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Hind Swaraj : In The Context of Globalization

Dr. Chandrajeet Kaur
Reader and Head, Dept of English, Smt. CHM College, Ulhasnagar

Decalogues - a very moving and important series of ten films by the legendary Polish filmmaker, Krzysztof Kieslowskie, begins with the heart-rending story of a rationalist father, who believes that the universe is structured according to strict scientific principles and that every human action and reaction can be quantified into measurable units.  He tries to train his philosophically inclined nine-year-old son in accordance with his ideal of a precision-driven universe, and attempts to give logical answers to the boy’s questions regarding the nature of life and death.  The Computer, in the film becomes the ultimate God, who can provide answers to all questions if the accurate data is fed into it. At the end of the film, the father is devastated by the sudden and inexplicable death of this boy,  which is the result of a gross miscalculation on the part of the Computer, into which all the relevant data had been fed. The film, thus, end with a big question mark on what Mahatma Gandhi, in his 1909 book ‘Hind Swaraj’ called ‘modern civilisation’.

First, a brief introduction to this little book, which is so basic to Gandhian Thought and Ideology today. Written frantically in just fifteen days on board ship from London to South Africa in 1909, when he was returning from a failed mission to placate the extremists of the freedom movement in England, Hind Swaraj was also the result of his successful experiment with satyagraha in the context of the situation in South Africa. Its avowed aim, in Gandhiji’s own words was ‘a condemnation of modern civilisation’. 

In an age that has made such remarkable progress in science and technology most of his ideas seem anachronistic and outdated. In the present scenario of globalisation in which the world has shrunk to a global village, where information is available at the click of a mouse, in which revolutionary changes have taken place in medicine, astronomy, physics, it might shock the uninitiated reader that Hind Swaraj advocates the abolition of all that is associated with ‘progress’, and singles out railways, doctors and lawyers as particularly harmful to the rightful development of the human race. He defines true civilisation as ‘sabhayata’ or good conduct - ‘that mode of conduct, which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms.  To observe morality is to obtain mastery over our mind and passions.’  On the other hand Western or modern civilisation is harmful because ‘people living in it make bodily welfare the object of living.’  There are four specific counts on which Hind Swaraj critiques modern civilisation:

  • Civilisation increases the bodily comfort of human beings and therefore it is much sought after. But it may not even be successful in doing so. So, machinery replaces human endeavour, instead of using hands and feet, we press a button… leading to unhealthy lifestyles.

  • Civilisation plays little heed to religion or morality.

  • It has taken such a hold on the people in Europe that those who are in it appear to be half mad.  They lack real physical strength or courage.  They keep up their energy by intoxication.

  • This civilization is such that one has only to be patient and it will be self-destroyed. In 1909, this is very prophetic, as the turbulence of the two World Wars and the phenomenal rise of global terrorism in the post second world war era shows. 

Globalisation, which has become almost a synonym for modern civilisation is a process that is deeply connected with scientific and technological development.  In the resurgent capitalistic ideology that has re-emerged from the fall of communist regimes all over the world, the idea of ‘socialism’ itself has been suspect even in India. The advantages of globalisation seem to be so obvious that it is only recently that it has been open to criticism. Any basic definition of the term is in fact a valorization of it:

‘Globalisation symbolizes a world in motion providing people with resources to new ways of being human in the fast changing world…[it] ceaselessly cuts across national boundaries; it involves flows of goods, capital, people, information, ideas, images and risks across national borders, combined with the emergence of social networks and political institutions’ [Jognand and Michael, 2006:1]. It has also been defined by Stanley Hall as ‘integrating and connecting cultures and communities in new space-time combinations’, [Hall, 1996:619].

But, along with its much acclaimed advantages, the process of globalisation is also a very exclusivising one:  the global village it has in its present ethos entails ‘growing unemployment due to inability of smaller industries to compete with the international industrial firms, loss of livelihood for traditional artisans and craftsmen, migration of people from their original environment for livelihood [Jognand and Michael, 2006:5]. As Nash says ‘multiple corporations have consolidated and extended an already existing post-colonial division of labour, since they mainly operate from the developed world and take advantage of cheap labour and resources in the under-developed parts of the globe’ [Nash, 2000: 49]. Hind Swaraj, as early as 1909 had sounded a warning on this aspect of modern civilisation.  – that the spread of western civilisation was responsible for the impoverishment of the colonised nations and that a western hegemony could be established even in a country with such a rich cultural heritage as India:

‘Indeed, our gods even are made in Germany.  What need, then, to speak of matches, pins and glassware?  What did India do before these articles were introduced?  Precisely the same should be done today’[HS] ‘They wish to convert the whole world into a vast market for their goods’.

The civilisation that we have adopted has helped us to ‘build better houses, wear long trousers, carry revolvers, plough vast tract by means of steam engines and can amass great wealth. ..Press buttons for various amenities.

…Formerly, men worked in the open air only as much as they liked.  Now thousands of workmen meet together and for the same of maintenance work in factories or mines.  …They are obliged to work, at the risk of their lives, at most dangerous occupations, for the sake of millionaires.  …Formerly, men were made slaves under physical compulsion.  Now they are enslaved by temptation of money and of the luxuries that money can buy.[HS].

It is in this context that Gandhiji calls for a halt to the growth of mills and the spread of railways in Hind Swaraj.  He believes that railways have increased the risk of famines and starvation among the native population because goods are sold in markets that give the highest rates. This raises the very important question of local requirements versus the global market.  Just as global markets are destroying local enterprise, the locomotive ability of the human race is destroying the humanitarian spirit because it does not look after the needs of the local population.  Similarly, the rise of mills in the early part of the 20th  century destroyed the handicrafts of India and led to the impoverishment of the local artisans.  This is a phenomenon that has got a further impetus because of the opening up of foreign markets, and more so the opening up of the Indian consumer markets to foreign goods. The fact that lamps and crackers for festivals like Diwali are available at very cheap rates in our country today show that our own labour force lies impoverished. It is in this context that the idea of swadeshi, which is so central to Gandhian thought, assumes special significance in a globalised world.  The charkha, which once symbolised the mass participation of the poorest of the poor in the freedom struggle, can today be recast as the image of the rights of the local populations as against the onslaught of global economic policies. This is how Gandhian ideology is constantly revived and reinvented.

Modern medicine is another aspect of modern civilisation that comes under fire in Hind Swaraj. Doctors, who seem essential to the comfortable life today, are seen as pure evil in the Gandhian world view: His attack on doctors is three pronged - They take care of just the body and try to cure the body of diseases.  This makes human society more negligent of its life style. It seems prophetic that Gandhiji could put his finger on the pulse of the problem at such an early stage.  Today, it is being increasingly acknowledged that most of the diseases that are rampant are related to life style and to unhealthy food habits. Since most painkillers are available over the shelf, and can even be ordered on the net, we ignore the need to maintain a healthy life style because cure is so easily available. Prevention is better than Cure,’ a very modern mantra is what Gandhiji has emphasised in his attack on doctors.  Doctors, says Gandhiji, weaken the spirit by pampering the body. Next, animal vivisection is an accepted medical practice in western civilisation that we have adopted, even though no religion sanctions such cruelty; and with the awakening of the consciousness of animal rights and the need to allow animals to live with dignity and not make them pawns in the constant experimentation for more effective pain alleviators for human beings have become central issues in a world that has recognised the need to provide a space for all the inhabitants of the earth to maintain the ecological balance of the planet.  That is why alternative systems of medicine are becoming more acceptable and popular today – and Ayurveda and Yoga are coming back to us in a big way, even though they are making a comeback through the West itself.

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