Hind Swaraj by M.K. Gandhi - Part One : What is Swaraj

 

Hind Swaraj is a book written in 1909 by M.K. Gandhi. The book contains Gandhi’s views on the institutions like Swaraj, Modern Civilization, and Mechanisation among other matters. In the book, Gandhi is outrightly criticizing the European civilization and can be seen propagating his loyalty towards the “ideal state” or moral empire.

The book was banned in 1910 by the British government in India as a seditious text as it was against the European way of being.

The book is written in a dialogic form. And there are two characters namely, The Reader and the Editor. The editor is nothing but a fictitious character who represents the thoughts, ideas, and values of Gandhi and on the other hand, the Reader here can be taken as an ordinary, typical Indian countryman.

 

Gandhi’s views on the concept of Swaraj :

 

When asked about the true meaning and significance of Swaraj, Gandhi (the Editor) says that Indians are impatient to obtain Swaraj but they don’t really know what the term means in its entirety.

 To answer the Reader’s questions Gandhi (the Editor) poses several questions in return to the reader to answer his questions.

Gandhi asks why do Indians are so desperate to drive the British out of the country?

To which the reader replies that because the Britishers have impoverished Indians and the Indians have become slaves in their own motherland, hence the Britishers should be driven out of the country.

                     Interestingly Gandhi replies by saying that it is not the fault of the British people that India is in such a dire state. Gandhi says it was because of the incompetence of Indians to unite and fight against the British, because of which of the Britishers could think of taking complete control of the Indian subcontinent.

                     Gandhi further explains how Indians welcomed the British and helped them by serving at various local posts because they saw their own profit in it. The Britishers could only succeed in India if they could manage to turn Indians against Indians and apparently, they have successfully managed to do so.

 

Gandhi asks whether Self-Government is satisfactory?

 

Gandhi says that self-governance is useless if we do not have our own independent navy, army and splendors. The idea of partial freedom or autonomy is not going to be a solution to India’s problem. The partial freedom would only give a sense of freedom to the people where in reality the strings (power) would always be at the hands of the master.

 

Gandhi further criticizes the Reader’s idea of Self-governance by elaborating on how Indians dream of English rule without the Englishman, he says you want tiger’s nature but not the tiger. And this of course is not the Swaraj that Gandhi wants for India.

 

Finally, Gandhi declares that what the Reader (who is symbolically representing the views and ideas of all the countrymen of India) calls Swaraj is not truly Swaraj. Partial freedom is equivalent to or even worse than no freedom at all.