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A Vision For India |
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Vivek Pinto
Let my friend [referring to V. D.
Savarkar and colleagues] remember that Hind Swaraj …
As the booklet itself states, was
written in answer to the revolutionary’s arguments and methods. It
was an attempt to offer the revolutionary something infinitely
superior to what he had, retaining the whole of the spirit of
self-sacrifice and bravery that was to be found in the
revolutionary.
M. K. Gandhi, Young India, May 7,
1925.
In the entire collection of Mahatma
Gandhi’s (October 2, 1869 to January 30, 1948) writings, currently
100 volumes, there is one, deceptively, slim work Hind Swaraj (1909)
which occupies a unique place and essential to comprehend his
thought. Were Gandhi only an architect of India’s non-violent,
freedom struggle and a moral philosopher-activist who gave ahimsa,
Swaraj, satyagraha, swadeshi, and sarvodaya, and equality their
original connotations, than history would certainly constrict his
import. It is in Gandhi’s unrelenting innovation, application, and
expansion of these ethico-political tenets, which gives other
“experimenters in truth” similar scope to test and progress in their
praxis, that his relevance has transcended time, origin, function,
and appeal. Every publishing house, worth its black ink welcomes an
original, substantive, and insightful work on Gandhi of which there
continues to be a stream. This itself should silence scepties about
Gandhi’s pertinency.
The relevance of Hind
Swaraj
The ending 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 fulerum]
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.”
Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj on the return
voyage from London to South Africa (November 13 to 22,1909), aboard
the RMS Kildonan Castle. He travelled to London to place the Asian
struggle in the Transvaal befour the Imperial government and public.
Gandhi’s aim was to get the British to accept Indians in South
Africa as equal citizens of Empire, irrespective of race, or colour,
or religion, and to life restriction on immigration of educated
Indians to South Africa.
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.
Consequence of an
“encounter”
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 evidence by the
murder of Sir William Curzon-Wylie, an aide to the 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 Savarker 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 wanted an India where terrorism
and violence weren’t an option to resolve conflicts. Violence crated
more violence and was a downward spiral into down death, and
destruction of the social fabric. Gandhi pleaded life-long for
non-violence; dialogue; consetions building; love and understanding
of the opponent; religious tolerance; massive employment schemes to
give productive employment for India’s millions, especially its
youth; rebuilding India’s villages and creating our menical
communities of care and concern; promotion of local handicrafts and
skills; self-reliance in agriculture and industry; production of
need-based basic goods and service; empowering communities to
participate and create their own political structures from
bottom-up; encouraging self-help projects for human development of
all so that swaraj would not result independency; making basic
situation a priority; ensuring that all Indians irrespective of
their religion, caste, class, colour, or education were equal and
had equality of opportunity in every sphere of life: and that one’s
moral values would underpin every activity.
Gandhi said, “I must confess that I do
not draw a sharp line or any distinction between economics that hurt
the moral well-being of an individual or a nation are immoral and
therefore [we] … insult the linked by giving them clothes they do
not need, instead of giving them work they sorely need. “Is this the
India that you want? Source: THE HINDU, October 2, 2005 |