Hind Swaraj by M.K. Gandhi - Part Two : Gandhi's view on Civilization

 

From the very beginning of this argument on civilization, it is quite clear that Gandhi is not in favour of the ideas and ways of modern civilization. He quotes a work on the topic “Civilization: Its Cause and Cure” by an English writer who calls civilization a “disease”.

Gandhi further adds that the people are so overtly intoxicated by modern civilization that they can’t even think of speaking against it. He says people living in this “modern civilization” is like dreaming man who thinks what he is seeing in the dream is reality. He will never get to know reality unless he is awakened from sleep.

According to Gandhi, the defenders of modern civilization write to hypnotize us. And so, one by one, we are drawn into the vortex of modern civilization.

The central objective of the people living in modern civilization is the “bodily welfare”

                        the people of Europe today live in better-built homes than they did a hundred years                                   ago.      

                       This is considered an emblem of civilization and is also a matter to promote bodily

                       happiness. (Gandhi, Hind Swaraj)     

 

Gandhi also talks about the export of European civilization and way of being, he specifically points out the problematic idealization of the European model of civilization in the poorer or developing countries of African and Asian continents. Gandhi puts forward examples of how the European way of clothing, boots, food, lifestyle, etc is supposed to have become a parameter to be considered a person or a community civilized. Through European media and agencies it is portrayed that when indigenous communities do away with their natural way of clothing and food habits for example and adopt the European way of doing things, they are considered to be coming out of savagery and being ‘Civilized’. Which is really problematic according to Gandhi.

 

Later in the book, Gandhi goes on to list technological advancement in European Civilization and criticizes them for being overtly materialistic. Regarding books Gandhi says that earlier very few people wrote books and they were valuable but now anybody writes and prints anything he likes and poisons people’s minds. Gandhi further compares the modes of travel in the past and in the present. Gandhi criticizes the notion that technological advancement is equivalent to the advancement of civilization. He gives examples of air travel, machinery to replace human labor, and the use of automated warfare weapons to kill 1000s of people.

Gandhi also criticizes the dire working conditions of workers in factories.

Gandhi criticizes the modern man’s quest to accumulate wealth by saying ;

                     “Formerly men were made slaves under physical compulsion. Now they are enslaved by

                     the temptation of money and of the luxuries that money can buy.”

 

Gandhi further adds that in this modern civilization, there are diseases of which people never heard or even dreamt of. Gandhi says that this modern civilization is neither considerate of morality nor religion. It teaches business as it’s the only religion. He says that the objective of modern civilization is to increase bodily comforts but it is failing miserably in doing so.

Gandhi uses the term “irreligion” and says that this civilization is built upon it. And this has so efficiently taken hold of the people that the people in Europe appear ‘half mad’.

Gandhi asserts that the Europeans lack real physical strength or courage. They take the help of intoxication (alcohol, drugs) to keep up their energy. He adds that the Europeans are so occupied with materialist pleasures that they hardly can be happy in solitude.

Gandhi also gives some remarks that can be considered regressive in the present scenario. He says that women should be “the queens of households” and instead they are working in factories under demanding situations. This, according to Gandhi is the key reason behind the daily growing Suffragette Movement.

This civilization according to Gandhi will be self-destroyed in a matter of time. As Mohammed in his teachings had called such civilizations as Satanic Civilization and Hinduism calls it the Black Age.

Later, Gandhi calls the parliaments of these modern countries the emblem of slavery. And the Englishman truly deserves our sympathy as he is in such a sorry state.

 

Finally, Gandhi says that he respects them, as they according to Gandhi are not bad at heart and are not entirely immoral. Gandhi concludes that civilization is not an incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English people at present are afflicted by it.