HIND SWARAJ

OR
INDIAN HOME RULE
 ABOUT
• HIND SARAJ or INDIAN HOME RULE is written by M.K. Gandhi in 1909 on his
voyage from London to South Africa at the age of 37.
• It was originally written in Gujarati later Gandhi him self translate it to English.
• It was written in a conversational manner, in that two characters reader - an
young India and editor - Gandhi having an conversation.
• In the book Gandhi critiqued colonization, western civilization.
• He talked about the practice of non-violence.
• British banned the book in India even thought it doesn’t promote violence
and ban was later lifted on 21 dec 1938.
• In the book he talked about what true civilization is and meaning of swaraj.
 The congress & Its Officials
• “National” Congress.
• Had not the Grand Old Man of India prepared the soil, our young men could not have even
spoken about Home Rule.
• Professor Gokhale in order to prepare the nation, embraced poverty and gave twenty years
of his life. Even now, he is living in poverty.
• the tree does not grow in one day.
• Why, then, should I listen to your discourse on such people? “It was the respected
Dadabhai who taught us that the English had sucked our life-blood.”
• The Congress brought together Indians from different parts of India, and enthused us with
the idea of nationality.
• The seed is never seen. It works underneath the ground, is itself destroyed, and the tree
which rises above the ground is alone seen. Such is the case with the Congress.
 The Partition of BENGAL
• Lord Curzon
• That day may be considered to be the day of the partition of the British
Empire.
• The salt-tax is not a small injustice.
• India awakened is not likely to fall asleep
• The Swadeshi movement was inaugurated. Some of the best sons of India are
at present in banishment.
• Some call the Moderates the timid party, and the Extremists the bold party.
• At the time of the Surat Congress there was almost a fight.
 SWARAJ
• Why do you want to drive away the English?
• Because India has become impoverished by their Government. We are kept in
a state of slavery.
• When a tiger changes his nature, Englishmen will change theirs. This is not
possible, and to believe it to be possible is contrary to human experience.
• that we want English rule without the Englishman, You want the tiger's
nature, but not the tiger; that is to say, you would make India English. it will be
called not Hindustan but Englistan.
• what you call Swaraj is not truly Swaraj.
 THE CONDITION OF ENGLAND
• That which you consider to be the Mother of Parliaments is like a sterile
woman and a prostitute.
• That Parliament has not yet, of its own accord, done a single good thing.
Hence I have compared it to a sterile woman.
• It is like a prostitute because it is under the control of ministers who change
from time to time.
• Members vote for their party without a thought. Their so-called discipline
binds them to it. If any member, by way of exception, gives an independent
vote, he is considered a renegade.
• The Prime Minister is more concerned about his power than about the
welfare of Parliament.
 CIVILIZATION
• A man laboring under the bane of civilization is like a dreaming man.
• If people of a certain country, who have hitherto not been in the habit of
wearing much clothing, boots, etc., adopt European clothing, they are
supposed to have become civilized out of savagery.
• Formerly, only a few men wrote valuable books. Now, anybody writes and
prints anything he likes and poisons people's minds.
• Men will not need the use of their hands and feet. They will press a button,
and they will have their clothing by their side. They will press another button,
and they will have their newspaper. A third, and a motor-car will be in waiting
for them. They will have a variety of delicately dished up food.
• Everything will be done by machinery.
 CIVILIZATION
• Mines and factory workers are obliged to work, at the risk of their lives, at
most dangerous occupations, for the sake of millionaires.
• There are now diseases of which people never dreamt before, and an army of
doctors is engaged in finding out their cures, and so hospitals have increased.
• This civilization is such that one has only to be patient and it will be self
destroyed. According to the teaching of Mahommed this would be considered
a Satanic Civilization. Hinduism calls it the Black Age.
• Parliaments are really emblems of slavery. They rather deserve our sympathy.
• now it is possible to take away thousands of lives by one man working behind
a gun from a hill. This is civilization.
 WHY WAS INDIA LOST?
• Recall the Company Bahadur, If I am in the habit of drinking bhang and a seller
thereof sells it to me, am I to blame him or myself? By blaming the seller, shall
I be able to avoid the habit?
• We have already seen that the English merchants were able to get a footing in
India because we encouraged them.
• When our Princes fought among themselves, they sought the assistance of
Company Bahadur.
• The Hindus and the Mahomedans were at daggers drawn. This, too, gave the
Company its opportunity and thus we created the circumstances that gave the
Company its control over India.
• It is related that someone asked the late President Kruger whether there was
gold in the moon. He replied that it was highly unlikely because, if there were,
the English would have annexed it.
 THE CONDITION OF INDIA
• Railways, lawyers and doctors have impoverished the country so much so
that, if we do not wake up in time, we shall be ruined.
• the English could not have such a hold on India as they have. The railways,
too, have spread the bubonic plague. Without them, the masses could not
move from place to place. They are the carriers of plague germs.
• But, just as I respect the cow, so do I respect my fellow-men. A man is just as
useful as a cow no matter whether he be a Mahomedan or a Hindu. Am I,
then, to fight with or kill a Mahomedan in order to save a cow? In doing so, I
would become an enemy of the Mahomedan as well as of the cow. Therefore,
the only method I know of protecting the cow is that I should approach my
Mahomedan brother and urge him for the sake of the country to join me in
protecting her. If he would not listen to me I should let the cow go for the
simple reason that the matter is beyond my ability.
 THE CONDITION OF INDIA
• How do these diseases arise? Surely by our negligence or indulgence. I
overeat, I have indigestion, I go to a doctor, he gives me medicine, I am cured.
I overeat again, I take his pills again. Had I not taken the pills in the first
instance, I would have suffered the punishment deserved by me and I would
not have overeaten again. The doctor intervened and helped me to indulge
myself. I have indulged in vice, I contract a disease, a doctor cures me, the
odds are that I shall repeat the vice.
 TRUE CIVILIZATION
• I believe that the civilization India has evolved is not to be beaten in the
world. Nothing can equal the seeds sown by our ancestors.
• In the midst of all this India remains immovable and that is her glory.
• Many thrust their advice upon India, and she remains steady.
• The Gujarati equivalent for civilization means "good conduct".
• A man is not necessarily happy because he is rich, or unhappy because he is
poor.
• We have had no system of life-corroding competition. Each followed his own
occupation or trade and charged a regulation wage.
• The tendency of the Indian civilization is to elevate the moral being, that of
the Western civilization is to propagate immorality.
 HOW CAN INDIA BECOME FREE?
• I do not expect my views to be accepted all of a sudden. My duty is to place
them before readers like yourself. Time can be trusted to do the rest.
• we can see that if we become free, India is free. And in this thought you have
a definition of Swaraj. It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves.
• The Swaraj that I wish to picture is such that, after we have once realized it,
we shall endeavor to the end of our life time to persuade others to do
likewise.
• If the English become Indianised, we can accommodate them. If they wish to
remain in India along with their civilization, there is no room for them.
 PASSIVE RESISTANCE (soul force)
• I still think that the evil-doers will not cease doing evil without physical
punishment.
• History, as we know it, is a record of the wars of the world, a nation with no
history, that is, no wars, is a happy nation.
• If the story of the universe had commenced with wars, not a man would have
been found alive today. Those people who have been warred against have
disappeared as, for instance, the natives of Australia of whom hardly a man
was left alive by the intruders.
• "Those that take the sword shall perish by the sword.“
• Brute force is not natural to Indian soil. You will have, therefore, to rely wholly
on soul-force.