Hind Swaraj

Hind Swaraj, or Indian Home Rule, by Mohandas K. “Mahatma” Gandhi, was published in 1909 and inspires people in India to work for independence from British colonial control. The book outlines Gandhi’s critique of Britain’s domination of India; it urges the Indian people to reject English customs, laws, and industry in favor of traditional Indian ways. Gandhi also encourages India to reject armed conflict and instead adopt a policy of nonviolent, passive resistance.

Hind Swaraj is at first banned by the British, then translated into English and published in 1912 and again in a 1938 edition that further galvanizes the independence movement.

The book opens with several short preambles that provide background on the tensions between Britain and its Indian subjects. Included are introductions by Gandhi, who reminds readers that his original 1909 manuscript survives essentially unaltered in 1938, as his views have not changed but deepened.

The main chapters of Gandhi’s book take the form of a question-and-answer interview between a Reader and an Editor. The Reader’s probing and thoughtful questions and challenges, which often reflect common views in India, give the Editor a chance to explain in detail Gandhi’s philosophy and beliefs, including his theory of compassionate nonviolence as the best way to achieve Indian freedom.

The first several chapters outline the reasons for India’s disenchantment with British rule. Gandhi’s critique of British civilization is severe; he contrasts its mechanized obsession with profits and self-indulgence against India’s sophisticated culture of peaceful virtues. Gandhi suggests that England is besotted with its own economic success and is unable to help itself from enslaving other lands in its endless pursuit of profitable resources.

Chapters 7 through 12 detail the failings of India’s response to its own subjugation. Gandhi believes Indians have let themselves be seduced by modern conveniences from Europe, permitting Britain to rule over them in exchange for a few luxuries, along with a great deal of strife and unease. The result is a nation that has become weak and self-indulgent, having set aside its traditional virtues for the uncertain benefits of modernization, machinery, and unbridled greed.

Chapters 13 through 20 examine Gandhi’s revolutionary theory of Satyagraha, or truth-force, a system of nonviolent civil disobedience that Gandhi believes suits the Indian culture of compassion and humility better than violence does and will help India rid itself of foreign influence. He asserts that violence harms the instigator as much as or more than it hurts the enemy and that nonviolent resistance, with its difficulties and sacrifice, ennobles both resister and opponent, who will together be transformed positively by the encounter.

Gandhi’s short book serves as an operating manual for the civil disobedience movement that spreads across the globe during the 20th century and transforms not just India, but many nations and peoples. Gandhi is a household name in India and elsewhere; his words and deeds have transformed political institutions worldwide.