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Gandhi's Swaraj
Gandhi's Swaraj
Gandhi's Swaraj
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gave to them, and the journey On the midnight of 14-15 August an society and politics. His experiments in
1947, when Jawaharlal Nehru, the India still lay in the future. In fact, Hind
that made Mohandas
first prime minister of India, Swaraj served as the basis of these experi
Karamchand Gandhi a lonely coined the phrase - "tryst with destiny" ments. Gandhi's purpose in writing the
man in August 1947. that has become part of India's national book was, he wrote, "to serve my country,
lexicon, and India erupted in jubilation, to find out the Truth and to follow it". He
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was far also believed that the views he had pre
away from the celebrations. He was in a sented in the book were held not by him
slum in eastern Calcutta. When asked by a alone but were, in fact, "the views...held
journalist for a message on the day of by many Indians not touched by what is
India's independence, he said it was a day known as civilisation". He asked his rea
for fasting and prayer. ders to believe him when he said that the
The Father of the Nation was not present views "are also held by thousands of
at the birth of the independent Indian na Europeans".4 Gandhi's use of the phrase,
tion. On the same day, 15 August 1947, in "what is known as civilisation", is worth
the city of Karachi someone placed a fez flagging at this point since I will have
on Gandhi's statue.2 The significance of the occasion to come back to it very soon. Hind
act is open to interpretation: it could have Swaraj remained the touchstone of his be
been a symbol of unity or a sign of mock liefs and actions throughout his life, it was
ery. It would not be an exaggeration, even the fountainhead of his inspiration: he
from just these two pieces of evidence, to never changed his views on the funda
suggest that what India had achieved on mental principles he set out in this text,
15 August, was not something that Gandhi even though he was open to the possibility
had visualised as swaraj. By August 1947, of his views being proven wrong. It is
he had become India's prophet outcast. worth noting that Hind Swaraj is the only
In this essay I want to trace briefly work that Gandhi himself translated from
Gandhi's ideas about swaraj, his quest to Gujarati to English. Even his auto
actualise these ideas and the turns that his biography, The Story of My Experiments
tory gave to them and to his journey that with Truth, was translated by his secretary,
made him a lonely man in August 1947. Mahadev Desai.
Gandhi's ideas about swaraj were arti
culated most cogently and most powerfully Only Way to a Swaraj
in that remarkable text called Hind Swaraj, In May 1919, just before he embarked on
which he wrote in 1909 in Gujarati and his first major mass movement in India,
published in English in 1910 in South Africa Gandhi wrote, commenting on Hind
after the government of Bombay proscribed Swaraj, "After years of endeavour to put
into practice the views expressed in the
the Gujarati version. It was written in 10
days between 13 and 22 November 1909 following pages, I feel that the way shown
on board Kildonan Castle, a ship that therein is the only true way to swaraj".5
Gandhi took to return to South Africa from And towards the end of his life in October
Rudrangshu Mukherjee (rudrangshu@hotmail. London. It was written on the ship's sta 1945, he wrote emphatically to Jawaharlal
com) is with The Telegraph, Kolkata.
tionery. Gandhi wrote at a furious pace and Nehru, "I fully stand by the kind of
34 December 12, 2009 vol xliv no 50 GBd Economic & Political weekly
36 December 12, 2009 vol xliv no 50 E33S3 Economic & Political weekly
easy for him. At the cremation of Kasturba, ing about him in the region.31 All these and enemies alike. For the peasants of north
India this had ceased in effect to be a Gan
he was seen crying, the first time his stories, reported in the local press, were
dhian cry; it was now a cry with which an
devoted disciple Mirabehn (Madeline about Gandhi's pratap - power or glory. attack on a market or a thana was an
Slade) had seen him shed tears, and he Some related to individuals and families nounced. 'Mahatma Gandhi ki jai' had, in
said, "The best half of me is dead. What receiving special boons because they had this context, assumed the function of such
chosen to follow the Gandhian creed and traditional war cries as 'Jai Mahabir' or 'Bam
am I going to do now?"27
Bam Mahadeo'.. .Thus a 'jaikar' of adoration
others to curses falling on those who
and adulation had become the rallying cry
Swaraj in Gandhi's Public Life defied Gandhi's orders or tested and
for direct action. While such action sought to
I turn now to the more public aspects of opposed his power. Gandhi, in the eyes of justify itself by a reference to the Mahatma,
Gandhi's life where he tried to implement the common people of Gorakhpur, had the Gandhi of its rustic protagonists was not
his ideas about swaraj. The great mass been cast as the traditional Hindu holy as he really was, but as they had thought
him up.34
movements that he launched through the man and had become the object of wor
Congress Party are the obvious embodi ship. Women begged for alms in his name, The creed of Gandhi's swaraj and the
ments of this experiment. Here we find and they performed vrat and aradhana way it was received and interpreted by the
that Gandhi's swaraj often stumbled when (fast and worship) for him. This percep peasants were radically different. Neither
faced with the hard realities of politics. tion was not unrelated to Gandhi's chosen Gandhi nor the Congress had any control
Again and again, the energy and enthusi lifestyle and beliefs. In a very perceptive over the manner in which the masses
asm of the people that he mobilised essay, M N Srinivas noted how Gandhi's decoded the message of the Mahatma.
through a non-violent movement spilled choice to be the renouncer in the tradi Gandhi had somewhat anticipated this
over into militancy. The politics of the tional Hindu mould, even though he when he had written in Hind Swaraj,
people refused to respect the limits im refused to don the garb of a sanyasi, was "Those in whose name we speak we do not
posed by Gandhi's swaraj.28 This often intrinsic to his appeal and to his work.32 know, nor do they know us".35 It was thus
compelled Gandhi to call off the move His life of abstinence and simplicity and not always possible to regulate the masses
ment or to reduce its pace and momentum. his continuous emphasis on purity rein and to keep the movements within the
Gandhi would not compromise on the forced this popular image of Gandhi as the limits of satyagraha and non-violence.
issue of violence. "Non-violence", he was holy man, the Mahatma. This tension was embedded in the mass
The perception of Gandhi's pratap also movements called by Gandhi and thus the
to say in his speech at his first trial in 1923,
"is the first article of my faith. It is also the led to seeing him as an alternative source
paradox of violent acts with the name of
last article of my creed".29 The clash of authority to the British government. Gandhi on the lips of the actors. Gandhi's
Economic & Political weekly Q259 December 12, 2009 vol xliv no 50 37
Economic & Political weekly E3B59 December 12, 2009 vol xliv no 50 39