Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj and Indian National Movement

Abstract

Hind Swaraj was published in Gujarati language in the journal Indian Opinion under the title Hind Swarajaya in 1909, and its English version as Indian Home Rule by Mahatma Gandhi was published in Phoenix, Natal, 1910. This extraordinary work possesses an authority of its own. It is the seed from which the Gandhian thought has grown. He considered the views expressed in the ‘Hind Swaraj’ as sacred as ‘almost part of his being’. Gandhi, through the expressions in this, spelt out his strategy for future action which was to be rooted in the belief of the pre-eminence of ancient Indian civilisation, which in contrast with the western ‘represents the best that the world has ever seen’. The high point of the book is the virtue of non-violence as against violent revolution and the need to use ethical means to attain independence by means of educational reforms and adoption of technology suitable to Indian conditions. He advised the revolutionaries to follow the righteousness of Indian culture by reverting ‘to their own glorious civilisation’. The core of the book, as conveyed through the title is an analysis of the nature of British rule in India and its manifestations, its consequences in the political and moral decay of Indian society. Hind Swaraj is the prescription to pull India out of this muddle.