Reading Gandhi- Delhi University
Introduction
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has attained an iconic status in the world and in history is undisputable.
About a hundred volumes of his collected works have been published by the Government of India, more than three thousand five hundred books have been written on
Gandhi, and his symbols and words continue to inspire and encourage. As we celebrate a hundred years of his acknowledged magnum opus Hind Swaraj, it is time to reflect on the importance of both the text and the context of this renowned work. Hind Swaraj is a seminal and a foundational work, and it is widely seen as the bible of non-violent revolutions as well as providing the blue print of all kinds of revolutions. Though Gandhi wrote extensively, Hind Swaraj was his earliest text, in which he questioned the accepted myths and the truths of his times. The text is not only a tract on political methodology, philosophy or political movements; it is a statement of faith. Therefore, its relevance goes much beyond the time frame in which it was written.
Gandhi wrote this short tract in 1909 originally in
Gujarati on a return voyage from London to South Africa.
9 Reflections on Hind Swaraj
He completed the work in short period of ten days, and when his right hand was tired he wrote with his left hand.
It appears that the ideas in the book were written in a state of frenzy, and that these ideas formulated faster than his words. The text consists of twenty short chapters, cast in the form of a dialogue between Gandhi who is called the ‘editor’ and his interlocutor known as the “reader.” The style is similar to the Socrates dialogue in Plato’s Republic and the Upanishads. Writing 275 pages, Gandhi struck down his original words only ten times. Such was the vision and passion with which he wrote this text.
Despite the fact that the work is shot through with complex philosophical ideals, arguments, and values, doctrines of action, and notions of self rule or swaraj,
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has attained an iconic status in the world and in history is undisputable.
About a hundred volumes of his collected works have been published by the Government of India, more than three thousand five hundred books have been written on
Gandhi, and his symbols and words continue to inspire and encourage. As we celebrate a hundred years of his acknowledged magnum opus Hind Swaraj, it is time to reflect on the importance of both the text and the context of this renowned work. Hind Swaraj is a seminal and a foundational work, and it is widely seen as the bible of non-violent revolutions as well as providing the blue print of all kinds of revolutions. Though Gandhi wrote extensively, Hind Swaraj was his earliest text, in which he questioned the accepted myths and the truths of his times. The text is not only a tract on political methodology, philosophy or political movements; it is a statement of faith. Therefore, its relevance goes much beyond the time frame in which it was written.
Gandhi wrote this short tract in 1909 originally in
Gujarati on a return voyage from London to South Africa.
9 Reflections on Hind Swaraj
He completed the work in short period of ten days, and when his right hand was tired he wrote with his left hand.
It appears that the ideas in the book were written in a state of frenzy, and that these ideas formulated faster than his words. The text consists of twenty short chapters, cast in the form of a dialogue between Gandhi who is called the ‘editor’ and his interlocutor known as the “reader.” The style is similar to the Socrates dialogue in Plato’s Republic and the Upanishads. Writing 275 pages, Gandhi struck down his original words only ten times. Such was the vision and passion with which he wrote this text.
Despite the fact that the work is shot through with complex philosophical ideals, arguments, and values, doctrines of action, and notions of self rule or swaraj,
References: Chandran Kukathas (London: Sage Publications, 2004) Quentin Skinner, Visions of Politics, Vol.1, Regarding Method (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002) M Navajivan Publishing House, 1939) David Hardiman, Gandhi in His Time and Ours (Delhi, Permanent Black, 2003) Bhikhu Parekh, Colonialism, Tradition and Reform – An analysis of Gandhi’s Political Discourse (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 1999) Anthony J. Parel, (ed.) Gandhi – Hind Swaraj and Other Writings (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) Publication, 1996)