Gandhi Hind Swaraj

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Portrait of Gandhi in London, 1909.Taken from Gandhi 's Collected works, volume Ix (Navaj ivan Trust) .

M . K . GANDHI

Hind Swarajand other writingsedited by

ANTHONY J . PARELUniversity of C algary, Canada

CAMBRIDGEUNIVERSITY PRESS


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also saw the same point when he drew a comparison between genuinesatyagrahis and Jesuits trained in intelligence and deep will (Heard 1949,88 ) . In short, Hind Swaraj, besides being a dialogue on swaraj, is also anintensely 'spiritual' and intensely 'practical' book, one that teaches thatthere is a link between inner life and outer achievement, that individualregeneration and national regeneration constitute one continuum.However difficult the task of bringing about outer transformation mayappear to be, there is always something that the concerned individual cando, and that is to try to bring about his or her inner transformation . Thatcertainly was the point of some advice that Gandhi once gave to acolleague who felt somewhat discouraged the first time he read HindSwaraj . This colleague had wondered : what can one individual do toemancipate India? 'Please do not carry unnecessarily on your head theburden of emancipating India', Gandhi wrote back . 'Emancipate yourown self. Even that burden is very great . Apply everything to yourself.Nobility of soul consists in realising that you are yourself India . In youremancipation is the emancipation of India. All else is make-be lieve' (CW10 : 206-7).A corollary to the above point is that a single emancipated person canmake a difference in the world . 'If there be only one such [emancipated]Indian, states chapter xx, 'the English will have to listen to him .' Gandhiundoubtedly was one such Indian. But the same may be said of anyindividual who implements the teachings of Hind Swaraj : when such aperson speaks, the other will listen and the dialogue will continue .

A note on the history of the text

1909 Hind Swarajya was written in Gujarati between 13 and22 November on board the Kildonan Castle, on Gandhi's return tripfrom England to South Africa ; it was published in two instalmentsin the the G ujarati section of Indian Opinion (11 and 19 December).

1910 Published in book form in January by Gandhi's own InternationalPrinting Press, Phoenix, Natal, South Africa ; the Gujarati text wasbanned from India for security reasons, 24 March ; the Englishtranslation by Gandhi, under the title Indian Home Rule, withPreface and Foreword, was published by International PrintingPress, Phoenix, Natal, 20March . On the title page of the Englishtranslation Gandhi changes the Gujarati title from Hind Swarajyato Hind Swaraj.

1914 The second Gujarati edition, with a new Preface, was published byInternational Printing Press, Phoenix, Natal.

1919 The first Indian edition of Indian Hom e Rule, with a new Forewordby Gandhi and a 'Note' by C . Rajagopalachari, was published inMadras by Ganesh and Co . It dropped both the 1909 Foreword andth e 1910 Preface ; adopted as the manifesto of the Gandhianrevolution.

1921 The first Hindi translation, with a new Preface and a 'Note'endorsing the place of Indian-owned textile mills in India, waspublished in Ahmedabad by Navajivan. In a Young India editorial of26January Gandhi gave the English text the new title Hind Swarajor Indian Home Rule . All subsequent editions of the English text areknown under this combined title . Two other Madras publishers,Natesan and Co. , and Tagore and C o ., brought out their ownreprints of the 1919 Indian edition .


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lxty Note on the history of the text

1924 An American edition under the title of Se r m on on the Sea, edited byHaridas T . Mazumdar, and with an Introduction by John HaynesHolmes, was published by Universal Publishing Company,Chicago .Navajivan Karyalaya of Ahmedabad published a reprint of the1919 Madras edition with a Preface dated 2 February by MahadevDesai, Gandhi's secretary . Later in the same year N avajivan,Ahmedabad, published the Revised New Edition (RN E), with aPreface to the New Edition dated 11 December by 'M . D .'(Mahadev Desai) . The Navajivan Trust secured the copyright ofHind Swaraj or Indian Hom e Rule. The ban on H ind Swaraj was lif tedon21 December (Mss . n o . 605, Nehru Museum).Navajivan, Ahmedabad, re-issued the RN E . The Collected Works ofMahatma Gandhi 10 (1963) and the Oxford edition of The M oral andPolitical Writings ofMahatma Gandhi (1986, edited by Raghavan Iyer)have used the text of the RN E.Th e 1910 English text (with its Foreword and Preface), which thepresent editor believes to be the most authentic of all existingEnglish texts, is re-issued here for the first time since 1910 withthe permissic_1 of the Navajivan Trust, Ahmedabad.

The present editor, following the Madras and Ahmedabad editors, hasadded a table of contents which the 1910 edition did not have . Whereappropriate, spelling and punctuation have been brought up to date;other editorial changes to the 1910 text have been duly noted in thefootnotes .

Principal events inthe life ofMohandas Karamchand Gandhi

orn on 2 October at Probandar, Gujarat, into a Modh Baniafamily.

1883 Marries Kasturbai Makanji.1888 Birth of Harilal, his eldest son ; leaves for England to study law.1890 Joins the London Vegetarian Society.1891 Called to the Bar from the Inner Temple (debarred in 1922,

reinstated in 1988) ; returns to India.Arrives in Durban, South Africa, to work for an Indian Muslimtrading firm ; experiences racial discrimination at thePietermaritzburg railway station.

1894 Becomes the founder-secretary of Natal Indian Congress; enrolledas barrister in the High Court of Natal; starts campaign againstanti-Indian racial laws.

1895 Visits the Mariannhill Trappist Monastery, outside Durban.1896 Visits India, June-November.1897 Returns to South Africa ; at Durban harbour met by an angry mob

of white settlers : escapes, with the assistance of local white police,in the guise of an Indian constable.

1899 Organises an Indian Ambulance Corps to assist the British in theSecond Anglo-Boer War.

1901 Returns to India for a year.1902 Returns to South Africa.1903 Settles in Johannesburg; Indian Opinion commences publication;

work against anti-Indian racial legislation continues.1904 Reads Ruskin's Unto This Last ; founds an experimental Phoenix

Settlement outside Durban.1906 Organises an Indian Ambulance Corps during the Zulu 'Rebellion;

1938

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takes the vow of chastity; at a mass meeting moves the famousresolution IV proposing civil disobedience against anti-Indianracial legislation; visits London on a Transvaa l Indian Deputationto lobby for Indian interests.

1908 The term 'satyagraha' formally adopted; the mass burning ofregistration certificates in Johannesburg; first imprisonment(10-30 January) ; second imprisonment (7 October-12 December).

19 0 ird imprisonment (25 February-24 May); July-November inLondon to lobby for South African Indian interests ; on the returnvoyag e, 13-22 November, writes Hind Swa raj and translatesTolstoy's Letter to a Hindoo . [R . Shamasastry publishes the text ofthe newly discovered Arthasastra of Kautilya in Bibliotheca Sanskrita,Mysore .)

1910 Establishes the Tolstoy Farm, outside Johannesburg . on landdonated by his friend Hermann Kallenbach.

1913 Leads the 'great march' of satyagrahis (2,037 men, 127 women, and57 children) from Charlestown to Volksrust to protest against anti-Indian legislation; fourth imprisonment (11 November-18 December).he Gandhi-Smuts agreement reached; leaves South Africa for

good ; in London Aug ust-December ; organises an Ambulancecorps of Indians living in England to help in World War I.

rrives in India in January; establishes the Sabarmati Ashram in

1917 Applies principles of satyagraha to settle the grievances of indigoworkers in Champaran, Bihar.

1918 Applies principles of satyagraha to settle the Ahmedabad textileworkers' strike and the Kheda peasants' grievances; activelyrecruits volunteers for the Indian army to fight in World War I.Leads the all-India satyagraha against the Rowlatt Act; Hind Swarajprinted and distributed as the manifesto of the Gandhianrevolution; supports the Khilafat movement; becomes editor ofthe weeklies, Navajivan (Gujarati) and Y oung India (English) ; underarrest, 9-11 April, while on a train journey from Kosi to Bombay .

1920 The Indian National Congress adopts Gandhi's programme of non-cooperation.

1922 The Chauri Chaura massacre of 21 Indian policemen by unrulymob forces Gandhi to suspend satyagraha ; fifth imprisonment(1 0 March 1922-5 February 1924).President of the Indian National Congress.

1927 Publishes The Story of my Experiments with Truth Vol . I.1928 Publishes Satyagraha in South Africa ; visits Kerala in support of

Vykom satyagraha.Publishes The Story of my Experiments with Truth Vol . II.Leads the Zoo-mile Salt March, from Ahmedabad to Dandi,12 March-5 April, and breaks the salt laws ; sixth imprisonment(5 May 1930-26 January 1931).The Gandhi-Irwin Pact ; attends the Round Table Conference inLondon.

1932 Seventh imprisonment (4 January-2o September) ; fasts toprotest against the proposed separate electorate for theUntouchables.Eighth imprisonment (1-4 August); ninth imprisonment(4-23 August) ; founds the English weekly, H arijan ; SabarmatiAshram closed down permanently.Inaugurates all-India Village Industries Association ; resignsformally from the Indian National Congress.Founds the Sevagram Ashram, near Wardha.Inaugurates New Educational Conference at Wardha.Publishes C onstructive Programme: Its Meaning and Place.aunches the Quit India Movement ; tenth imprisonment-9 August 1942-6 May 1944).1944 Death of his wife in prison; Gandhi-Jinnah talks onHindu-Muslim unity.1946 Meets with the Cabinet Mission and attends the Simla Conference;tours the riot-ridden districts of Bengal.R9 The partition of India and Indian independence ; in Calcutta,begins a fast as a means to restore Hindu-Muslim peace./-- Ahmedabad . 192919311 93 319361 93 71941


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LA ,aa T .1948 Begins a fast in New Delhi as a m e a n s to restoreHindu-Musl im-Sikh peace ; 2 9 January writes a draft constitutionfor the Indian National Congress ; 30 January assassinated in NewDelhi by Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist .

Biographical synopses

LORD AMPTHILL (1869-1935). Governor of Madras (1900-6) ; actingViceroy (1904) ; author of the Foreword to Doke's biography of Gandhi;president of South Africa British Indian Committee (London);corresponded with Gandhi during his 1909 London stay ; received a'preview' of HS.

ASQuITH, Herbert Henry (1852-1928) . Liberal prime minister, 1908-16;mentioned in ch. v

BALFOUR, Arthur James (1848-1930) . Conservative prime minister,1902-5 ; mentioned in ch. v

CARLYLE, Thomas (1795-188 1) . Gandhi read his biographies of Burns,Johnson and Scott, French Revolution and of Heroes and Hero Worship andthe Heroic in History, during his two prison terms in 1908 ; mentioned inch . v.

CARPENTER, Edward (1844-1929) . English writer, vegetarian ,teetotaller, Anglican priest, author of Civilisation, its Cause and Curementioned in ch. vi and in Appendix t to HS.

CAVOUR, C onte Camillo Benso di (1810-61) . Founder, with Count CesareBilbao of II Risorgimento, the org an of the Italian nationalistmovement: mentioned in ch. xv.

CHAMBERLAIN, Joseph (1836-1914) . As Secretary of State for C olonies,he wanted to prosecute Gandhi's 1897 racial assailants ; Gandhiaddressed several important memorials to him on his 1902 SouthAfrica visit ; mentioned in ch. vl 1.

CURZON, George Nathaniel (1859-1925) . Viceroy ( 18 99- 1 90 5);responsible for the partition of Bengal in 1905 ; mentioned inch .lt.

DESAI, Mahadev Haribhai (1892-1942) . Gandhi's secretary from 1917 to

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Gandhi Hind Swaraj