The relevance of Hind Swaraj

The fulcrum of his moral and political thought. VIVEK PINTO

The enduring significance of Gandhi, in no small part, lies in Hind Swaraj, a clearly written and easy to read book which Raghavan Iyer calls "the point d'appui [the fulcrum] of Gandhi's moral and political thought." Iyer says, "the essential relevance of Hind Swaraj is perhaps even more poignant today owing to the deepening and spreading sense of alienation, especially among the young, from the beliefs and values of an acquisitive, if affluent, society."

A question rarely asked is: why did Gandhi write Hind Swaraj? Was there one important reason that spurred Gandhi to write this seminal and polemical work, as it is a dialogue between the "Reader" and "Editor"? The latter was Gandhi and the former were Indian extremists who, in 1905, came to prominence in London. By 1907, India House was the hub for "youth sent on a scholarship scheme" to terrorise the Raj by murdering, important British officials and exporting arms to India. Thus, they expected the British to grant India independence.

James Hunt, an American scholar, in Gandhi in London (1978) answers the question. Hunt writes, Gandhi "had his most public encounter with ideology of terrorism," during a dinner to celebrate the Dussehra festival on October 24, 1909, at Nazimuddin's restaurant in Bayswater, London, and that "as a consequence of this encounter Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj." (p.236) The existence of an "ideology of terrorism" is evidenced by the murder of Sir William Curzon-Wylie, an aide to the secretary of state for India, Lord John Morley, in July 1909, by Madanlal Dhingra, a student and member of this group.

Gandhi and V.D. Savarkar (1883-1966), a fanatical anarchist and spokesperson for Indian terrorists — extradited in 1910 and transported for life in the conspiracy to murder the British Collector of Nasik, A.M.T. Jackson — spoke at this dinner. Gandhi in "A Word of Explanation," Young India, January 1921, writes, "It [Hind Swaraj] was written ... in answer to the Indian school of violence ... I came in contact with every known Indian anarchist in London. Their bravery impressed me, but I felt that their zeal was misguided."

Gandhi's moral and principled argument with Savarkar and "the Indian school of violence" was that violence was intrinsically evil and opposed to human values. Hence, its ends of purportedly gaining swaraj for India were immoral and abhorrent. Further, he argued: what did the terrorists envisage for free India after British departure? In other words, was terrorism and turmoil going to be used against free Indians? Gandhi using polemics as a literary device in Hind Swaraj dialogued with the anarchists, who posed as nationalists, on various critical issues pertaining to India and unambiguously concluded that, "violence was no remedy for India's ills". Instead, Gandhi called for "a gospel of love in place of hate ... replace violence with self-sacrifice ... pit soul force [satyagraha] against brute force."

Gandhi said, "I must confess that I do not draw a sharp line or any distinction between economics and ethics. Economics that hurt the moral well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and therefore [we] ... insult the naked by giving them clothes they do not need, instead of giving them work they sorely need." Is this the India that you want? The writer is a Gandhi scholar who teaches at the University of Tokyo. The Hindu Magazine Sunday, Oct 02, 2005