Hind Swaraj

Under the debilitating influence of British industrial culture, India—a once-proud land of farmers and weavers—has, to Gandhi, begun to devolve into a weak, cowardly, and self-indulgent people who whine about British rule but wish to carry on the legal and cultural traditions of the intruders once they are gone. Worse, Indians have become irreligious: “We are turning away from God” (22). They have grown cowardly, looking to the British to protect themselves from one another. They depend overmuch on the colonial system of courts instead of having the strength to resolve problems on their own, as in the past.

Women leave their home looms, where once they produced fine textiles, to slave away in dismal clothing factories. The speed of industrial looms, railroads, and lately airplanes beguiles people but makes them hurried and impatient. The proper rate at which to live, says Gandhi, is a walking pace, and great things can be accomplished with patience. Instead Indians have begun to rush around, chasing after modernity.

Gandhi is not against machines as such but opposes their inappropriate use. He thinks many, if not most, machines are useless or detrimental and would not be missed by Indians.

The irony, for Gandhi, is that traditional Indian ways are among the most elevated in the world and should be envied rather than disdained: “Nothing can equal the seeds sown by our ancestors” (35).

It is not that Gandhi thinks the British people to be inherently bad; rather he feels that they, too, are tempted and distracted by modern convenience and ways of living and it is corrupting their society: “But there is no end to the victims destroyed in the fire of [modern] civilization. Its deadly effect is that people come under its scorching flames believing it to be all good” (23). 

Briefly Gandhi mentions 1857, a critical year in the history of British-Indian relations. In that year, a rebellion breaks out against the British East India Company, through which the British maintain control over India. Indian Sepoy riflemen are issued Enfield rifles, whose ammunition is greased to aid in loading the weapons. These bullets must be broken open by mouth, and rumors fly that the grease coverings contain beef and pork tallow, which offends the religious sensibilities of both Hindus and Muslim. The rumors cannot be quelled, and in May 1857, the riflemen stage an uprising known as the Sepoy Rebellion. Disorganized fighting spreads across the country, sometimes with Indian soldiers fighting on both sides. Atrocities occur; major cities are laid waste.

The battles finally cease in 1859, and the British replace the Company with direct governance, the Raj, and promise reforms, but these are slow in coming. By the time of Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj, the independence movement is once again in full swing. It will not be until 1947 that Britain—weakened from two world wars—finally relents and leaves India.