1K for Today: Hind Swaraj

'Hind Swaraj' or 'Indian Home Rule' is a book written by Mohandas Gandhi in 1909, when on a sea voyage from London to South Africa. It was around six years before he returned to India from South Africa, in 1915. In this book, Gandhi set out his views on the Indian National Congress, on Swaraj or Home Rule, modern civilization, mechanization and other issues. While his other book, 'The Story of My Experiments with Truth' is widely famous, this book has not achieved equal popularity. It is a very interesting book, both in its structure and its relevancy (or not) to today's times. While Gandhi was a prolific writer, this was one of his first major publications; in this book, he sets out several of his philosophies and points-of-view which would in future shape how he set about leading the freedom struggle.

The book itself is set as a dialogue or an interview of sorts, between a Reader and an Editor. Gandhi begins by addressing 'questions from the reader' on the Congress movement and seeks to resolve what he perceives as the layman's reservations against the Congress and Indian politics. He goes on to write about the Partition of Bengal, the economic and cultural context of England, India and the colonial rule. He writes about mechanization and modern civilization, in an almost condescending manner, dismissing them and advocating a return to a pre-industrial culture. He covers a whole chapter on the Indian railways and argues how it is detrimental to the nation. He also seeks to clarify his definition of civilization and writes about education and passive resistance.

In parts the book seems to advocate the very opposite of today's times, sometimes even seeming to be seeking to push the country back to the dark ages. Yet, in parts the relevancy of Gandhi's arguments to today's times, especially in light of the state of the country today, are strikingly accurate. Presenting below for today's post are some excerpts from this book, that are interesting.

• "One of the objects of a newspaper is to understand popular feeling and to give expression to it; another is to arouse among the people certain desirable sentiments; and the third is fearlessly to expose popular defects."

• "Remember the old proverb that the tree does not grow in one day."

• "It is a bad habit to say that another man's thoughts are bad and ours only are good and that those holding different views from ours are the enemies of the country."

• "The seed is never seen. It works underneath the ground, is itself destroyed, and the tree which rises above the ground is alone seen."

• "Women, who should be the queens of households, wander in the streets or they slave away in factories. For the sake of a pittance, half a million women in England alone are laboring under trying circumstances."

• "A true servant of India will have to go to the root of the matter. If an excess of food has caused me indigestion, I shall certainly not avoid it by blaming water. He is a true physician who probes the cause of the disease, and if you pose as a physician for the disease of India, you will have to find its true cause."

• "They wish to convert the whole world into a vast market for their goods."

• "Strength lies in the absence of fear, not in the quantity of flesh and muscle we may have on our bodies."

• "Good travels at a snail's pace - it can, therefore have little to do with the railways. Those who want to do good are not selfish, they are not in a hurry, they know that to impregnate people with good requires time. But evil has wings. To build a house takes time. Its destruction takes none."

• "If I were overfull of pity for the cow, I should sacrifice my own life to save her but not take my brother's. This I hold, is the law of our religion."

• "If everyone will try to understand the core of his own religion and adhere to it, and will not allow false teachers to dictate to him, there will be no room left for quarreling."

• "Doctors have almost unhinges us. Sometimes I think that quacks are better than highly qualified doctors."

• "To believe that what has not occurred in history will not occur at all is to argue disbelief in the dignity of man."

• "... but what is granted under fear can be retained only so long as the fear lasts."

• "That we should obey laws, good or bad, is a new fangled notion."

• "It is a superstition and ungodly thing to believe that an act of a majority binds a minority."

• "Peasants have never been subdued by the sword, and never will be. They do not know the use of the sword, and they are not frightened by the use of it by others."

• "And it is worthy to note that the systems which the Europeans have discarded are the systems in vogue among  us. Their learned men continually make changes. We ignorantly adhere to their cast-off systems."