WHAT IS HIND SWARAJ
It is one of the most important book that Gandhi wrote. It was originally written in Gujarati in 1909 on the deck of a ship named S.S Kildare which was bringing Gandhi back from South Africa to London in a period of 10 days. It was first published in Indian Opinion, a journal that Gandhi used to edit in South Africa. Later, it was translated into English and was published in a form of book in 1910.
WHY WAS IT WRITTEN
It was written after Gandhi’s meeting with the leading ideologue of the extremist group and later of the “Hindu Mahasabha”, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, a brave and patriotic man, who wished to overthrow British rule from India through violent through his study of world history he was convinced that no country had won its freedom without an armed insurrection. Savarkar, thus, was working to train a band of Indian terrorist in London.
Gandhi although had the same intention to get India free from the British rule but his ideals and approach were different than Savarkar. Gandhi was convinced that India need not tk imitate the means used by the other nations of the world to get its independence and had the belief that India would win it’s freedom through moral and spiritual force which was superior to material force or the force of arms. As a result he started to write Hind Swaraj to explain his point of view.
IMPORTANCE OF HIND SWARAJ
It is a seminal text of Gandhi’s ideology and a non-violent revolutionary’s handbook. Every person should read the book at least once in their lifetime. The book has the power to make us wake up from our stupor which is caused by the intoxication of modernity and westernization.
The self-destructive lifestyle of consumerism that we lead needs the jolt that the Hind Swaraj offers.
Gandhi has clearly stated in the book that Swaraj obtained by violence will be no Swaraj and it will demean us to the level of our former colonizer. He made a holistic approach in proving his point. He condemns the modern civilization because of its materialistic and immoral leanings that encourages vices and makes us oblivious towards the purpose of life which is the cultivation of virtue.
The modern life makes human being essentially a physical entity whose aim is to accumulate comforts. In order to give us the comfort modern civilization adopts a predatory and destructive approach to nature. All the progress that we see are at the cost of enormous damage to the environment and some are even irreversible.
Similarly much of development of modern world happens through the exploitation of human beings. Systems like slavery, colonialism, indentured labour, ill-paid system are developed for the majority of the poor to serve for the comfort of the rich few.
Thus, Gandhi showed that modernity is driven by the baser instincts of greed, lust for power, urge to dominate over others and so on and we must not succumb for the craze of modernity to prevent the dehumanisation of our species.
Instead, Gandhi advocates for the decentralisation of power and wealth and deglmourizes the opponent for us to start afresh. He wants modern Indians to abandon western mentality and make an attempt to attain self-sufficiency, self-respect and self-realization which according to Gandhi are the planks of Swaraj.
Concluding, Gandhi says Swaraj is a Vedic word which means more than just self rule. It suggests autonomy but a very high level of moral and spiritual development. Such a Swaraj is a lifelong project and includes every aspect of our lives. Swaraj is a concept which is more deep and wider than independence.
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