LyrArc Insights

Gandhi's Hind Swaraj, 1909- Its Relevance 112 years Later

Let us have genuine respect for Mohandas Gandhi and his ideas laid out in the book Hind Swaraj, written in 1909. After all it is what he set out to implement from 1916 to 1936- everything that is laid out in this incredible 136 page book. It was written during the 10 day voyage on board the Kildonan Castle as Gandhi sailed back to South Africa after negotiations with the British government about the problems of Indian settlers in the Transvaal region of South Africa. Gandhi says he had followed it over twenty years and there is little he would change in it. By 1937 provincial assemblies, elections and provincial government provided the experience that helped Indians draft a constitution for self-government in 1947. This followed the ideas carefully set out by Gandhi and first put forward in Hind Swaraj. Then we have the onset of war, and by 1945 the British negotiations with Gandhi for independence of Bharat and freedom from colonial rule.

Today in 2021 Gandhi is still guiding Bharat with his vision of a government for the people, by the people, and of the people, brought into reality with the prime minister's yojanas and projects that cover huge sections of the population that had no drinking tap water, no cooking gas, no bank accounts, no electricity. Where projects took endless time, proper governance and passion for delivery of services is making it possible to reach 100% of the population. Gandhi is remembered and his picture placed at the center with the prime minister and the president's pictures on either side. 

In Hind Swaraj Gandhi questioned notions of "civilization" that lacked civilized or educated behaviours, and rather than submit to this under colonial rule chose to go back to a simpler and healthier way of life. During the pandemic there are real reasons to ask questions about "civilization" as it is understood today and as it was understood in 1909. It was impressive then- what was achieved in Britain and the US through the Industrial Revolution- as it may be impressive to some today with the advances in technology. Yet there are serious questions that need to be asked about some form of malfunctioning or new kind of colonial administration.

Today the obesity of populations is so widespread, and commercialization of the food chain is so ingrained in industry and public education, that the coronavirus pandemic has torn through large swaths of the population. How can these people be called "happy" people? Medicine has made advances, but simple nutrition has been neglected and bad habits allowed to take root. Obesity is seen by experts as making coronavirus spread like wild fires. People's minds are so confused and so affected by economic and social conditions that prevail, that they refuse the very vaccines that would save their lives.

Another prevailing condition of malfunction in "civilization" is climate change. Climate is changing as a result of trying to impose the same standard of civilization that prevailed in smaller countries in Europe to large populations such as China's. One billion automobiles in China and the steel mills that make the steel for the cars and trucks, mean more use of coal and more polluted environments. Climate change now affects the western US and Australia with wildfires and unprecedented high temperatures in the summer, in regions of Africa and Asia that can least cope with it, in the Arctic and in northern Europe. One would expect that Gandhi would have raised this issue about "civilization" as it is being sold to people as a way to develop.

The shift to less urban environments, to open countryside outside cities, shows cities development is not the only way to measure progress. Large open areas with less pollution, offices spread out over many parts of a country rather than being concentrated in a few urban centers, is becoming a real and appealing alternative. Cities are also changing with fewer high rise commercial building offices, and more travel using bicycles and bike paths. A trend to work in the office mixed with flexible work from home.

Let us then look at the way Gandhi raised the issue of "civilization" then with some understanding and in a sensible way. His objection was to the conditions of life in England for women and for factory workers. If these large populations of people are not living decent lives how can this idea of civilization be promoted? On life for many women in England Gandhi writes in Hind Swaraj- " For the sake of a pittance half a million women in England alone are laboring under trying circumstances in factories. This awful fact is one of the causes of the daily growing suffragette movement." On factory workers Gandhi must have been aware of conditions in factories in England of his time. Conditions Charles Dickens described in "Hard Times," existed in different forms till 1900 and the early years of the 20th century. Here in a different way one must not forget the conditions of the factory towns in the US where factories were forced to close down over 20 years, as more manufacturing and jobs were sent to China. This has clearly impoverished the people in these areas of the US, and made the country poorer, a less appealing place for children to grow up in- leading to a loss of hope itself.

The extreme poverty of the vast majority of the people of this country is what Gandhi was concerned about. Vivekananda describes this condition vividly in his letters in 1893-1894 from the US and England. "Civilization" had little meaning for them,  and without them, without this large majority of the people, there was the mummified condition of civilization of the Indians and the Chinese that Vivekananda describes. Poverty so hideous, says Vivekananda writing from Yokohama in 1893, that the Indians and the Chinese can think of nothing else. For Gandhi it is not about being against machinery and science, it was about having a critical eye so that one can correct what is wrong or working without any illusions. With a salt tax on the public, taxing the poorest on the essential conditions of life,  and this degree of poverty and hopelessness, "civilization" had little meaning. Draining of the country's wealth year after year and underinvestment sapping its strength added to this.

The correction Gandhi describes as a necessary effort for England, and one in which Gandhi says the English rather deserve our sympathy.

Only Gandhi could write as he does in Hind Swaraj-

"They, the English, rather deserve our sympathy. They are a shrewd nation and I therefore believe that they will cast off the evil. They are enterprising and industrious, and their mode of thought is not inherently immoral. Neither are they bad at heart. I therefore respect them. "Civilization" is not an incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English people are at present afflicted by it."

The CEO of a leading bank in the US  called the 2009 mortgage financial crisis something that is in the nature of financial crises, that is something that happens every few years, so that little can be done to prevent recurrence. He was ignoring his own bank's role in participating in some of the financial activities that caused the financial crisis. And he was ignoring the fact that selling badly packaged mortgage securities by the banks had artificially created the financial crisis in the first place. This crisis impoverished large parts of the American population.

The financial crisis of 2009, the wars in remote lands and waste of trillions of dollars, the destruction of American manufacturing by outshoring of factories, the neglect of health care, the coronavirus pandemic after a reckless attitude to research into dangerous viruses was allowed to go ahead in the US, all these events happened under a certain mindset that allowed reckless risks and reckless behaviours. These were man made events, these were chosen behaviours.  Some of this reckless behaviour goes under the words- civilized behaviour of advanced nations. Another way to say "civilization," in short form.

"Civilization" is not an incurable disease and to say that the English and the Americans will cast off this evil, is in a very true sense real.

Part of this cure if Gandhi was writing Hind Swaraj in 2021, would be for India to be part of the solutions.

1. To be part of the climate change solutions, by a vigorous push in renewable energy, in solar panels and wind turbines, and in conservation of energy. To push scientific advance in solar panels to the next level.

2. To think anew. Find new ways for a win-win situation with the US and Europe so that Indian manufacturing complements Western manufacturing, no shift in factories that happened with the outshoring of manufacturing to China. Instead a real partnership in manufacturing.

3. To tackle urbanization differently so that living in smaller towns and villages can be made an attractive option with healthier lifestyles and all the services of modern living. Reducing the pressure on cities and creating an alternative style of healthy living.

4.  To promote Yoga and the country's abundant agricultural resources for increasing production of healthy fruits and vegetables, herbs, spices, ancient grains. Doing extensive public education in schools from the elementary level for nutrition and increasing content of fruits, vegetables, ancient grains, in the Indian diet. Set 5 year goals, and measure the rate of progress till nutrition goals, yoga goals, are achieved.

 

Lessons can be learned also from China's experience with development.

A leading American investment bank provided guidance to China in development through open market economy. The investment bank's priorities were not education, healthcare, and quality of life in China. As a result the process of development led to destruction of the country's environment, to the pollution of rivers, streams, deterioration of air quality, and haphazard development. 

Later that investment bank was involved in a scandal in Malaysia that led to loss of funds from the country's development fund, showing that development in a healthy way was never the priority. The rapid helter skelter growth in China was of a kind that promoted profits in shorter time frames and not really suited to China's long term interests in moderate sustainable growth of a manner that respected the environment and respected the long term interests of its partners in America and the European Union. This eroded the confidence of the American public and the European Union public because the hyper rapid growth at 10-15% in China acted in a perverse way to dislocate industry and jobs in these countries. The result was devastation of small communities across the US, Canada, and Europe, that depended on factories for jobs, and the tax revenues that supported public services. As these factories were offshored over two decades to China.

In Hind Swaraj Gandhi asks questions about the quality of life, about economic progress based on sound principles- respect for the environment, respect for the people of other countries treating them as one's own, and the kind of progress that enhances the overall well being in the world we live in, with our neighbors and our friends.

One must not forget these questions, the answers to which define who we are and set a path to the future that brings the cooperation of all nations, benefits all communities in all nations to bring lasting progress.