Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com Hind Swaraj cheap prices but then manufactured cloth back in Britain and IINNTTRROODDUUCCTTIIOONN forced Indians to pay sky-high prices for textiles. This is the context to which Gandhi was responding when he condemned BRIEF BIOGRAPHY OF MOHANDAS K. GANDHI “modern civilization” as the disease afflicting India and Mohandas K. Gandhi, the most celebrated leader of India’s famously proposed that Indians boycott British goods and independence movement, was born and raised in a humble weave their own textiles. Of course, he was also responding to Hindu family in what is now the state of Gujarat. As was usual in a growing pro-independence sentiment during this period. his time, he married very young, at the age of 13. After finishing Through the creation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 high school, he went on to study law in London, where he and the enormous popular backlash to the Partition of Bengal learned public speaking and became a vegetarian activist. He in 1905, questions of Indian nationhood and identity were at then spent 21 formative years of his life in South Africa, where the forefront of many Indians’ minds. Gandhi belonged to and he was shocked and infuriated at the racist prejudice he faced. specifically hoped to address the emerging class of educated, He dedicated his energy to organizing the local Indian politically radical Indian professionals who lived in places like community and began formulating hissatyagraha(passive South Africa and London and generally favored a violent resistance) protest method. It was during this period that he overthrow of the British Raj. In particular, the assassination of wroteHind Swaraj. He gained a reputation in India, where he British army officer Curzon Wyllie by the Indian revolutionary returned in 1915 and dedicated himself to leading the Indian Madan Lal Dhingra in 1909 certainly made an impact on National Congress and its struggle for independence. Based on Gandhi—he wroteHind Swarajjust a few months later. his teachings inHind Swaraj, he began leading a nationwide Although this book did not become popular for roughly a movement of non-cooperation,satyagraha, andswadeshi(or the decade after its publication, it soon became one of the boycott of English goods). He was imprisoned multiple times cornerstones of the Indian Independence Movement, which for his activism, which gained widespread support over the next Gandhi went on to lead. India won its independence in 1947, three decades, until India finally won its independence after but not as the unified secular democracy that Gandhi hoped for. World War II. However, Gandhi was dismayed to see the Indeed, despite Gandhi’s hopes, communal and religious country partitioned into India and Pakistan, a move he never divisions remain a driving force in Indian politics today. supported. In 1948, shortly after independence, Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist and RELATED LITERARY WORKS member of the RSS paramilitary. BesidesHind Swaraj, Gandhi’s most important work is his famous autobiography,The Story of My Experiments with Truth HISTORICAL CONTEXT (1948), which covers his early life. Although Gandhi argues for The English colonization of India began with the formation of a specifically Indian philosophy of life and society inHind Swaraj, the East India Company in the early 1600s and took off in the this vision is deeply influenced by Western writers as well as mid-1700s, when the Company fought a series of wars and Indian ones. The most significant of Gandhi’s Western allied itself with several existing Indian rulers in order to influences is probably the famed Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy, control the subcontinent. The Company’s sole purpose was to whose nonfiction works—includingThe Kingdom of God Is extract all the resources it possibly could from India’s land and Within You(1894),The Slavery of Our Times(1900), and “A population—historians have estimated the cost of this plunder Letter to a Hindu” (1908)—Gandhi read voraciously during his in the tens of trillions of dollars. After the enormous Indian time in South Africa. (They began corresponding after the Rebellion of 1857—which is often considered India’s first publication ofHind Swaraj.) Gandhi was also an avid reader of revolution for independence—the British government the American transcendentalist thinker Henry David Thoreau nationalized the East India Company and took direct control (especially the 1849CCiivviill DDiissoobbeeddiieennccee) and the English critic over India during the period conventionally known as the John Ruskin (including the 1860 book on political economy British Raj (or British Rule). Over the next 50 years, British Unto This Last). Beyond seminal texts of ancient Indian policy accelerated a series of devastating famines that killed philosophy like theBhagavad Gita,Ramayana, andUpanishads, tens of millions of people. Funded by Indian capital and labor, Gandhi’s Indian influences particularly include the Jain the industrial revolution also transformed Britain into the philosophy of Shrimad Rajchandra and the historical work of world’s economic powerhouse. One famous example of scholars like Dadabhai Naoroji (Poverty and Un-British Rule in Britain’s vicious economic policy was the way it exploited India, 1901). Other crucial texts of the Indian independence cotton markets: the British bought Indian cotton at incredibly movement include Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’sThe ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 1 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com Discovery of India(1946) and the Hindu nationalist V.D. Bengal in half in 1905, Gandhi explains, Indians began seeing Savarkar’sThe Indian War of Independence(1909), with which themselves as a unified nation and rising up to demand political Gandhi sharply disagreed. Among the numerous books on change. Now, Indians are demandingSwaraj. The reader Gandhi’s life and impact, a few significant works include Dennis mistakenly thinks that this just means kicking out the English, Dalton’sMahatma Gandhi: Nonviolent Power in Action(1995), but the editor clarifies that, unless Indians learn to govern the edited volumeGandhi’s ‘Hind Swaraj’: A Fresh Look(1985), themselves fairly and sustainably, India will simply have and contemporary historian Ramachandra Guha’s two-part “English rule without the Englishman.” England’s Parliament is biography:Gandhi Before India(2013) andGandhi: The Years stagnant and its politicians are corrupt, which leaves the That Changed the World, 1914-1948(2018). English people relatively powerless to shape the policies that structure their lives. KEY FACTS According to the editor, the problem with England ismodern civilization, the way of life that prioritizes “bodily welfare,” or • Full Title:Hind Swaraj, or Indian Home Rule people’s material desires, above everything else. So while • When Written:November 13–22, 1909 Europeans obsessively build new technologies and produce • Where Written:Aboard theS.S. Kildonan Castle, en route more and more wealth, they have plundered and enslaved the from London, England, to Durban, South Africa world in order to do so. Worst of all, Europeans have lost sight of their moral and spiritual needs, and their material desires are • When Published:December 1909 (Gujarati edition); March 1910 (Gandhi’s English translation) insatiable: the more luxuries they have, the more they want. This traps them and their colonies in an unsustainable cycle of • Literary Period:Modern/Late Colonial Indian Philosophy constant economic expansion. • Genre:Philosophical Dialogue, Political Philosophy, Revolutionary Manifesto, South Asian Economic and Social Even though the English brought modern civilization to India, History the editor argues that Indians are responsible for giving up India. This is because they wrongly chose to trade with and • Setting:Early 20th-century India, under British rule fight alongside the English. As a result, Indians have lost their • Climax:The editor convinces the reader that a popular own distinctive way of life, which is grounded in the common campaign of passive resistance is the best way to transform beliefs that underlie all their various religions. Meanwhile, the India morally, spiritually, economically, and politically. modern railway network is a dangerous tool for plundering • Antagonist:Modern civilization, the British Empire, violent India’s resources and forcing its people into slavery: rather than rebellion, communal divisions, the elevation of material goals living self-sufficiently in their village communities, farmers now over spiritual ones have to sell everything to the British, which has created • Point of View:Dialogue devastating famines. Similarly, while Hindus and Muslims lived in harmony for EXTRA CREDIT centuries, now they have fallen victim to the English strategy of Burst of Inspiration.Gandhi famously wroteHind Swarajin divide and conquer. In reality, the editor argues, Hindus and only 10 days, while aboard a ship from London to South Africa, Muslims are part of the same family, worship the same God, and barely edited his first draft. and belong to the same Indian nation—which has always been and will always be religiously diverse. But now, the Hindu majority foolishly persecutes Muslims, who respond by building PPLLOOTT SSUUMMMMAARRYY separate protected institutions. Gandhi also rejects Hindu cow- protection activists who attack Muslims for slaughtering cows Hind Swarajtakes the form of a dialogue, in which a character because he thinks violence against others is never justified, calledthe editor—heavily implied to be Gandhi even in response to other forms of violence. himself—answersthe reader’s questions about British colonialism, the emerging Indian nationalist movement, the Next, Gandhi explains why lawyers and doctors are also kind of civilization that Indians should try to build, and the responsible for impoverishing India. Lawyers profit by means they should use to do so. Gandhi translatedHind Swaraj exacerbating conflict and division, and they help the rich much into English after the British authorities banned and seized the more than the poor. Western-trained doctors treat the original Gujarati version, which was first published in the symptoms of disease rather than addressing its root causes, newspaperIndian Opinion. which are usually about “negligence or indulgence.” Gandhi begins by defending theIndian National Congress, the Having summarized the dangers of modern civilization, the national party that first brought elite Indians together to editor next argues that true Indian civilization is the set of demand independence from the British. After the British split political, personal, and spiritual practices that help people fulfill their moral duties. He argues that true happiness comes from ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 2 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com the mind, not the body, so moral people learn to master their CCHHAARRAACCTTEERRSS minds and passions. Such people also live materially humble but spiritually rich lives, as Indians traditionally did for centuries, TThhee EEddiittoorr– The editor, who represents Gandhi, presents his before the English arrived. But the editor clarifies that he is not views onSwaraj,passive resistance,modern civilization, and defending certain oppressive practices from Indian tradition, Indian nationhood to a character calledthe reader. Despite his like child marriage and animal sacrifice. strong views, the editor carefully accommodates the reader’s The editor goes on to argue that the real meaning ofSwarajis general confusion and frequent misunderstandings. The achieving freedom and reinstating true civilization. This editor’s patience, dedication, and moral clarity reflect the requires completely transforming society, not just expelling the values that Gandhi thinks all Indians must cultivate within English. He uses the Italian reunification led byGaribaldiand themselves in order to build a more humane and self-sufficient Mazzinias an example of why violent revolt doesn’t society. In most traditional Indian literature, a guru or spiritual fundamentally change the system. Brute force, the editor leader would take the editor’s role in a philosophical dialogue. concludes, cannot establish a just government—it would only Instead, Gandhi gives his central character a distinctly modern lead to an escalating cycle of war and vengeance. But petitions profession. This is in part because Ganhi was the actual editor are also insufficient for creating a just government, unless of the newspaper in which he publishedHind Swaraj, but it’s they’re backed by action. Rather, only moral means can also because this shows his readers—largely educated establish a moral government, and the only solution to India’s professionals—how Indians can use some Western technology condition ispassive resistance—or refusing to follow the and education without completely giving in to modern government’s demands or recognize it as legitimate. This civilization. passive resistance is grounded in the fundamental force of love TThhee RReeaaddeerr– InHind Swaraj, the reader refers to the character (or truth, or the soul), which binds people and nations together who dialogues withthe editor(Gandhi), primarily by asking in peaceful harmony. In passively resisting an unjust questions to clarify and challenge the editor’s views onhome government, people must accept suffering and be willing to rule. The reader represents various facets of Gandhi’s Indian sacrifice themselves for the greater good. And they must not audience, including expatriate Indians who favored political inflict violence on anyone else. Rather, they follow the true violence, educated Indian professionals who sought to emulate moral law, even when it conflicts with the government’s law. It the British, and members of theIndian National Congress. In takes greater courage and mental strength than fighting a war, general, the reader defends the extremist position that Indians but it allows people to liberate both their conscience and their should fight an armed revolutionary war against the English, country at the same time. but also celebrates English technology, education, and The reader asks about the role that education and technology medicine. Gandhi uses this as evidence that the reader actually pay in the independence struggle. The editor argues that internalizes the values ofmodern civilizationand turns his back Western education just teaches people facts without giving on the wisdom of traditional Indian civilization and religion. But them a moral framework for understanding those facts, so it is Gandhi thinks that he can convince people like the reader to mostly useless. Similarly, while European machines like mills fight for Indian independence throughpassive resistanceby lead to great wealth, that wealth all flows to Europeans, while showing them the value of ancient Indian civilization and moral the Indians who actually produce the wealth are forced off philosophy. their land and reduced to poverty in the process. Accordingly, GGiiuusseeppppee GGaarriibbaallddii– Giuseppe Garibaldi was an Italian the editor concludes that Indians should embrace moral general and revolutionary who led a successful military education and reject most Western machinery, with some campaign to reunify Italy in the mid-1800s.The editorsees exceptions (like the printing press, which can help the Garibaldi’s military tactics as a version ofthe reader’s extremist independence movement spread). idea that Indians should achievehome ruleby taking up arms In his conclusion, Gandhi summarizes his political platform. and forcing the English out of India. The editor argues that While moderates try in vain to petition the British and Garibaldi’s revolution merely gave power to an Italian elite, extremists propose a dangerous armed rebellion, Gandhi without truly freeing the population from tyranny. From the argues that passive resistance offers is the only effective editor’s perspective, this shows thatGiuseppe Mazzini’s view response to tyranny. True home rule requires Indians to rule of independence as moral autonomy or self-rule is a better goal themselves and embrace traditional Indian practices, not just for India. kick out the British. He instructs Indians to weave their own GGiiuusseeppppee MMaazzzziinnii– Giuseppe Mazzini was an Italian activist, cloth by hand, boycott British goods, and be willing to suffer philosopher, and journalist who helped lead the reunification of imprisonment, exile, or even death in order to achieveSwaraj. Italy in the mid-1800s. Although he did participate in military campaigns alongside leaders likeGiuseppe Garibaldi, Mazzini was primarily a theorist. Mazzini’s vision of Italian nationhood, ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 3 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com which involved citizens morally developing themselves to occur most prominently throughout the work. If you don't have become truly independent, is similar tothe editor’s view of a color printer, you can still use the icons to track themes in Swaraj(or home rule) in India. However, the editor points out black and white. that the armed reunification campaign did not achieve Mazzini’s vision, which demonstrates why India should opt for PASSIVE RESISTANCE AND INDIAN as strategy ofpassive resistanceinstead. INDEPENDENCE Hind Swarajis Gandhi’s political, philosophical, and TTEERRMMSS economic manifesto for the Indian Independence Movement. When he first wrote this book in 1909, Gandhi had IInnddiiaann NNaattiioonnaall CCoonnggrreessss– The Indian National Congress is been living in South Africa for more than 15 years and was the nationalist political party, founded by both Indian and virtually unknown in his native India. However, this would all English elites in 1885, that spearheaded the push for Indian change over the next decade, as his ideas became the driving independence. During the early 1900s, when Gandhi wrote philosophy behind the massive popular campaign to free India Hind Swaraj, the Indian National Congress became increasingly from British rule. InHind Swaraj, Gandhi lays out these ideas divided between a moderate faction, which proposed through a dialogue between two characters:the editor, who petitioning the English government for change through its legal represents Gandhi, andthe reader, who represents Gandhi’s system, and an extremist faction, which favored violent audience—mainly politically active, educated Indian rebellion. After independence, the Congress went on to rule professionals. Gandhi’s key message is that achieving India for many decades, and it remains one of the nation’s independence, orSwaraj(home-rule), is not as simple as taking dominant political parties to this day. up arms and forcing the British out of India. Rather, he argues MMooddeerrnn cciivviilliizzaattiioonn– Gandhi defines modern civilization as a that Indians must win their independence through a method he way of life that prioritizes material welfare over spiritual callssatyagraha—which literally means “the force that comes welfare. Although a just society must meet its citizens’ material from holding onto truth,” but is usually translated as “passive needs, modern civilization focuses on endlessly satisfying resistance” or “nonviolent civil disobedience.” Gandhi believes people’s materialwants. In the process, it enslaves and thatsatyagrahais the best way to overthrow the British colonial impoverishes most of humanity (like Indians under the British government because it draws its strength from morality, not Empire) and spiritually impoverishes everyone. While the weapons, and builds a democratic community through the very English introduced modern civilization to India, Gandhi process of protest. believes it’s Indians’ responsibility to eradicate it. Gandhi first argues that armed rebellion, as proposed by PPaassssiivvee rreessiissttaannccee– Passive resistance is a very rough English extremists in theIndian National Congress, is not a viable translation ofsatyagraha(“truth-force” or, more accurately, “the strategy for Indians to win independence. Like many of these force that comes from holding onto truth”). Gandhi presents extremists,the readerargues that the British conquered India civil disobedience through nonviolentsatyagrahaas the best with military force, so Indians are justified in using the same to kick the British out. But Gandhi disagrees. First of all, Indians way to challenge and overthrow unjust power. Concretely, aren’t armed and simply don’t have the resources to fight a war. satyagrahameans refusing to obey unjust government laws and Notwithstanding these limits, Gandhi thinks that revenge is accepting the punishment associated with this disobedience. In never an adequate reason to fight a war because it creates an other words,satyagrahais following the laws of morality instead endless cycle of escalation. If the Indians retaliate to British of the laws of the state. aggression by taking up arms, the British would retaliate SSwwaarraajj–Swarjliterally means “self-rule,” which refers to both disproportionately and become even more repressive. This individuals’ moral autonomy over their own lives and India’s means that taking up arms would likely only worsen Indians’ ability to govern itself independently. In the book,Swarajis situation. translated as both “self-rule” and “home-rule,” but these are the Similarly, when the reader proposes that a group of same concept. Gandhi argues that these two goals are one and mercenaries should try to assassinate British officials and the same: he thinks that Indians must morally transform launch a coup, Gandhi points out that these mercenaries will themselves as individuals and communities in order to then take over India’s government—at which point they are successfully govern themselves as a nation. likely to be just as repressive and self-interested as the British. So Gandhi concludes that in India, armed revolution or guerrilla TTHHEEMMEESS war would lead to “English rule without the Englishman.” In practical terms, he means that a revolution would just replace In LitCharts literature guides, each theme gets its own color- the repressive English government with a repressive Indian coded icon. These icons make it easy to track where the themes one. At its core, Gandhi’s argument against brute force is moral, ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 4 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com not just practical: he thinks there is always an inherent society that will eventually replace the oppressive government. connection between the means of action and the ends that Today, Gandhi’s concept of nonviolent civil disobedience is those means produce. He compares this to the connection virtually synonymous with popular protest. But it can be easy to between a seed and the tree that grows from it. That means forget that this idea only gained widespread acceptance in the that using violence only breeds more violence. Therefore, to 20th century, in large part through the successful Indian create a free and just society, Indians must fight with freedom Independence Movement. Ever since, Gandhi’s ideas have left and justice. an unmistakable mark on people’s struggles for democracy To meet this challenge, Gandhi proposessatyagraha—passive around the world, ranging from the American Civil Rights resistance, or nonviolent civil disobedience. He argues that Movement and the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement to passive resistance is the only free and just tool for protest, the Arab Spring. which means it’s the only legitimate strategy Indians can use to fight for independence from the repressive English MODERN CIVILIZATION AND government. Gandhi definessatyagrahaas making the decision COLONIALISM to follow moral laws rather than human ones. This means InHind Swaraj, Gandhi emphasizes that Indians will disobeying unjust laws imposed by the government.Satyagraha not become truly independent—or achieveSwaraj requires activists to accept the consequences the government (home-rule)—by simply overthrowing the British. This is imposes on them—even if they have to suffer or die for their because he blames India’s misery onmodern civilization, not beliefs. In the context of 20th-century colonial India, this means colonialism. This distinction is essential for understanding that Indians should live by the rules of their own religions and Gandhi’s argument: the Western way of life is responsible for communities, while refusing to follow English laws. Although India’s oppression, not just the British government. Because passive resistance is a simple concept, creating asatyagraha Gandhi thinks that modern civilization’s focus on material movement is not easy, because it requires deep moral courage. goods is the root cause of Indians’ poverty and misery, he Violent resistance only requires bodily strength, Gandhi concludes that Indians must replace this modern way of life argues, but passive resistance requires the bodily strength to with one based on ancient Indian civilization’s traditions and withstand physical violence, as well as an even greater mental values. and spiritual strength. Gandhi argues that modern civilization and its technologies are Passive resistance works, according to Gandhi, because it evil because they lead people to prioritize material goals over shows that the people consider the government illegitimate. spiritual ones. For Gandhi, a civilization is essentially a way of Practically speaking, laws only constrain people if everybody life, which is based on a society’s specific cultural values, social follows them—either because they agree with them, or because structures, and religious traditions. Gandhi argues that the best they fear the consequences of breaking the law. But when (or truest) way of life is the one that “points out to man the path people accept the consequences of unjust laws, these laws lose of duty,” or teaches people to behave morally. Following this their power. This forces unjust governments into a moral “path of duty” requires learning to control “our mind and our dilemma: they either attack nonviolent protestors and further passions,” which Gandhi considers the source of true happiness. lose their legitimacy, or they acquiesce to the people’s In other words, a good civilization makes people happy by demands. As a result, thesatyagrahamovement either proves teaching them morality and self-control. This allows them to the government’s illegitimacy—and wins even more fulfill all their needs, both material and spiritual. support—or achieves its demands. In contrast to true civilization, Gandhi argues, modern Western Ultimately, for Gandhi,satyagrahais not only an effective civilization “make[s] bodily welfare the object of life.” In other political strategy: it is also the deepest expression of human words, it encourages people to prioritize wealth, power, and morality. Gandhi argues that the power behindsatyagrahais the pleasure over their moral, social, and spiritual well-being. force of truth, love, and the soul—the same force that holds Gandhi notes that Europeans define success and progress as together the universe and the human race. When people buying bigger houses, wearing finer clothing, and developing protest nonviolently, they are declaring their commitment to new technologies. He ironically suggests that, in the future, building a better society—one that truly upholds their moral people will be able to meet all their needs simply by pressing a duties to one another. In fact, through passive resistance, they button—but he points out that this would not make these are actuallyfulfillingtheir moral duties to the community, people’s lives good or meaningful. On the contrary: the richer because they choose to follow moral laws rather than the people get, the more miserable, greedy, and evil they become, government’s laws. This means that passive resistance isn’t just according to Gandhi. So focusing excessively on “bodily a call for a more humane society: it’s also the means through welfare” is actually likely to make people’s livesworse. Once which people build it. In other words, the organized community people meet their basic bodily needs, having more stuff does of nonviolent protestorsisthe new, humane, democratic ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 5 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com not make them any happier. Instead, they need to focus on their health policies, and guarantee human rights to all its citizens. spiritual development, which modern civilization totally This makes it all the more clear that the conflict between ignores. ancient and modern civilization isnotjust a conflict between Indian traditions and Western ones: rather, it is a conflict Gandhi blames this modern civilization for the degradation of between a balanced way of life and an unbalanced one that India. In fact, he argues that the English invaded India precisely puts wealth, power, and technology above community, morality, because of a barbaric thirst for wealth. For more than 300 and human well-being. years, the English stole Indians’ land and material resources, enslaved them in factories and mines, and turned them against Gandhi doesn’t want India to turn its back on England and try one another. In the process, the English committed many of the to return to the past: rather, he envisions the India of the future worst crimes against humanity in recorded history. But the as a democratic federation of villages, which largely govern culprit isn’t just colonialism: it’s the modern way of life that led themselves in traditional ways, but also work together on a to colonialism. If Indians cast off colonialism but do not national scale, through shared democratic institutions. If India overcome modern civilization, they will end up worse than can transform itself in this way, Gandhi thinks the English can before. even stay in India and “become Indianised.” There’s no contradiction between rejecting English technology while To underline his point, Gandhi looks at three key examples: embracing English people, or living traditional lifestyles under a railways, Western-trained doctors and lawyers, and industrial national democratic government. Rather, Gandhi believes that machinery. While some Indians view these developments as a India should revitalize its ancient civilization precisely by silver lining to English colonialism, Gandhi believes that they becoming a democratic nation. have actually worsened and impoverished India. For instance, he argues that the railways were built to expedite the theft of Indian resources. Similarly, while traditional Indian doctors and THE PERSONAL AND THE POLITICAL village lawyers prevent illnesses and legal disputes, Western- AlthoughHind Swarajis generally considered a trained doctors and lawyers profit by prolonging them. These political manifesto, Gandhi’s plan for Indian developments show that many Indians have accepted modern independence depends directly on his philosophy civilization, too, so need to reform themselves in order to live of individual discipline and moral transformation. In fact, he happy and ethical lives. In fact, Gandhi thinks Indians—not the believes that politics is always personal because he sees English—are responsible for letting modern civilization take individuals, families, and small communities as the source of a over India. From his perspective, this is because greedy Indians nation’s political life. Accordingly, Gandhi argues that effective agreed to trade with and fight alongside the English and then social change has to come from the bottom up: people have to gradually let themselves be modernized. If the English leave personally transform themselves and their ways of life in order India, therefore, modern civilization won’t go away—so the to build more equitable and just relationships, communities, struggle for Indian independence is really about replacing and nations. modern civilization with true civilization, not replacing the Speaking as a character calledthe editor, Gandhi argues that English government with an Indian one. Indians must spiritually transform themselves before India can To build a free society based on true civilization, Gandhi thinks become independent. In line with this, he stresses that the term that Indians must turn to their traditional past. Gandhi Swarajactually meansbothhome-rule and self-rule. Self-rule justifiably thinks that Indians lived far better and happier lives really means autonomy, or an individual’s ability to govern their in the distant past than they did under British colonialism. own actions and beliefs. So for a nation,Swarajis a people ruling Although they didn’t have machines, money, or railroads, they itself—which means democracy, or home-rule. In other words, a lived in small, self-sufficient village communities. They had society achieves home-rule when all its members achieve self- doctors and courts, but their doctors addressed the root rule. Just like “one drowning man will never save another,” he causes of illness (“negligence” and “indulgence”), and their argues, “swaraj has to be experienced by each one for himself” courts resolved conflicts rather than extending them. In other before society as a whole can be truly free. What he means is words, Indian civilization was superior because it met people’s that individuals must take control of their own lives to achieve material needs while also providing for their spiritual ones. Swarajover themselves, and then they can apply what they That said, Gandhi emphasizes that ancient Indian civilization learn in order to emancipate the nation as a whole. was not perfect—for instance, many Indians had some Because self-rule and home-rule are so inextricably linked, oppressive traditions like child marriage, ritualized prostitution, Gandhi believes that personal transformation is the most and animal sacrifice, which he thinks they should absolutely important step that individuals can take in their fight for reject. At the same time, Indians can integrate certain Western independence. At the end ofHind Swaraj, Gandhi outlines 19 practices into their civilization. For example, he thinks India steps that his readers should follow. For instance, he asks should create a universal education system, implement public ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 6 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com lawyers and doctors to quit their jobs and dedicate themselves INDIAN NATIONHOOD AND IDENTITY to educating others, and he asks wealthy people to invest their InHind Swaraj, Gandhi speaks to a profoundly money in hand-looms so that Indians can weave their own cloth fractured population. Largely because of English and become economically independent from the British. colonialism’s divide-and-conquer strategy, Indians Similarly, Gandhi believes thatsatyagraha(passive resistance) have started to define themselves as separate groups based on expresses the moral force of the universe, so he argues that differing religious, linguistic, regional, political, caste, class, and Indians have to become morally virtuous before they can cultural identities. When they start turning against each other effectively make a case for political reform. Specifically, he instead of working together to fight for independence, Gandhi argues that, before joining the independence movement, thinks, Indians are letting these artificial divisions get the best Indians have to first practice the key moral virtues of celibacy, of them and indirectly helping the English maintain power. courage, truthfulness, and an indifference to material wealth. In While Indians bicker about who should belong to the future other words, unless Indians focus on personal transformation Indian nation, Gandhi argues that India has always been—and first, their efforts at political transformation will never succeed. will always be—a single unified nation. He declares that Hindus In fact, Gandhi’s political program is organized around his and Muslims, North Indians and South Indians, and moderates fundamental belief that that all politics is bottom-up. This and extremists in theIndian National Congressare really all like means that individuals’ personal lives and practices are the quarreling brothers: their conflicts are temporary, but their driving force behind a nation’s political health and culture. It’s familial bonds are eternal. In fact, Gandhi emphasizes India’s impossible to create a free society by merely switching out historical, cultural, and spiritual unity precisely in order to help rulers and reforming institutions, Gandhi argues, particularly in Indians learn to view themselves as a single nation and demand a colonized country where the native population has virtually independence with a single, unified voice. no power over their own land, livelihoods, or laws. Rather, he When he wroteHind Swarajin 1909, Gandhi was confronting a argues, Indians must take matters into their own hands to hold profoundly divided India, and he worried that these divisions the government accountable and show that an alternative way would weaken the movement for independence. The first of organizing society is possible. Gandhi thinks that, by helping division Gandhi notes in his book is the bitter political divide people live morally, the Indian Independence Movement can between extremist and the moderate independence activists in give people trueSwarajeven before India formally becomes the Indian National Congress. He also talks about the militant independent. Essentially, rather petitioning the government for activists he recently met in London, who call themselves the freedom, he believes that Indians should organize themselves Young India Party—the readerinitially appears to be one of and start living free lives on their own, andthendemand that them. The moderates and extremists are divided by their the political system reflect the new society they have already tactics: the moderates want to petition the colonial established. This is most clear in Gandhi’s call forswadeshi, the government for independence, while the extremists want to practice of boycotting British goods and exclusively buying start an armed rebellion and assassinate British officials. But Indian products. Because the primary motivation for English because the moderates and extremists can’t agree on anything, colonialism is the opportunity to profit by economically they aren’t making any progress towards actually liberating exploiting India, Indians can undermine Britain’s profit margins India from British rule. by refusing to sell to or buy from them. A mass boycott would The other crucial division that Gandhi addresses is the growing form a separate economy outside the English’s reach, and an animosity between Hindus and Muslims in India. Indeed, the independent India can directly inherit this economy, rather reader—who is clearly a Hindu—argues that there is an “inborn than having to build a new one from scratch after the English enmity” between Hindus and Muslims. He considers Muslims withdraw. This shows how, by building a political movement to be violent, unclean, and immoral—especially because many from the bottom up, activists don’t have to wait for the Muslims eat meat. These beliefs were common, and they powerful to make concessions: instead, they immediately start particularly disturbed Gandhi. As a result of the religious split, building the free, just, and equal society that they are fighting India’s Muslim minority had begun advocating for a separate for. state. Gandhi strongly disagreed with this idea, which Gandhi’s belief that politics reflects a society’s underlying threatened the prospect of a unified fight for independence. moral values—rather than determining them—is still as Gandhi argues that Indians are divided not because of their widespread as it is controversial. However, its success in differing political or religious beliefs, but because of colonialism driving mass democratic movements throughout history is andmodern civilization. In reality, he concludes that India undeniable. In short, Gandhi reminds his readers that morality always has been—and always will be—a single, unified nation. and democracy won’t establish themselves: instead, the future Although moderates and extremists disagree on how to achieve of our lives and our governments are always in our own hands. Indian independence, Gandhi emphasizes that this is only a superficial division: they want the same thing and belong to the ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 7 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com same party. Even though the reader looks down on the leaders independence—remains powerful to this day. of the Indian National Congress, Gandhi carefully emphasizes that they—like several generations of Indian activists and SSYYMMBBOOLLSS revolutionaries before them—have dedicated their lives to the cause of Indian independence. In other words, while the Symbols appear inteal textthroughout the Summary and extremist revolutionaries think they stand alone against the Analysis sections of this LitChart. British, Gandhi reminds them that they are actually part of a long tradition of Indian nationalists and independence fighters. This long tradition only exists because Indians have long seen THE UPAS TREE themselves as a unified national community. Speaking asthe editor, Gandhi comparesmodern Gandhi also insists that Hindus and Muslims can and should civilizationto the highly toxic Upas tree (antiaris live in harmony. They did so for many centuries before the toxicaria) and uses the tree to demonstrate how moral, cultural, British arrived, and they only became rivals because of Britain’s and political life are inherently tied together. Essentially, divide-and-conquer strategy. While the reader subscribes to Gandhi believes that people's moral values are like the root of a the common misconception that India was a unified Hindu tree because everything else in society grows out from them, nation until Muslims invaded and took over the Indian including people's individual and family lives, the professions Subcontinent,the editorcorrects him: India has always been they choose, and the governments they build. ethnically, culturally, and religiously mixed. Hindus lived According to Gandhi, modern civilization is toxic, like the Upas peacefully under Muslim rulers and vice-versa. Most tree, because its roots are toxic: modern civilization’s importantly, Gandhi emphasizes that Hindus and Muslims relationship to the world is unbalanced and it fundamentally fundamentally believe the same things. They worship the same misunderstands human nature. Specifically, modern people God, their scriptures are very similar, and they subscribe to the value bodily and material things, while ignoring their mental same fundamental moral values—specifically, they are humble and spiritual well-being. If the Upas tree’s roots are toxic, with regards to material things, but strive ambitiously for Gandhi suggests, its branches are like the “parasitical spiritual improvement. Gandhi argues that Indians should unite professions” of law and medicine, which are really just around these shared values, which he calls ancient civilization, symptoms of the underlying problem. or the “religion which underlies all religions.” Because they share the values of ancient civilization, Hindus and Muslims Gandhi insists that, if activists want to reform the government also follow a common social structure: they traditionally live in or “parasitical professions,” they have to start at the root of the rural, relatively egalitarian village communities. He believes problem: modern civilization’s unbalanced values. Otherwise, that these shared values and traditional social structures they will simply create a new version of the same oppressive should form the basis for Indians’ demand for independence. society they are fighting. So while many independence activists see the fight forSwaraj(home-rule) as a merely political battle, The implications of Gandhi’s argument are clear: if India has Gandhi argues that it actually requires a complete and will always be a single nation, then the Indian people should transformation ofallaspects of Indian society. “True religion,” look past their superficial differences and demand he concludes, is like an axe that can cut down the Upas tree. independence with a unified voice. As a result, Indians could Then, Indians can plant the seeds of a new civilization—or form a single, democratic, and pluralistic nation—not a advance a new set of values—and grow a new, ethical kind of patchwork of different ones based on divisions of religion or society from the bottom up. But this requires individual and ideology. This is why Gandhi wanted India to be a secular collective moral reform, includingpassive resistance, voluntary democracy, even though he thinks its people should be poverty and celibacy, and a commitment to economic self- traditional and deeply religious. The government shouldn’t sufficiency. follow any particular religion, but rather the “religion which underlines all religions” and therefore unifies all Indians, whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Jewish, QQUUOOTTEESS Baha’i, or Parsi. Ultimately, the British ultimately partitioned India into two, Note: all page numbers for the quotes below refer to the against Gandhi’s wishes. Pakistan became an officially Muslim Cambridge University Press edition ofGandhi: ‘Hind Swaraj’ state, but India was founded to be an inclusive, secular and Other Writingspublished in 2011. democracy. However, Gandhi would likely see this as a limited victory, because in practice the Hindu nationalist movement—which was responsible for Gandhi’s assassination and has fought to oppress Muslims since ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 8 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com Preface Quotes translation ofsatyagraha, or passive resistance). And he I do not know whyHind Swarajhas been seized in India. To thought that this commitment to Truth was the me, the seizure constitutes further condemnation of the fundamental moral force that held humanity together, civilisation represented by the British Government. There is in creating peace and harmony in human communities the book not a trace of approval of violence in any shape or throughout history. Therefore, by serving the Truth, Gandhi form. The methods of the British Government are, believes he is serving the interests of humanity—including undoubtedly, severely condemned. To do otherwise would be those of all British subjects, not just Indians. InHind Swaraj, for me to be a traitor to Truth, to India, and to the Empire to he makes it clear that Indians aren’t the only ones who which I own allegiance. would benefit from a new, democratic, ethical government: so would the people of South Africa, which Gandhi called home while writing the book, and the poor and working Related Themes: people of England, who were also oppressed by the British Crown. Page Number:7 Explanation and Analysis Chapter 1 Quotes In the preface to his English version ofHind Swaraj, Gandhi explains why he has decided to translate the book: the You are impatient. I cannot afford to be likewise. If you will English government banned the original version, written in bear with me for a while, I think you will find that you will obtain his native language of Gujarati, as potentially seditious (or what you want. Remember the old proverb that the tree does likely to cause insurrection). Gandhi points out that this is not grow in one day. The fact that you have checked me, and somewhat ironic, because his book arguesagainstan armed that you do not want to hear about the well-wishers of India, revolution. Of course, he nevertheless insists that Indians shows that, for you at any rate, Home Rule is yet far away. If we should disobey the government through passive resistance, had many like you, we would never make any advance. This and the English government clearly saw this as undermining thought is worthy of your attention. its authority. In this preface, Gandhi specifically uses the seizure of his Related Characters:The Editor (speaker), The Reader book as further evidence of the government’s oppressiveness and immorality, but also as evidence that Related Themes: passive resistance is a powerful tool for political change. Page Number:14-15 While Gandhi believes in ethical self-defense—using force to prevent worse violence—the government was clearly Explanation and Analysis acting out of bare self-interest when it banned his book. In the first chapter of their lengthy dialogue, the reader This reflects Britain’s general ruling philosophy over the insists that the editor (Gandhi) take a side in the ongoing centuries it colonized India: it did whatever it considered debate between the moderates and extremists in the Indian necessary to make money, while ignoring Indians’ welfare National Congress. The reader is eager to start a revolution and painting them as subhuman. At the same time, if and looks down on the Congress, which he views as a tool of Gandhi’s book weren’t likely to encourage Indians to take the colonial government because some of its founders were matters into their own hands and resist the government, it’s English. He also looks down on the editor for praising the unlikely that the government would have ever seized it. In Congress’s leaders. In response, the editor declares that the fact, Gandhi shows that this was just a temporary move that reader is too hotheaded, and he underestimates his would inevitably fail: he got out the English translation and predecessors and his opposition alike. Because he lacks his ideas still spread. They likely attracted even more respect for history and has not learned to control his own attention than they ever would have if his book were never emotions, his activism might even turn out to be banned. counterproductive. Curiously, Gandhi declares that he is committed to Truth, In addition to defending the legacies of earlier India,andthe British Empire. It’s possible to make sense of independence activists, in this passage, Gandhi is this by remembering that he sees individuals’ moral values, introducing one of his book’s central claims: individuals have collective identities, and governments as all interconnected. to transform themselves before they can transform society. He conceived his book as a way of speaking and holding Specifically, Gandhi thinks that both nations and individuals onto the Truth (in fact, “holding onto truth” is a literal ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 9 v.007 Get hundreds more LitCharts atwww.litcharts.com have to learn to control themselves in the same way—this is Englishmen’s reputations in this passage: his goal is really to why he uses the wordSwarajto refer to both an individual’s help his readers distinguish between the Englishpeopleand self-rule and a nation’s home-rule. Individuals can become the Englishgovernment. It’s overly simplistic to say that all truly free and independent by learning to discipline Englishmen are evil because the English government has themselves and their emotions, act responsibly, and balance plundered India. (In fact, this is remarkably similar to the themselves mentally and spiritually. Similarly, India will truly racist logic that some Englishmen use to say that Indians are rule itself not when Indians control the levers of power, but inherently inferior to white people.) Gandhi by no means rather when Indians can collectively govern themselves denies that colonialism has devastated India—in fact, he wisely and ethically. But people have to be wise and ethical sees its effects as far more wide-ranging and sinister than in order to govern wisely and ethically, so Gandhi thinks even the character of the reader does. Rather, Gandhi just activists should work on themselves before they try to accurately identifies its true perpetrator. recruit others for the cause of independence. As he later points out, the majority of English people Indeed, Gandhi already knows that it will take decades of benefitted relatively little from England’s colonialism in mass mobilization to achieve true independence, so he India—the government oppresses them, kind of like it hopes activists throughout India and the world will take his oppresses Indians, and they are not responsible for its advice seriously. Instead of trying to launch a violent actions in India. Indeed, like all human beings, Englishmen revolution and take power immediately, they should see have moral consciences and are capable of following them, that building an independent and well-governed India will so many favor the cause of independence. Therefore, be a life-long (or even intergenerational) project. Moreover, Indians must learn to blame the English government for they must understand that this project will be completely colonialism, not the English people. Gandhi later takes this intertwined with their personal lives and qualities, which argument even further and blames India’s woes onmodern will largely determine whether or not it proves successful. civilization. The English may have brought this new way of life, but Indians eagerly adopted it and continue to lust for it. This means that hating the English will not fix their predicament; rather, Indians need to first reform The same rule holds good for the English as for the themselves. Indians. I can never subscribe to the statement that all Englishmen are bad. Many Englishmen desire Home Rule for India. That the English people are somewhat more selfish than Chapter 3 Quotes others is true, but that does not prove that every Englishman is bad. We who seek justice will have to do justice to others. Sir This discontent is a very useful thing. So long as a man is William does not wish ill to India—that should be enough for us. contented with his present lot, so long is it difficult to persuade As we proceed, you will see that, if we act justly, India will be him to come out of it. Therefore it is that every reform must be sooner free. You will see, too, that, if we shun every Englishman preceded by discontent. We throw away things we have, only as an enemy, Home Rule will be delayed. But if we are just to when we cease to like them. Such discontent has been them, we shall receive their support in our progress towards produced among us after reading the great works of Indians the goal. and Englishmen. Discontent has led to unrest, and the latter has brought about many deaths, many imprisonments, many banishments. Such a state of things will still continue. It must be Related Characters:The Editor (speaker), The Reader so. All these may be considered good signs, but they may also lead to bad results. Related Themes: Page Number:17 Related Characters:The Editor (speaker) Explanation and Analysis Related Themes: When the reader argues that all Englishmen are the enemy and should therefore be kicked out of India, Gandhi’s editor Page Number:23-24 firmly disagrees. In fact, numerous English writers have profoundly influenced his thinking, and many of the earliest Explanation and Analysis activists for Indian independence were English. In the third chapter of their dialogue, the reader asks the Of course, Gandhi is not just trying to redeem individual editor about the spreading nationalist unrest in India. The editor clarifies that this unrest is really the first phase in a ©2020 LitCharts LLC www.LitCharts.com Page 10 v.007