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When Lord Lothian was at Segaon he asked me if I could give him a copy of
Hind Swaraj, for, as he said, all that Gandhiji was teaching now lay in the
germ in that little book which deserved to be read and re-read in order to
understand Gandhiji properly.
Curiously enough, about the same time, Shrimati
Sophia Wadia was writing an article on the book exhorting all our Ministers and
M.L.A.s, all the British and Indian Civil Servants, indeed every one who wanted
the present non- violent experiment in democracy to succeed. to read and re-
read the book. "How can a non-violent man be a dictator in his own home?" she asks. "How can he he a
wine-bibber? How can a lawyer advise
his client to go to court and fight? The answers to all these questions raise
highly important practical issues. The people's education in Hind Swaraj,
in which these problems are dealt with from the point of view of principles,
should he extensively carried on."
Her appeal is
timely. The book was
written in 1908, during Gandhiji's return voyage from London in answer to the
Indian school of violence and published serially in the columns of the Indian
Opinion edited by Gandhiji. Then it was published in book form to he
proscribed by the Bombay Government. Gandhiji has translated the book for Mr.Kallenbach. In answer to the
Bombay
Government's action, he published the
English translation. When Gokhale saw the translation, on his visit to South
Africa in 1912, he thought it so crude and hastily conceived that he prophesied
that Gandhiji himself would destroy the book after spending a year in India.
With deference to the memory of the great teacher, 1 may say that his prediction
has failed to come true. In 1921, Gandhiji, writing about it, said: "It
teaches the gospel of love in place of that of hate. It replaces violence with
self-sacrifice. It pits soul-force against brute force. I withdraw nothing
except one word of it, and that is in the deference of a lady friend. The
booklet is a severe condemnation of 'modern civilization'. It was written in
1908. My conviction is deeper today than ever......But I would warn the reader
against thinking that I am today aiming at the Swaraj described therein. I know
that India is not ripe for it. It may seem an impertinence to say so. But such
is my conviction. I am individually working for the self-rule pictured therein.
But today my corporate activity is undoubtedly devoted to the attainment of
Parliamentary Swaraj, in accordance with the wishes of the people of
India." Even in 1938 he would alter nothing in the book, except perhaps the
language in some parts. It is being presented to the reader abridged.
But whether India may be
ripe for it or not, it is best for Indians to study the seminal book which
contains the ultimate logical conclusion of the acceptance of the twin
principles of Truth and Non-violence, and then decide whether these principles
should be accepted or rejected. On being told that the book had been out of
print for sometime and that a few copies of its Madras edition were available at
eight annas a copy, Gandhiji said that it should be published immediately at a
nominal price, so that it may be within easy reach of those who may wish to read
it. The Navjivan Publishing House is therefore publishing it at practically the
cost price.
Wardha, 2-2-38 Mahadev Desai
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