Work · South Asian & Tibetan Philosophy
Hind Swaraj
A critique of modern civilization and a program of nonviolent self-rule.
Introduction
Gandhi wrote this short book in Gujarati in November 1909 on board the ship Kildonan Castle, travelling from London to South Africa, and published it in his newspaper Indian Opinion. It is set out as a dialogue between a “Reader”, who stands for impatient young nationalists, and an “Editor”, Gandhi’s own voice. In twenty chapters he argues that Indians are enslaved less by the British than by modern civilisation itself – railways, lawyers, doctors and machinery – and that violence would only reproduce it. The British authorities in India banned the Gujarati text in 1910; Gandhi then published his own English translation as “Indian Home Rule”.
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Connections
Builds on
- Resistance to Civil Government (Civil Disobedience)1849 · Henry David Thoreau
- The Kingdom of God Is Within You1894 · Leo Tolstoy
Taken up in
- The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism1983 · Ashis Nandy
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