Notes Political Science-I

Unit-IV

Gandhi’s Concept of State and Swaraj-

State is the Embodiment of Power and Force Gandhiji was hostile to the State. He neither regarded
it q necessary nor divine or natural creation. He believes that the State exists to serve the people, not
the people to the State. Gandhiji rejects the State mainly for three reasons (i) The State is based on
violence. (ii) The coercive authority of the State is destructive of individual freedom and
personality. (iii) In a society of equals, based on non-violence and cooperation, the State is an evil
and unnecessary. In the view of Gandhiji, the State is not an end in itself. The individual is the end.
The State is the means to the realisation of self and moral perfection.
Gandhiji looked upon an increase in the power of the State with the greatest fear. All increase in the
power of the State, according to him, was detrimental to individuality. For him the State represented
“violence in a concentrated form.” He said, “The individual has a soul, but the State is a soulless
machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its existence.”
Gandhiji was against the very idea of State sovereignty. Any concept of the exaltation of the
absolute, uncontrolled and unlimitable power was according to him an attack on moral fibre of
civilisation. He regarded it as the challenge to the moral right of man to shape his destiny. But
Gandhiji did not contemplate the destruction of the State, what he stood for was not stateless society
but for a non-violent State. He states that “I believe that a State can be administered on a non-violent
basis if the vast majority of the people are non-violent.”
Ideal State
Gandhiji wrote, “Political power means capacity to regulate national life through national
representatives. If national life becomes .so perfect as to become self-regulated, no representative
becomes necessary. There is then a State of enlightened anarchy. In such a State everyone is his own
ruler. He rules himself in such a manner that he is never a hindrance to his neighbour.” In the ideal
state, therefore, there is no political power, because there is no State. But the ideal is never fully
realised. He wrote: “Such a State is perfect and non-violent where the people are governed the least.
The nearest approach to purest anarchy would be democracy based on non-violence.”

Rama Rajya
His idea of Rama Rajya is based upon one’s adherence to Satya and Ahimsa. This political vision of
Gandhi is ultimately based upon the classical Indian myth of the ideal polity under Rama, the hero
of Ramayana, ascribed to ‘satyayuga’ or ‘Kritayuga’. To Gandhiji, Rama Rajya represents a society
guided by satya and ahimsa. For Gandhi this is the sword of satya or truth, which has to be used to
combat every form of social and political injustice.
Gandhiji’s ideal State was to be completely self-regulated. In such a State, he thought, everyone
would be his own ruler. He would rule himself in such a manner that he would never be a hindrance
to his neighbour. It is for this reason that he admired Rama Rajya which personified the idea of self-
help, sacrifice, and discipline. But Gancihiji was quite aware that it was not possible to create such a
state of Rama Rajya in the immediate future. One of the obstacles was inequalities “in which few
roll in riches and the masses do not get even enough to eat.” Therefore, he conceded that in the
present circumstances coercion could be used in. extreme cases. But he was convinced that a State
was good in which people were governed the least.
According to Gandhiji, in Rama Rajya, land and State belong to the people. Freedoms are
guaranteed to the people. People live a happy and contented life. Right to resist the cruel and wicked
laws is given to all. The features of Rama Rajya are decentralisation, (ii) varnavyavastha, (iii) non-
possession, (iv) trusteeship, (v) bread labour.
Conception of Swaraj:
In his book ‘Hindi Swaraj, ‘Gandhiji gave conception of Swaraj. In 1925 while defining his concept
of Swaraj, he said, “Swaraj to me means freedom for the meanest of our coutrymen. Real Swaraj
will not come by the acquisition of authority by a few but the acquisition of capacity by all to resist
authority when abused.” he believed that Swaraj would not be achieved though Satyagraha by a few
but it would come when the people had the capacity to resist the unjust laws of the State, if they
were repugnant to the individual’s moral conviction, and such resistance, he believed, was the only
adequate safeguard against the abuse of authority. In other words, Swaraj would be achieved only
when the people were so trained that they were in a position to balance and control the authority.
Gandhiji was in favour of the decentralisation of power. He was in favour of giving more powers to
Panchayats, so that they might be in a position to formulate plans for the uplift of the villages and
also implement those plans. He wanted that rights should flow upward and not downward.
Therefore, in order to receive the cooperation of the people, he was in favour of establishing
territorial organisations on the basis of indirect elections. He was also in favour of giving minimum
authority to the Central government.