Political Life of Gandhi & HindSwaraj

Political Life For any discussion on Gandhi, it will be important to recall how he emerged as the tallest leader on the Indian political scene and the one of the most important reference point for the liberation movements all over the world. That he was an extraordinary pheneomenon is a euphemism only perhaps.

During the first war, to get more cooperation from India, the British had promised important reforms and gradual introduction of self rule. After the first world war, the Indians received Rowlett act, betrayal of British promise on Khilafat and Jalaiwalan Bagh and British defense of the perpetrator of the crime. There is no doubt that the whole national leadership of Congress and Muslim league felt the betrayal but they were defenseless against it. After all, the Indians had been disarmed after 1857 and they were left with no possibility of opposing the British with force of arms. What could they do but to accept the national humiliation. It was in this situation that Gandhi called for non-violent non-cooperation against the British. This changed the entire atmosphere in the country and whole country rose in rebellion against the British. This was the first step in laying the foundation of the Indian Independence.

Some of the important events after that are withdrawal of the mass civil disobedience, council entry, simon commission, the framing of constitution by the Motilal nehry committee, failure of Congress and Muslim league to reach and agreement, the salt satyagraha, the second round table conference and civil disobedience movement after that, fast against separate electorate to SC and Poona pact with Dr. Ambedkar, withdrawal of civil disobedience in 1934, council entry, 1935 GOI act, 1937 elections and formation of provincial governments, resignations of the congress governments in 1939, failure of Cripps Mission and the quit India movement in 1942, Gandhi Jinnah talks in 1944, agreement on partition by congress and muslim league in 1947, Indian independence and communal riots and death of Gandhi in 1948. It will be important to emphasize that throughout this phase Gandhi was most consistent non-violent non-cooperator. He wanted the country and the congress to follow the same policy. However the congress and the country was not prepared for it. This was one of the reasons for Gandhi to resign from Congress in 1934. However, the congress always came back to Gandhi when it was not able to get its way with the British. This paradoxical relationship is responsible for many of the accusations made against Gandhi about his hypocrisy, double talk and his responsibility in accepting the partition of the country and imposition of the leadership of Jawaharlal. Everyone has a right to have one’s own views on that, but one will have to keep this context in mind while formulating a judgment. These are some very important events of our recent national life. Unfortunately, these have not been discussed and debated sufficiently for the generations born in independent India.

Gandhiji called the western civilization as satanic civilization. He warned Indian against following this path. His mantra of fighting this satanic civilization was non-violent non-cooperation with it. The satyagraha was a profound notion. The non-cooperation and civil disobedience may be considered its negative side. The positive side was the constructive programme. Since 1921, Gandhi tried to pursue these two efforts consistently with all his might, till his death. Unfortunately, very few of his political colleagues believed in it. They were all suffering from the satanic illusion of the progress linked with this civilization and wanted more of it and at even a faster rate than the British. One of the dimension of this illusion was that the educated class in India was enamored by the ideas of European enlightenment and had great faith in the European institutions evolved under those ideas. It was much later between first and second world war that some of the great Indian intellectuals could overcome that illusion and were able to see the European institutions in their naked satanic reality. It goes to the credit of Gandhi that he showed the ability to see the Indian institutions of village republic in their own right and beauty and did not link the idea of Indian progress to the European enlightenment. It should be kept in mind that European enlightenment was on the one hand a reaction and rebellion against the European Christianity, its dogmas and its rigid control over the society. India had to face the problem of the onslaught of Christianity in a different way and therefore there was no need for it to borrow from the European enlightenment for its progress. On the other hand the European enlightenment became the class ideology of the emerging capitalist class and managed to hide all its oppression and untruth under the garb of its ideas. The beauty of Hind Swaraj is that its author was able to see through all this and was not enamored by these illusions. This is the prophetic insight which needs to be appreciated in Hind Swaraj. Unfortunately, the post independence generation has had very little encounters with these debates, as after gaining independence, it was able to gain its objective of becoming junior partners in the imperialist order and gave up the objectives and ideals of the Indian independence movement under the leadership of Gandhi. Another important dimension of this illusion was the mirage of the Marxist thought and promise of liberation under the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Indian socialist and Marxist became the junior agents of another arm of European enlightenment in the Russian revolution. ( more on it later) In the contemporary context, the logic of western civilization has been summed up as the logic of Auschwitz – the destruction of Jews by Germany and Manhattan project – the creation of atom bomb and its dropping on Hiroshima. It has been argued that the European Modernity can only do nothing better than these acts and can only do worse. Our generation borne after these acts has continued to believe in this satanic illusion of progress. The post eighty revolution of communication sciences and ICT and biotechnology and only strengthened these illusions. Our generation had some hesitations about the unrestrained dehwad but the next generations have no such qualms. To talk of sexual morality is considered inappropriate and against the human rights of the others. The contemporary ethos is not only to believe in the dehwad but to promise it to those who do not have the means to enjoy it. There is also a faith that the neoliberal dispensation can deliver the same to the whole humanity in a short time. The MDGs represent the global consensus on these issues. The MDGs provide a promise of reducing economic inequalities and prevention of environmental destruction. However it says very little on the social inequalities and building social and cultural conviviality. It is totally silent on the destruction of other forms of life and whole dehwad and unaesthetic form of the contemporary life. The religiosity and quest for God has no place in it ( this is partly due to Europe’s nightmarish experience of Christianity in their history) . Given the above, it is considered an anachronism to even discuss Hind Swaraj. However there are sound reasons to question these illusions and if taken logically forward these help us to overcome these illusions:

1. The European civilization is continuing to be plagued with wars. After the first and second world wars, the saga has continued with Korean and Vietnamese wars and African wars and after the collapse of Soviet Union with wars on Iraq and Afghanistan. 2. The free movement of the global capital is causing devastations across the subcontinents. 3. The rising cost of health care and long term care are reaching beyond the means of the most developed countries. In the riches country of the world forty to fifty million people are denied any access to health care and social security. 4. There is increasing destruction of the environment and specter of depletion of energy and mineral resources. 5. the marriage of scientific and technical establishment with the greed, profit and capital has emerged as an independent force and increasingly driving the global production, as is the robots have taken over the world, this has been called the technology of obsolescence. 6. The world is behind devasted by new epidemics which are either artificial creations or results if the social and economic devastations of the forces of capitalist exploitation and globalization. 7. The individual has lost its soul and society has lost its conviviality. The soul is rebelling against its enslavement but does not know the path to liberation. In the Indian context 1. The displacement of sixty million people in the last sixty years is inevitable cost of development. A case of collateral damage 2. The increasing communal violence, sub-national wars ( north east, kashmir, tribal land and naxalites) 3. Increasing agrarian crisis and mass suicides by peasants 4. Nearly two third of population continues to live below poverty line denial of access to health and education to vast masses 5. Destruction of the rivers and environment 6. lack of social reforms and 7. Increasing centralization militarization and police powers, lackof effective devolution of power to the people. The above should be sufficient to make us realize of the fundamental malaise of the civlization that we are living in and the illusion of possibility of progress that we are suffering from. The Hind swaraj and Gandhi’s life is a reminder to us that we should not feel despondent. The first step that we need is an internal journey. We need to shed our illusion. We need to realize that the science, the tools and the institutions of the modern civilization cannot help the mankind. The first step in the rebellion needs to be internal rebellion and a vow not to cooperate with the present system. It is only after this that we can start seeing, what opportunities are there for us to offer civil resistance and conceive and implement a constructive program for the regeneration of ourselves mankind and mother earth. It may perhaps be true to say that the possibility of a village based self contained society and republic is perhaps more remote today that it could have been when India regained its independence. A lot has happened since which has led to destruction of the traditional agriculture and traditional crafts and the inner relationships of the Indian society. Therefore the Gandhian alternative is lost forever and we are eternally trapped and cursed.. It should be kept in mind that it is not the responsibility of an individual or a group of individual to devise a solution in their minds and then offer it to humanity for implementation. The solution is a process of making ethical choices by individuals, society and nation and there cannot be a blue print for it. As Gandhi said, one step is enough for me, we have to make our first steps and look for the next one.