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Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who was not just a political figure but also a social and political reformer, is one of the finest leaders the world has ever known. He was a humanist who led the nation toward freedom. He was also a visionary and spiritual figure. He is well-known throughout the world for his nonviolent philosophy.

He played a crucial part in the Indians' fight for civil rights in South Africa as well as the freedom struggle in India by employing the tool of nonviolence.Gandhi, who had been a victim of racial discrimination, began a lifelong campaign against injustice in South Africa after becoming a victim of such instances. His time in South Africa, both personally and professionally, gave him the basis he needed to later enter the Indian political scene. Gandhi's revolutionary ideological ideas that transformed the political landscape of India were greatly influenced by South Africa. Numerous factors that affected him led to the emergence of the well-known idea of Satyagraha. He read a lot of religious texts on Christianity and Hinduism in South Africa, including the Bhagwat Gita. Ralph Waldo, John Ruskin, Leo Tolstoy, and Henry David Thoreau's writings also had a significant impact on him. All of these influential writers emphasized the idea of using non-cooperation as a civic defence against tyranny in government, but Gandhi gave the idea a concrete form. Gandhi, who was influenced by Vaishnavism and Jainism, demonstrated to the world how nonviolence might be employed as a powerful political tool to combat the injustice perpetrated by a tyrannical government. Ahinsa or nonviolence, was defined by Gandhi to mean restraint, swaraj, or self-rule, and chastity. Gandhi wrote timeless works like The Story of my Experiments with Truth and Hind Swaraj to express and disseminate his thoughts and philosophies of life.

For this research paper, many books, research papers and websites have been reviewed.

In 1909, Mohandas K. Gandhi published the book Hind Swaraj, also known as Indian Home Rule. (While en route from London to South Africa on the SS Kildonan Castle, Mohandas Gandhi authored this book in his native Gujarati. French was added to the translations.) In it, he discusses a variety of topics, including mechanization, contemporary civilisation, and Swaraj. Gandhi rejects European civilisation in the book while pledging allegiance to higher imperial goals (the "moral empire"). As a seditious literature, the book was outlawed by the British government in India in 1910.

Gandhi's Hind Swaraj is written as a conversation between The Reader and The Editor. The Reader, particularly named as Dr.Pranjivan Mehta by historian S. R. Mehrotra, represents the typical Indian citizen to whom Gandhi would have been preaching Hind Swaraj. The reader expresses the prevalent viewpoints and defenses of Indian independence at the time. The editor, Gandhi, adds his own reasoning and shows why those arguments are incorrect. "It is my duty patiently to try to remove your prejudice," says 'The Editor' Gandhi.

Gandhi then goes on to discuss four topics that serve as the framework for his arguments.

Gandhi begins by saying that "Home Rule is Self Rule." He contends that it is insufficient for the British to depart and for Indians to merely develop a civilization in the manner of the British. Some people, in his words, "want English rule without the Englishman, that is, [they] would make India English." And when it adopts the English language, it will be known as Englishtan rather than Hindustan. I don't want this kind of Swaraj.[2]

Gandhi contends that the only way for India to achieve its independence is by using passive resistance. Gandhi doesn't just condemn violence; he also claims that it is ineffective, since he holds that "the force of compassion and pity is immeasurably greater than the force of arsenals. There is danger in using force without mercy, never the other way around. Throughout Hind Swaraj, this is crucial.

Gandhi suggests that Indians embrace Swadeshi (self-reliance), which refers to the rejection of all trade and interactions with the British, in order to engage in passive resistance. When he says, "If you do not concede our demand, we shall no longer be your petitioners," he is speaking to the English. You can only rule us as long as we continue to be the governed; after that, we won't interact with you at all. Gandhi makes an unusual claim in this instance: if the British want to trade with India, take commerce out of the picture.

Gandhi claims that unless India rejects Western civilisation as a whole, it would never be free. He makes a strong case against current western civilisation in the book by asserting that "India is being ground down, not under the English heel, but under that of modern civilization." However, he does not only discuss civilisation in reference to India. According to him, "Western civilization is such that one only has to be patient and it will be self-destroyed." It is a severe rejection. In addition to being bad for India, western culture is unhealthy in and of itself.

Gandhi on Hind Swaraj

Gandhi discusses his ideals of independence and what, in his view, constitutes self-rule in this book. He discussed Swaraj, western civilization, and lawyers and doctors in his remarks. Nationalism, civilization, swaraj, and Satyagraha are the book's four key topics. Anthony Parel claims that Gandhi's main contention in Hind Swaraj is that India requires a thorough and organized reform on all fronts, including political, economic, ethical, aesthetic, and spiritual. Gandhi also appears to feel that various areas of development should not operate independently but rather cooperatively.

A critique of modern civilization and the character and shape of Indian Swaraj, in addition to the means and ways to realize it, are the two main topics covered in Hind Swaraj.

Shortcoming of Modern Civilisation

Gandhi's Hind Swaraj is well renowned for its scathing condemnation of contemporary culture.

He also focuses on the state of India as it has evolved under British influence in Hind Swaraj. He argues the fundamental claim that India is becoming increasingly "irreligious" as a result of British rule. He hastens to clarify that he is not considering any specific religion, but rather the Religion that is the foundation of all religions. He continues, "We are turning away from God." He compares our civilization to a "mouse" that appears to be calming our people while it "gnaws" at them.

He investigates the English educational system that was implemented in India in another chapter of the Hind Swaraj and labels it as "false education." According to him, the primary goals of education should be to help us manage our senses and instill moral behavior in our daily lives. He criticizes the recently formed elite, a byproduct of the Macaulay educational system, for enslaving India.

Later, he also discussed India's significant advancements, such as the construction of the railways and the rise in the country's legal and medical professions. All of these changes have simply accelerated India's process of losing its vigor and power.

Gandhi’s opinion on Hind Swaraj

Everyone ought to have the opportunity to experience swaraj. Gandhi defined Swaraj as essentially giving the Indian people home rule, self-government, or self-rule. Later, he clarified the nature of this relationship. He claimed that the state and the populace were equally reliant on one another. As a result, there is a reliance between Swaraj, which is each India's "self-rule," and Swaraj, which is the home rule or self-government for India's citizens. Gandhi expressed the view that liberating millions of his people was more vital than ending British control and changing the government, and that this was the actual struggle.

Indian Nationhood

The composite nature of Indian nationalism is another important idea he proposes in Hind Swaraj. He makes the matter that the Indian people were a nation long before the British arrived in Hind Swaraj. The previous arrival of the Mohammedans had hardly had any impact on India's status as a nation. In the process, he makes the case that India cannot stop being a country just because there are residents of other religions. As long as people of diverse religious origins uphold the rule of not interfering with one another's faith, they will continue to form one nation. He says something really insightful during this process:

Hindus are living in a dream realm if they think that only Hindus should live in India. Hindus, Muslims, Parsees, and Christians who have chosen to dwell in India are fellow citizens and must coexist peacefully if only for their own self-interest. One nationality and one religion are not synonymous notions everywhere in the globe, including India.

He disputes the British claim that India was never a nation elsewhere in Hind Swaraj. Instead, there has always been a mingling of various communities and creeds. He contends that the establishment of pilgrimage centers at each of India's four corners by our seers and sages lay the groundwork for our nation's unity and Indianness. They did this by igniting the concept of nationalism in the minds of our people. Gandhi therefore provides a solid foundation for the secular nationalism he lived and died for in Hind Swaraj.

Views on railways, doctors and lawyers

In his view, the railways benefited the British more than the Indians. It made it easier for them to maintain control over the entirety of India, which facilitated a more centralized colonization of India. Additionally, he blamed the British for numerous plagues and famines that ravaged India and claimed thousands of Indian lives. Some people supported railroads and claimed that they aided in or helped define nationalism. Gandhi later maintained that India was a country long before the railways were built and that nationalism has nothing to do with the British. He also had some harsh words to say about doctors and lawyers. He said that by adopting British work ethics and thus undermining the customs of the populace, lawyers and doctors have likewise harmed India rather than aiding in its progress. They'self-indulged' people and made them disregard their own bodies.

Ahimsa or non violence

Gandhi sought to free India from the control of the British, but he preferred to do so without resorting to force. Gandhi opposed violence primarily for two reasons. In order to prepare for an armed uprising, the people had to first arm themselves, which was a challenging undertaking. This was the first argument, which was based on a practical perspective. The second justification emphasizes a stronger moral component. If Indians resort to violence, India would eventually deteriorate to a level worse than Europe, turning from a land of holiness to an impure place.

He vehemently opposes using harsh force or violence to bring about Swaraj for India. He vehemently disagreed with the notion that India could only be emancipated through violent uprisings and other major uprisings. He believed that passive opposition to the British and their control was required to gain complete independence. For India to advance on the path to Swaraj, there needs to be a movement built around the concepts of harmony, love, morality, and a feeling of community. He meant by passive resistance the struggle for our own rights because he thought that was the only way we could obtain freedom.

Aspiration of an Alternate society

In an elementary form, Hind Swaraj outlines the general characteristics of a different society—a new civilizational framework. He describes "true civilization" as the "mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty"[3] in the chapter on the topic. He continues by saying that achieving "mastery over one's mind" is the only way to behave morally.

He asserts that the ancient Indian civilization qualifies as the real civilization, in the same chapter.[4] To that end, he outlines its fundamental principles, including restraints on self-indulgence in terms of luxuries and pleasures, an emphasis on ancestry, rural life, and the moral authority of sages over kings, as well as a restriction on needless competition and a preference for small-scale technologies and decentralized polities. He acknowledges that modern India is currently drifting away from these traditional ideals. But he places his faith in the vast majority of Indians who live in the countryside and uphold its venerable custom. He places his trust in the new group of satyagrahis to carry out all these difficult tasks, saying that they should act as role models rather than vanguards.[5]

Hind Swaraj contains other ideas that he developed in his later writings, including swadeshi, brahamcharya, nature therapy, a new legal and educational system, the link between means and ends, and duties and rights. He solemnly declares at the book's conclusion that the rest of his life would be devoted to achieving the kind of Swaraj he has described and has felt in his own inner being.[6]

Relevance of Hind Sawarj in contemporary India

The book is aimed at a diverse group of readers, including Indian expatriates who are highly attracted to terrorism and political violence, Indian National Congress Extremists and Moderates, the Indian country, and "the English." Gandhi refers to the Indian nation as the average Indian, regardless of their religious affiliation. Differences in language, location, or caste, as well as the newly rising middle class. And when he refers to "the English," he includes both the British ruling class in India and the British population in Great Britain. Gandhi thought that through implementing Hind Swaraj, he would be able to provide Indians with a modernized understanding of dharma that would prepare them for life in the contemporary era. In this book, Gandhi discusses a variety of issues, including (a) the division of Bengal, (b) the state of England Swaraj, contemporary society, passive resistance, education, machinery, and (h) the state of India's railways, health care system, legal system, etc.

Because of its serious subject matter, straightforward style, concise lines, lack of overt coordination or subordination, and adornment, Hind Swaraj has a strong literary worth. But the significance goes much beyond the literary merit. It is a key literature for everyone who wants to properly comprehend Gandhi's ideas. Every Indian can be roused from their slumber by the book. We need the kind of jolt that Hind Swaraj provides because we are addicted to modernism and westernization and are constantly being misled by the media to continue living a self-destructive lifestyle of consumption. Gandhi's ideas are not merely intra civilizational; they also reflect a profound trans-civilizational vision.

Indian civilization is described by him as being spiritual and holy. In the modern world, his criticism of the materialistic and immoral Western civilisation is justified. Gandhi calls on contemporary Indians to abandon their colonial mindset. He believes that India is not the right place for the equipment frenzy. Indian laborers have lost their jobs and been rendered less human by machines. Swaraj is still a long way off for us. Independence from political influence is just the start. Before the world learns to live in peace and prosperity without regard to caste, creed, or religion, Swaraj will be unattainable.

He goes on to discuss the role of the English in his vision of an independent India later in the booklet:

When we learn to rule ourselves, that is swaraj... However, such Swaraj must be personally experienced by each individual. You can now see that it is not required for us to have the eviction of the English as our goal. We can adapt the English if they start to sound more Indian. There is no room for them in India if they want to keep up their civilization.

Here, he meant to become "Indianized" in the sense of a civilisation, as opposed to becoming Indian in the cultural sense. He clarified,

Civilization, in the true sense of the word (i.e., what it means to be civilized), does not consist in the purposeful and voluntary restraint of wants. Just doing this alone boosts one's capacity for service and encourages genuine happiness and contentment.

I don't hate the English, but I do hate their civilisation, he said, adding that. When asked once during a tour of England, "What do you think of Western civilization?" he responded with a brilliant blend of humor and succinctness, "I think it would be a good idea"![7]

Therefore, the main message of his Hind Swaraj is to urge us to resist the temptations that contemporary civilisation presents to us. Its foundation is a rejection of the value system that measures development, success, and success in exclusively material terms. For instance, while our educational institutions instruct us on how to improve as engineers, physicians, accountants, etc., there is no course on improving as people. His main beef with contemporary civilisation was as follows:

Neither religion nor morals are valued in this culture. Its adherents firmly assert that spreading religion is not what they do. Some people even think it's a superstitious development. Others dress in religious garb and blather on about morals. But after twenty years of experience, I've realized that immorality is frequently taught under the guise of morality. Even in its attempts to improve physical comforts, civilization utterly fails.[8]

Here, he draws an intriguing and significant contrast between religion as it is currently understood and genuine religion, which he refers to as "the religion that underlies all religions" and which instructs us on how to awaken the soul-force that is dormant within each of us. In spite of the political environment in which we find ourselves, he refers to this awakening as the path to real Swaraj, which anyone of us can pursue. Gandhi blames our inability to do so for our political gender slavery as well:

No one else, not even a foreigner, is our greatest opponent. Our own ambitions, or we, are our own worst enemies. India was given to the English, not taken by them. They initially came to our nation for trade purposes... They had absolutely no intention of founding a kingdom back then. Who gave the company's officers assistance? At the sight of their silver, who was seduced? Who purchased their wares? History attests to what we did. We welcomed the Company's officers with wide arms in order to instantly get wealthy.[9]

Modern life is cantered on this desire to "get rich quick," which Gandhi believed to be the biggest barrier to true Swaraj. He wasn't forceful enough, though, to force this objective on other Indians who disagreed with him. In the 1921 edition of his pamphlet, he stated in his introduction:

"The book is an outright indictment of modern civilisation. Written in 1908, it. My conviction is stronger than ever right now. I believe that India will benefit if it rejects "modern civilization."[10]

The level of living has steadily risen throughout time thanks to contemporary civilization. However, poverty is still widespread in India. Gandhi's concentration on Chakra, Khadi, and villages convinced the populace of the importance of Indian villages and the effects of modern civilisation. Gandhi persisted in making sure that people understood that, beneath the glitz of cities, there was agony and poverty. It is crucial to recognise that alleviating the suffering of the underprivileged peasantry in rural areas, rather than producing millionaires or building large cities, represents real progress. According to Gandhi, the three major pillars of Swaraj were respect for oneself, self-awareness, and self-reliance. His efforts start to help us comprehend how the unrestrained and uncontrolled use of science and technology can result in a corrupt and unethical society, which is today's tragic reality.

Gandhi's vision for society may have been futuristic after all. However, it is difficult to envisage "what might have been" if we followed Gandhi's lead and implemented Hind Swaraj. Although village life would have been simpler for all of India, would it have been more sustainable than the way things are now, especially in a similar global environment? Only through collective imaginations, where the grass is always greener on the other side, could the answer to this question be understood.

1. हिन्द स्वराज, नवजीवन प्रकाषन मंदिर अहमदाबाद प्रथम पृष्ट परिचय

2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hind_Swaraj_or_Indian_Home_Rule

3.https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/gandhis-hind-swaraj-summary-and-centennial-view.html

4.https://blog.ipleaders.in/politics-and-philosophy-of-m-k-gandhi-in-hind-swaraj/

5.https://ijrcs.org/wp-content/uploads/IJRCS202004031.pdf

6.https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/gandhi_vision.htm

7.https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/hind-swaraj-its-relevance-today.html

8.https://armchairjournal.com/examining-gandhis-ideas-in-hind-swaraj-with-particular-reference-to-his-ideas-of-modern-western-civilisation-and-its-relevance-today/

9. हिन्द स्वराज, नवजीवन प्रकाशन मंदिर अहमदाबाद

10. महात्मा गांधी के विचार आर.के.प्रभु और यू.आर.राव