'Hind Swaraj Or The Indian Home-Rule' (1909)

The Gandhian concept of Self-rule

HIND SWARAJ, the title of the first definitive writing of Mahatma Gandhi, and which continues to evoke critical interest the world over even now, literally means 'self-rule in India'.

This small book of about 30,000 words was written in Gujarati, in November 1909, on board the ship during Gandhi's return trip from England to South Africa after an abortive mission, within 10 days, 40 of the 275 pages being written with left hand. As stated by Gandhi himself: "I wrote the entire Hind Swaraj for my dear friend Dr. Pranjivan Mehta. All the argument in the book is reproduced almost as it took place with him." [CWMG 71: 238] It was published in the Indian Opinion in Natal and was soon banned by the Government in India because it contained 'matter declared to be seditious'. On that, Gandhi published the English translation from Natal to show the innocuous nature of its contents. The ban was finally lifted on 21 December 1938.

A number of editions have been published thereafter, the most common being that published by Navjivan press in India in 1938 with the title 'Hind Swaraj: the Indian Home Rule'. In 1924, an American edition, called 'Sermon on the Sea', (Intro. by John Haynes Holmes) was published from Chicago. Recently, a Reader on it has been published under the 'Cambridge Texts in Modem politics', edited by Professor Anthony J. Parel of University of Calgary (Canada) in 1997.

The book has 20 chapters and 2 appendices. Appendix I lists twenty references for further reading, including six by Tolstoy, two by Thoreau, two by Ruskin, one by Plato (Defence and Death of Socrates), and one by Mazzini (Duties of Man), and one each by Dadabhai Navroji, and R. C. Dutt on the economic condition of colonial India.

71 quotations from 'Hind Swaraj'(1938 edition), covering the essential philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, are being given hereafter.

1. Duties of a Newspaper

"One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. I]

2. Obligation to Dadabhai Navroji

"Is Dadabhai less to be honoured because, in the exuberance of youth, we are prepared to go a step further? Are we, on that account, wiser than he? It is a mark of wisdom not to kick away the very step from which we have risen higher. The removal of a step from a staircase brings down the whole of it."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. I]

3. Justice

"We who seeks justice will have to do justice to others."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. I]

4. Discontent and Unrest

"Unrest is, in reality, discontent. This discontent is a very useful thing. As long as a man is contented with his present lot, so long is it difficult to persuade him to come out of it. Therefore it is that every reform must be preceded by discontent. We throw away things we have, only when we cease to like them."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. III]

5. What is Swaraj?

"In effect it means this: that we want English rule without the Englishman. You want the tiger's nature, but not the tiger; that is to say, you would make India English. And when it becomes English, it will be called not Hindustan but Englistan. This is not the Swaraj that I want."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. IV]

6. The Condition of British Parliament

"The best men are supposed to be elected by the people. The members serve without pay and therefore, it must be assumed, only for the public weal. The electors are considered to be educated and therefore we should assume that they would not generally make mistakes in their choice. Such a Parliament should not need the spur of petitions or any other pressure. Its work should be so smooth that its effects would be more apparent day by day. But, as a matter of fact, it is generally acknowledged that the members are hypocritical and selfish. Each thinks of his own little interest. It is fear that is the guiding motive. What is done today may be undone tomorrow. It is not possible to recall a single instance in which finality can be predicted for its work. When the greatest questions are debated, its members have been seen to stretch themselves and to doze. Sometimes the members talk away until the listeners are disgusted. Carlyle has called it the "talking shop of the world". Members vote for their party without a thought. Their so-called discipline binds them to it. If any member, by way of exception, gives an independent vote, he is considered a renegade. Parliament is simply a costly toy of the nation.

The Prime Minister is more concerned about his power than about the welfare of Parliament. His energy is concentrated upon securing the success of his party. His care is not always that Parliament shall do right. In order to gain their ends, they certainly bribe people with honours. I do not hesitate to say that they have neither real honesty nor a living conscience. To the English voters their newspaper is their Bible. The same fact is differently interpreted by different newspapers, according to the party in whose interests they are edited."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. V]

7. Civilization

"Formerly, men were made slaves under physical compulsion. Now they are enslaved by temptation of money and of the luxuries that money can buy. There are now diseases of which people never dreamt before, and an army of doctors is engaged in finding out their cures, and so hospitals have increased. This is a test of civilization."

"This civilization takes note neither of morality nor of religion."

"Civilization seeks to increase bodily comforts, and it fails miserably even in doing so."

Civilization is not an incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English people are at present afflicted by it."

"Civilization is like a mouse gnawing while its soothing us."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. VI & VIII]

8. Why was India Lost?

"The English have not taken India; we have given it to them. They are not in India because of their strength, but because we keep them.

When our Princes fought among themselves, they sought the assistance of Company Bahadur. That co-operation was versed alike in commerce and war. It was unhampered by questions of morality. Its object was to increase its commerce and to take money. The Hindus and the Mohammedans were at daggers drawn. This, too, gave the Company its opportunity and thus we created the circumstances that gave the Company its control over India.

They wish to convert the whole world into a vast market for their goods. They will leave no stone unturned to reach the goal.

It is my deliberate opinion that India is being ground down, not under the English heel, but under that of modern civilization. We are turning away from God."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. VII & VIII]

9. Fearlessness Is Strength

"Strength lies in absence of fear, not in the quantity of flesh and muscle we have on our bodies."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. VIII]

10. Evil Has Wings, Good Takes Time

"Those who want to do good are not selfish, they are not in a hurry, they know that to impregnate people with good requires a long time. But evil has wings. To build a house takes time. Its destruction takes none."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. IX]

11. We Indians Are One

"We were one nation before they [The English] came to India. One thought inspired us. Our mode of life was the same. It was because we were one nation that they were able to establish one kingdom. Subsequently they divided us.

And we Indians are one as no two Englishmen are. Only you and I and others who consider ourselves civilized and superior persons imagine that we are many nations."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. IX]

12. Concept of Swadeshi

"God set a limit to man's locomotive ambition in the construction of his body. Man immediately proceeded to discover means of overriding the limit. God gifted man with intellect that he might know his Maker. Man abused it so that he might forget his maker. I am so constructed that I can only serve my immediate neighbors, but in my conceit I pretend to have discovered that I must with my body serve every individual in the Universe."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. X]

13. India Is A Nation

"India cannot cease to be one nation because people belonging to different religions live in it. The introduction of foreigners does not necessarily destroy the nation; they merge in it. A country is one nation only when such a condition obtains in it. That country must have a faculty for assimilation. India has ever been such a country."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. X]

14. Religion and Nationality Not Synonymous

"In reality, there are as many religious as there are individuals; but those who are conscious of the spirit of nationality do not interfere with one another's religion.

In no part of the world are one nationality and one religion synonymous terms; nor has it ever been so in India."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. X]

15. Hindu-Muslim unity - I

"Do people become enemies because they change their religion? Is the God of the Mahomedan different from the God of the Hindu?"

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap X]

16. Cow Protection

"If I were overfull of pity for the cow, I should sacrifice my life to save her but not take my brother's. This, I hold, is the law of our religion.

Who protects the cow from destruction by Hindus when they cruelly ill-treat her?"

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. X]

17. Weak Unity is Fragile

"A clay pot would break through impact, if not with one stone, then with another. The way to save the pot is not to keep it away from the danger point but to bake it so that no stone would break it."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. X]

18. Hindu-Muslim Unity - II

"There is mutual distrust between the two communities."

I do not suggest that the Hindus and the Mahomedans will never fight. Two brothers living together often do so. We shall sometimes have our heads broken. Such a thing ought not to be necessary, but all men are not equitable. When people are in a rage, they do many foolish things.

How shall a third party distribute justice amongst them? Those who fight may except to be injured."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. X]

19. Lawyers

"My firm opinion is that the lawyers have enslaved India, have accentuated Hindu-Mahomedan dissensions and have confirmed English authority."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XI]

20. Law & Lawyers

"The profession teaches immorality, it is exposed to temptation from which few are saved.

It is one of the avenues of becoming wealthy and their interest exists in multiplying disputes.

Why do they want more fees than common laborers? Why are their requirements greater? In what way are they more profitable to the country than the laborers?

The parties alone know who is right. We, in our simplicity and ignorance, imagine that a stranger, by taking our money, gives us justice.

What I have said with reference to the pleaders necessarily applies to the judges; they are first cousins; and the one gives strength to the other."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. X]

21. Doctors

"I have indulged in vice, I contract a disease, a doctor cures me, the odds are that I shall repeat the vice. Had the doctor not intervened become happy."

"He is a true physician who probes the cause of disease."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XII & VII]

22. Indian Civilization - I

"I believe that the civilization India has evolved is not to be in the world.

It is a charge against India that her people are so uncivilized, ignorant and stolid, that it is not possible to induce them to adopt any changes. It is a charge really against our merit. What we have tested and found true on the anvil of experience, we dare not change. Many thrust their advice upon India, and she remains steady. This is her beauty: it is the sheet-anchor of our hope."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIII]

23. What Is True Civilization?

"Civilization is 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 attain mastery over our mind and our passions. So doing, we know ourselves. The Gujarati equivalent for civilization means 'good conduct."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIII]

24. Indian Civilization - II

"The more we indulge our passions, the more unbridled they become. Our ancestors, therefore, set a limit to our indulgences. They saw that happiness was largely a mental condition."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIII]

25. Indian Civilization - III

"We have had no system of life-corroding competition. Each followed his own occupation or trade and charged a regulation wage. It was not that we did not know how to invent machinery, but our forefathers knew that, if we set our hearts after such things, we would become slaves and lose our moral fibre. They, therefore, after due deliberation decided that we should only do what we could with our hands and feet."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIII]

26. Indian Civilization - IV

"They further reasoned that large cities were a snare and an encumbrance and that people would not be happy in them, that there would be gangs of thieves and robbers, prostitution and vice flourishing in them and that poor men would be robbed by rich men. They were, therefore, satisfied with small villages."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIII]

27. Indian Civilization - V

"They saw that kings and their swords were inferior to the sword of ethics, and they, therefore, held the sovereigns of the earth to be inferior to the Rishis and the Fakirs."

[M.K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XVI]

28. Indian Civilization - VI

"Justice was tolerably fair. The ordinary rule was to avoid courts. There were no touts to lure people into them. This evil, too, was noticeable only in and around capitals."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIII]

29. Indian Civilization Vs Western Civilization

"The tendency of Indian civilization is to elevate the moral being, that of the Western civilization is to propagate immorality."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIII]

30. Swaraj Is Self-Rule

"It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves. It is, therefore, in the palm of our hands. But such Swaraj has to be experienced, by each one for himself. One drowning man will never save another."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIV]

31. Freedom from England

"If the English become Indianized, we can accommodate them. If they wish to remain, in India along with their civilization, there is no room for them."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XIV]

32. Swaraj For Everyone

"I believe that you want the millions of India to be happy, not that you want the reins of government in your hands. If that be so, we have to consider only one thing: how can the millions obtain self-rule?"

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XV]

33. Patriotism

"My patriotism does not teach me that I am to allow people to be crushed under the heel of Indian princes if only the English retire.

By patriotism I mean the welfare of the whole people, and if I could secure it at the hands of the English, I should bow down my head to them."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XV]

34. Sacrifice Is Bravery

"What we need to do is sacrifice ourselves. It is a cowardly thought, that of killing others. Dhingra was a patriot, but his love was blind."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XV]

35. Gains Of Fear Short-Lived

"What is granted under fear can be retained only so long as the fear lasts."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XV]

36. Means and End - I

"Your belief that there is no connection between the means and the end is a great mistake. Through that mistake even men who have been considered religious have committed grievous crimes.

The means may be likened to a seed, the end to a tree; and there is just the same inviolable connection between the means and the end as there is between the seed and the tree.

We reap exactly as we sow."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XVI]

37. Rights & Duties

"But real rights are a result of performance of duty; And, where everybody wants rights, who shall give them to whom?

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XVI]

38. Means and End - II

"If I want to deprive you of your watch, I shall certainly have to fight for it; if I want to buy your watch, I shall have to pay you for it; and if I want a gift I shall have to plead for it; and according to the means I employ, the watch is stolen property, my own property, or a donation. Thus we see three different results from three different means.

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XVI]

39. Means and End - III

"Fair means alone can produce fair results, and that, at least in the majority of cases, if not indeed in all, the force of love and pity is infinitely greater than the force of arms. There is harm in the exercise of brute force, never in that of pity."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XV]

40. Brute Force Vs. Love-Force

"A petition of an equal is a sign of courtesy; a petition from a slave is a symbol of his slavery. A petition backed by force is a petition from an equal and, when he transmits his demand in the form of a petition, it testifies to his nobility. Two kinds of force can back petitions. "We shall hurt you if you do not give this," is one kind of force; it is the force of arms. The second kind of force can thus be stated: "If you do not concede our demand, we shall be no longer your petitioners. You can govern us only so long as we remain the governed; we shall no longer have any dealing with you." The force implied in this may be described as love-force, soul-force, or, more popularly but less accurately, passive resistance. This force is indestructible."

[M. K. Gandhi, Hind Swaraj. Chap. XVI]

41. Love-Soul-Truth-Force

"The force of love is the same as the force of the soul or truth.

The fact that there are so many men still alive in the world shows that it is based not on the force of arms but on the force of truth or love."