Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj is perhaps his most well-known work, written in the form of a dialogue between an editor and his reader. Gandhi wrote this book in a very short duration of nine days between November 13 and 22, 1909, on board the ship Kildonan Castle on his return voyage to South Africa from London.
The dialogue unfolds through a series of questions and clarifications that the reader seeks from the editor about themes as diverse as civilisation, violence, passive resistance and swaraj, among many others. It is significant that Gandhi wrote this work first in Gujarati and later translated it into English himself.
The early and expatriate Gandhi
Hind Swaraj captures Gandhi’s early political thought on matters related to India’s colonial subjugation by the British. It was written some years before he assumed the leadership of the national movement. Gandhi returned to India in 1915 after spending two decades in South Africa. The book, therefore, represents his thinking before he went on to lead India’s national movement into what is called the ‘mass movement phase’. It also contains the perspective of an expatriate Indian, who is viewing the colonial situation of his homeland from a distance.
Prior to the mass movement phase, and especially in the early days of the establishment of the Indian National Congress, the national movement was characterised by polite petitioning that sought to redress the wrongs of British rule over India. These early nationalist stirrings did not come anywhere near a demand for the elimination of British rule and complete independence for India.
Petitioning of the kind that characterised the early Indian national movement was viewed as ‘derogatory’ in Hind Swaraj. The Indian national movement itself was led by many famous lawyers and barristers, and this professional tilt of the leadership is reflected in the nature of the national movement in its early days.
Hind Swaraj is itself very critical of the role of lawyers and barristers, not as individual professionals, but the larger structure of the profession, which in Gandhi’s view seeks to profit from the prolonging of disputes. Such a critical view assumes significance as Gandhi himself was a lawyer, admitted to the Inner Temple in London in 1888 and called to the Bar in 1891.
Similarly, Gandhi criticised the profession of modern medicine for its tendency to profit from the problems of ill health. The bleak view of law and medicine in Hind Swaraj is likened to Plato’s famous work Republic, where an ideal society governed by a philosopher-ruler makes the two professions redundant. Another point of similarity with Plato’s works is the adoption of the dialogue format.
Hind Swaraj is written in the immediate backdrop of the split within the Congress between moderates and extremists at the Surat session in 1907. It bears the imprint of this political rift, in addition to the Partition of Bengal in 1905. This shows that even though Gandhi had not arrived in India, he was following political events very closely.
Critique of modern civilisation
Perhaps the most important theme of Hind Swaraj is its critique of modern civilisation and the corrupting influence it has on the the moral fabric of society. Gandhi does not view British colonial expansion as emanating from any position of strength, but rather from weakness; as the British, he argues, had deviated from their own strengths. The major reason for this critique of modern civilisation is because of its excessive reliance on machinery.
In line with arguments of this kind, mention is made of perhaps the most visible and spectacular aspect of British rule in India, which is the railways that, in Gandhi’s view, was disruptive of the social and economic equilibrium of the hinterland. Hind Swaraj is also critical of the rise of the big metropolis, as Gandhi views big urban concentrations such as Calcutta (now Kolkata) and Bombay (now Mumbai) as breeding grounds for moral decay.
Gandhi then posits that modern civilisation is the “plague”, and contrasts it with the enduring values of Indian civilisation. He feels that self-rule or swaraj could not be attained by adopting the ways of the British. Rather, it requires the recovery and revival of the simple, enduring qualities of Indian civilisation. Here, Gandhi again contrasts the simple sustainability of the Indian village with the sprawl that modern cities have become.
Distinction between ‘soul force’ and ‘body force’
For Gandhi, the way to end British rule is through passive resistance, because violent resistance is morally wrong. A key theme of Hind Swaraj is the distinction made between ‘soul force’ and ‘body force’. Passive resistance involves a form of suffering of the self, which will bring about the desired change in a more enduring manner. We usually think of resistance as physical, mechanical, and external force exerted by the oppressed against their rulers, what Gandhi called ‘body force’.
His idea of passive resistance involved the internalisation of suffering by the oppressed. The ‘soul force’ generated through this process of suffering has the potential to bring about more profound change, even in the heart of the oppressor, as it is connected to a larger struggle for truth or satyagraha.
The discussion of swaraj has a very philosophical basis to it. Swaraj or self-rule is not simply about forcing the British to leave India. In fact, Gandhi is very emphatic about not pursuing a swaraj where India becomes an imitation of the British. Rather, he emphasises the originality of self-rule, and goes on to argue that this cannot happen if the leaders of the national movement continue to think, write and speak in a colonially-imposed English. Hind Swaraj, thus, becomes one of the earliest works to advocate Hindi in the Devanagari script as a national language.
Post read questions
Why does Mahatma Gandhi criticise professions like law and medicine in Hind Swaraj, and how does this compare with an ideal society in Plato’s Republic?
What is the significance of Gandhi’s distinction between “soul force” and “body force”?
How does Hind Swaraj reflect Gandhi’s position as an expatriate observing colonial India from abroad?
Why does Gandhi argue against imitating Western models of nationhood, and how does this shape his vision of swaraj?
What role does language play in Gandhi’s conception of self-rule in Hind Swaraj?
(Amir Ali is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi)
Share your thoughts and ideas on UPSC Special articles with ashiya.parveen@indianexpress.com.
Subscribe to our UPSC newsletter and stay updated with the news cues from the past week.
Stay updated with the latest UPSC articles by joining our Telegram channel – IndianExpress UPSC Hub, and follow us on Instagram and X.
Hind Swaraj is one of the earliest works to advocate Hindi in the Devanagari script as a national language. (File) 
Share
