weren’t relevant even then to be relevant now. Along with these two obvious categories, the third category has ideals that have lost relevance with changing contexts over the years.

Among the views that still hold relevance are Gandhi’s views on Swaraj. Gandhi’s Swaraj is an entirely different proposition than the one espoused by other leaders of the nationalist movement. The meaning that Gandhi lends to Swaraj is deeper and more personal. The ‘self’ in the ‘self-rule’ is what is interpreted differently by Gandhi. In doing so, Gandhi almost completely removes the political context of the word, but later on links it to his larger philosophy of politics.  The concept of Swaraj stands for mastery over oneself through control of one’s own senses. In short, Swaraj denotes the internal governance of oneself or more precisely of one’s being. The rule over self shall act as the foundation for self governance, according to him. Gandhi focuses on the need of humanizing and governing oneself before trying to humanize and govern the society. The vision of Swaraj that Gandhi has put forward in Hind Swaraj doesn’t want to throw away the British as a pre requisite for Swaraj, instead Gandhi claims that its of little use if Indians are able to drive away the English, but are governed and influenced by the British institutions and the mentality. He even says that the goal of Swaraj is not the expulsion of British who can be accommodated if they can become indianised. The concept of Swaraj equals to Self Constraint for Gandhi, who doesn’t want it to be equated with freedom from all constraints that Independence might lead to. A nation of people who have attained Swaraj will not be bothered by the restrictions put up by any foreign entity, as they have internally controlled their souls. They will develop the will required for Passive Resistance. Swaraj is the act of elevating one’s inner soul to an echelon where one is happiest to survive with the minimum of desires. Gandhi believes that when one can eliminate internal sources of unfreedom, he’ll find it easier to tackle the absence of external freedoms.

Also, for Gandhi Swaraj is a destination whose journey begins at Self Examination. Every man must look into himself to find who he really is and what are his virtues and vices. Once he is able to realize that, he attains self knowledge. This self knowledge is important to help him in self transformation. This is the final stage before the attainment of Swaraj, which is all about controlling oneself from being driven by his vices. After having transformed oneself, one passes through the light of Swaraj, which, Gandhi emphasizes, can be achieved through sustained practice. Once attained, this Swaraj is sure to last long as no one can deprive a person of his desires he doesn’t hold. The practice of such Swaraj lies in endeavoring to spread Swaraj. Such a Swaraj will not be dependent on Govt’s legislation, nor would such a nation where people have attained Swaraj require a Govt. to rule over them. Gandhi even had said this about Swaraj that “Swaraj could not be granted even by God. We would have to earn it ourselves. Swaraj from its very nature is not in the giving of anybody. It will be the fruit of patience, perseverance, ceaseless toil, courage and intelligent appreciation of the environment.”

Gandhi wants to bring a change through Swaraj and this change will be different from the one brought by the violent means. He is a firm believer in the purity of means to achieve pure ends. He doesn’t believe that impure ends can bring about pure means. Even if violence succeeds in overthrowing the established authority, such a change wont last too long according to Gandhi. So, to bring about Swaraj at the national level, Gandhi doesn’t recommend the use of violence and believes in Passive Resistance that uses soul-force instead of Physical force. Such a soul force can only be attained by a person who governs himself. Last but not the least, as personal and individual centric Gandhi’s Swaraj may seem, it is not. The concept of Swaraj removes the selfish layer of a man’s character and teaches him to be selfless, finding pleasure in others’ joys, thus linking it to the concept of cosmic love.

Moving on to the second part of the question, along with the concept of Swaraj, Gandhi’s views on religion, more specifically Hindu Muslim unity are as relevant as ever. Gandhi also touches upon the majority minority issue that has time and again cropped up in this nation and destroyed its, when he says, ‘Hindus can lose nothing by desisting. That man who has inspired confidence in another has never lost anything in this world.’ Besides, in a world that is increasingly getting misguided by preachers of religion, Gandhi provides a word of caution that seems to be prophetic looking back, “If everyone will try to understand the core of his own religion and adhere to it, and will not allow false teachers to dictate to him, there will be no room left for quarrelling.”

Gandhi’s dealing with the civilization question does raise a few eyebrows. However his criticism of Modern Civilisation sounds prophetic seeing the current state of the planet, which is battling the damaging effects of the development path adopted by mankind. More and more urbanization of the world has brought shelter for many humans, but at the same time have de-sheltered other species with whom he shares the world. At the heart of this ever-expanding human terrain lies greed and desire to have more, which Gandhi attacks and counters with his philosophy of Swaraj or self control.

The concept of Passive Resistance backed by soul force holds more relevance today for today threats to human life are numerous. The world has witnessed in recent times that how violence begets violence. All the violent movements in today’s world have a history of violence behind them. Besides, speaking in India’s context, Gandhi remarks-to arm India on a large scale is to Europeanize it. Then her condition will be just as pitiable as that of Europe. Taking into account the numerous border disputes and the resulting tensions that have plagued India post-independence, Gandhi couldn’t have been more correct.

The intoxication of Western Civilization has left India a completely different place from what Gandhi expected it to be. The drive for materialism has taken away the culture that the nation was so proud of. There has always been a significant difference in India’s civilization and the rest, as explained by Gandhi. But off late, in the name of Globalization, that civilization is being lost as India tries to ape the world. The result has been a tilt towards the market leading to a wide gulf between the rich and the poor, where the rich are the powerful, while the poor continue to live at the mercy of the rich.

However, Gandhi seems to go a bit too far in the condemnation of Modern Civilization. As students of political science, we are not ready to accept such a lop sided view of anything, let alone civilization, which in itself is a huge term, for we realize that nothing can be absolutely good or bad. Everything has its own merits and demerits. And considering the events after the book was written, one can be more convinced towards the latter, but that is not to say that Modern Civilization is without any merits and can be outrightly rejected. Gandhi’s critique of Modern civilization does overlook many of its strengths; its scientific and critical spirit of enquiry.

Lets take an example of critique of Modern Civilization from the text,

                 “Formerly, only a few men wrote valuable books. Now anybody writes and

                              prints anything he likes and poisons people’s minds.”

In criticizing modern civilization here, Gandhi turns a bit of elitist when he says only a few men wrote ‘valuable’ books, where to me the parameters of valuable are questionable. What Gandhi overlooks here is that this modern civilization has given a voice to many like him, instead of reserving that right to a particular section of the society. And as ironic as it may seem, Hind Swaraj is a perfect example of it. Had it not been for the invention of the printing press, a by-product of the civilization that Gandhi condemns, we would not had been reading a book written more than a hundred years ago. Moreover, in saying so, Gandhi seems to be valuing a certain type of knowledge system over the other. The fact that everyone can write and print today has contributed in widening of the knowledge base on which we form our understanding of the world.

Gandhi’s criticism of the Parliamentary system of Britain raises doubts and I wonder if we can consider them to be relevant today. Gandhi says in his criticism of British Parliament

                                 “If the money and time wasted by Parliament were entrusted

                                  to a few good men, the English nation would be occupying today

                             a much higher platform. Parliament is simply a costly toy for the nation.”

These lines do not appear to be relevant considering that all the major nations of the world have either embraced democracy or are still waged in a struggle for attaining it. At such a juncture, the idea of entrusting time and money to a few good men sounds anything but democratic. Moreover, the whole discourse on Parliament points to the fact that Gandhi is at unease because of the pressure put on the people by Parliament. He even calls them ‘emblems of slavery’, which again sounds to be contradicting the spirit of Democracy.

Coming back to Gandhi’s criticism of Modern Civilization, Gandhi again goes a bit too far in his views on development of Medical Sciences and Doctors, when he calls Hospitals as ‘institutions for propagating sin’ as because of them ‘Men take less care of their bodies and immorality increases.’ He further goes on to say

“I have indulged in vice, I contract a disease, a doctor cures me; the odds are I shall repeat the vice. Had the doctor not intervened, nature would have done its work, and I would have acquired mastery over myself, would have been freed from vice and would have become happy.”

In my views had everyone waited for the nature to do its work, half the earth would had been nothing but a large graveyard and the other half a mourning lot. The greatest achievement of the advances of Medical Science doesn’t lie in lengthening lives, but in delivering hope to mankind. It has probably saved many a millions from the deep sorrow and pain of losing someone dear, a loss that probably has no compensation in the world. Probably, according to Gandhi, a man who has attained Swaraj is free from such attachments, but if Gandhi’s teachings espouse love and nothing love, it makes me wonder if such attachments are avoidable for someone who has controlled himself.

In the last few centuries, the world has been at the receiving end of many a trouble because of development in Science and Technology, and agreed that those problems have amplified with time, yet to say so will be telling only one side of the story. The fact also is that Science has helped keep many a troubles at bay. Development in sciences has brought a huge portion of the world out of baseless superstitions, which surely have helped many to attain spiritual peace and know themselves better. Besides, most of Gandhi’s criticism at Science and Technology are well directed as their effects have been witnessed in the past century. Gandhi also raises a very important concern about the process animal testing used by Medical Institutions. This has some huge relevance in today’s world where animal rights are acquiring importance of their own.

Nonetheless, being a classic which is rooted in the universal ideas of Love, peace, morality and non violence, the relevance of the book will never be questioned. Although with changing times the relevance of a few sections like Gandhi’s views on Science and Technology, specifically railways and other forms of communication may have lost the very context in which they were written about. That is the context of Colonialism. Lastly, of all the ideas, the message of Swaraj is definitely the one that should reach the hands of every child, as Gandhi wanted, even in the 21st century, for we all are slaves to our desires, and that is a colonialism i.e the colonialism of soul, that wil never lose its context.