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PERSPECTIVE

Gandhi’s Swaraj when his right hand got tired he used his
left hand. That physical tiredness did not
diminish Gandhi’s powers of concentra-
tion was evident from the fact that the
Rudrangshu Mukherjee manuscript had only 16 lines that had
been deleted and a few words that had
This essay briefly traces Gandhi’s “I am a man possessed by an idea’’ – Gandhi been altered.3
to Louis Fischer in 1942.
ideas about swaraj, their The ideas presented in that book grew
“I made it [the nation] and I unmade it”
out of Gandhi’s reflection, his reading and
articulation in 1909 in Hind – Gandhi to P C Joshi in 1947.
“I don’t want to die a failure. But I may be a his experiences in South Africa. It is sig-
Swaraj, the quest to actualise failure” – Gandhi to Nirmal Bose in 1947.1 nificant that when he wrote Hind Swaraj,
these ideas, the turns that history Gandhi had not immersed himself in Indi-

O
gave to them, and the journey n the midnight of 14-15 August an society and politics. His experiments in
1947, when Jawaharlal Nehru, the India still lay in the future. In fact, Hind
that made Mohandas
first prime minister of India, Swaraj served as the basis of these experi-
Karamchand Gandhi a lonely coined the phrase – “tryst with destiny”– ments. Gandhi’s purpose in writing the
man in August 1947. that has become part of India’s national book was, he wrote, “to serve my country,
lexicon, and India erupted in jubilation, to find out the Truth and to follow it”. He
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was far also believed that the views he had pre-
away from the celebrations. He was in a sented in the book were held not by him
slum in eastern Calcutta. When asked by a alone but were, in fact, “the views…held
journalist for a message on the day of by many Indians not touched by what is
India’s independence, he said it was a day known as civilisation”. He asked his rea-
for fasting and prayer. ders to believe him when he said that the
The Father of the Nation was not present views “are also held by thousands of
at the birth of the independent Indian na- Europeans”.4 Gandhi’s use of the phrase,
tion. On the same day, 15 August 1947, in “what is known as civilisation’’, is worth
the city of Karachi someone placed a fez flagging at this point since I will have
on Gandhi’s statue.2 The significance of the occasion to come back to it very soon. Hind
act is open to interpretation: it could have Swaraj remained the touchstone of his be-
been a symbol of unity or a sign of mock- liefs and actions throughout his life, it was
ery. It would not be an exaggeration, even the fountainhead of his inspiration: he
from just these two pieces of evidence, to never changed his views on the funda-
suggest that what India had achieved on mental principles he set out in this text,
15 August, was not something that Gandhi even though he was open to the possibility
had visualised as swaraj. By August 1947, of his views being proven wrong. It is
he had become India’s prophet outcast. worth noting that Hind Swaraj is the only
In this essay I want to trace briefly work that Gandhi himself translated from
Gandhi’s ideas about swaraj, his quest to Gujarati to English. Even his auto-
actualise these ideas and the turns that his- biography, The Story of My Experiments
tory gave to them and to his journey that with Truth, was translated by his secretary,
made him a lonely man in August 1947. Mahadev Desai.
Gandhi’s ideas about swaraj were arti-
culated most cogently and most powerfully Only Way to a Swaraj
in that remarkable text called Hind Swaraj, In May 1919, just before he embarked on
which he wrote in 1909 in Gujarati and his first major mass movement in India,
published in English in 1910 in South Africa Gandhi wrote, commenting on Hind
after the government of Bombay proscribed Swaraj, “After years of endeavour to put
the Gujarati version. It was written in 10 into practice the views expressed in the
days between 13 and 22 November 1909 following pages, I feel that the way shown
on board Kildonan Castle, a ship that therein is the only true way to swaraj’’.5
Gandhi took to return to South Africa from And towards the end of his life in October
Rudrangshu Mukherjee (rudrangshu@hotmail. London. It was written on the ship’s sta- 1945, he wrote emphatically to Jawaharlal
com) is with The Telegraph, Kolkata.
tionery. Gandhi wrote at a furious pace and Nehru, “I fully stand by the kind of
34 december 12, 2009 vol xliv no 50 EPW Economic & Political Weekly
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governance which I have described in reject industrialisation; Gandhi made a gave was equally important and funda-
Hind Swaraj.” He went on to add very critique in Hind Swaraj of the entire inte- mental. He said that to oppose modern
significantly, “If I were the only one left llectual scaffolding of modern civilisation civilisation in India through violence
who believed in it, I would not be sorry”.6 – science, history, political and social would be to Europeanise India or to take
The clarity of the exposition and Gandhi’s institutions and so on. All that is asso- it along the path of modernity. Gandhi’s
lifelong commitment to the ideas put ciated with modernity and modern civili- aim was exactly the opposite. Opposition
forward in it have made one modern sation, Gandhi repudiated. to British rule would be non-violent.
commentator describe the Hind Swaraj as Gandhi gave a name to this form of
“the point d’ appui of Gandhi’s moral and Alternative to Modern struggle, satyagraha.
political thought”.7 Civilisation The term satyagraha has an interesting
This might be the appropriate place to The alternative to modern civilisation thus origin. When Gandhi began his movement
briefly rehearse the views that Gandhi had to be located outside its domain and in South Africa, he first used the term pas-
presented in this text. In a preface to the among people who were untouched by sive resistance. As the struggle advanced
Gujarati edition of Hind Swaraj written in modern civilisation and uninfluenced by Gandhi found “passive resistance” to be
1914, Gandhi described himself as “an un- it. It was in this context that India, accord- inadequate to express the substance of his
compromising enemy of the present day ing to Gandhi, was uniquely placed since movement. It also appeared to him
civilisation in Europe”.8 It was this un- millions of Indians lived in the villages “shameful” that the Indian struggle should
relenting hostility to European or western and were thus not tainted by modernity be known only by an English name. A
civilisation that is manifest in Hind Swaraj. and its pernicious features. “Real or genu- small prize was, therefore, announced in
He was referring to western/European ine civilisation”, in contrast to “what is Indian Opinion to be awarded to the reader
civilisation when he used the words “what known as civilisation”, was to be found in who invented the best designation for the
is known as civilisation”. Gandhi believed the villages of India. In the traditional vil- new struggle. Maganlal Gandhi suggest-
that western civilisation was only one in lage world of India life was governed by a ed the word sadagraha meaning “firm-
name. In the Hind Swaraj, he launched an common morality by which each member ness in a good cause”. Gandhi liked the
attack on every aspect of western civilisa- performed his duty. This made it the exact word but as it did not fully represent the
tion in order to prove how evil and how opposite of modern society whose mem- whole idea, he changed it to satyagraha,
harmful it was. The text also contains bers chased their own self-interested and “the force which is born of truth and love
Gandhi’s alternative to modern civilisation individualistic goals. He said in April 1945, or non-violence”.14
and a programme of action and behaviour “I know the European mind well enough
that Indians must follow to make that to know that when it has to choose be- Satyagraha and Swaraj
alternative a reality. tween abstract justice and self-interest, it Gandhi linked satyagraha to swaraj in two
Gandhi equated modern civilisation will plump for the latter.”10 The challenge ways. In the Gujarati version of Hind
with the western one because the west to modern civilisation in India would have Swaraj, Gandhi used swaraj to denote
was the principal site of all that is consid- to come from the people who lived in the both self-rule and self-government.15
ered modern. What he actually attacked villages, the peasantry.11 Swaraj was an ideal for the individual and
was a particular form of western civilisa- How was this challenge to be arti- for the nation. To be a devotee of satya-
tion, the one that emerged with the culated? Gandhi was emphatic that it graha, Gandhi said, an individual had to
Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolu- would have to be non-violent. He gave two be capable of self-rule: “Swaraj has to be
tion. A year before writing the Hind reasons for this. One, since the peasantry experienced by each one for himself”.16
Swaraj, he had written, “Let it be remem- would be at the forefront of the resistance, Gandhi laid down a code of conduct that
bered that western civilisation is only a it would be non-violent since the peasants would help individuals attain swaraj.
hundred years old, or to be more precise, were essentially non-violent: in Hind Every individual who chose the path of
fifty”.9 Gandhi interpreted the industrial Swaraj, Gandhi wrote, “They [the peas- satyagraha would learn to regulate his
revolution as having brought about a radi- ants] do not know the use of the sword, own life by observing perfect chastity,
cal transformation in people’s lives and in and they are not frightened by the use of it adopting poverty, following truth and
people’s attitudes to themselves and to the by others.” He believed, “In India, the na- cultivating fearlessness.17 A satyagrahi,
world around them. Fundamental to this tion at large has generally used passive leading a disciplined and ethical life,
transformation was the premise that resistance in all departments of life”.12 would be an exemplar for other individu-
through Reason and Science human be- Indians, especially the peasants, are als and the pursuit of such a life on the
ings were capable of mastering nature and essentially non-violent. Gandhi wrote, part of all individuals would be the neces-
thus fulfilling their desires and wants. “We cease to cooperate with our rulers sary precondition for swaraj. Swaraj at the
This, Gandhi believed, inevitably led to when they displease us. This is passive individual level where “each person will
greed, to competition and finally to vio- resistance.”13 Thus modern civilisation in become his own ruler”18 would lead to
lence. Therefore, violence was embedded India, represented by British rule, would swaraj for the nation.
in modern civilisation and this made it be opposed passively, through non-violent In Gandhi’s philosophy, swaraj for the
satanic and immoral. It was not enough to means. The second reason that Gandhi nation did not mean merely political
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PERSPECTIVE

independence from British rule. Swaraj, cannot be measured by counting of heads or Letter” to his father in which he spelt out
for Gandhi, was something more substan- raising of hands. I would not regard this as a what he thought were the principal rea-
measure of public opinion…The rishis and
tive, involving the freedom of each indi- sons for their separation and the ensuing
munis after doing penance came to the con-
vidual to regulate their own lives without clusion that public opinion is the opinion of bitterness. Harilal wrote,
harming one another. Gandhi certainly people who practise penance and who have Our views about education are the main rea-
did not want British rule to be replaced by the good of the people at heart.21 son for the difference of opinion of the last
another form of rule where western insti- This was the ideal or the utopia, if you 10 years…You have suppressed us [sons] in a
tutions of governance and civil society like, that Gandhi pursued in his private sophisticated manner…You have never en-
couraged us in any way… You always spoke
would be run by Indians instead of white and his public life. He admitted in a long
to us with anger, not with love…You have
men. That would be to have “English rule letter to Nehru in 1945 that he had made us remain ignorant…I asked to be sent
without the Englishman”. He wrote that indeed idealised the Indian rural world. to England. For a year I cried. I was bewil-
such a process “would make India English. He told Nehru dered. You did not lend me your ears…I am
And when it becomes English, it will be You will not be able to understand me if you married with four children. I cannot…be-
think that I am talking about the villages of come a recluse.24
called not Hindustan but Englistan. This is
today. My ideal village still exists only in my
not the swaraj I want.”19 Swaraj from Gan- Harilal felt that Gandhi had imposed
imagination. After all every human being
dhi’s perspective would have to be located lives in the world of his own imagination. In
his own views on his children and had
not only outside the domain of British po- this village of my dreams the villager will thus hindered their education and devel-
litical suzerainty but also beyond the sa- not be dull – he will be all awareness. He will opment. The education Harilal referred to
tanic touch of western civilisation. Gandhi not live like an animal in filth and darkness. was obviously western education that
Men and women will live in freedom, pre-
called this alternative Ramrajya, which he Gandhi had rejected. The life that Harilal
pared to face the whole world. There will be
rendered into English as “enlightened an- no plague, no cholera and no smallpox.
refused to live was that of one living in an
archy”. The word anarchy indicated that Nobody will be allowed to be idle or to ashram following the vows of chastity and
there would be no state, and the word en- wallow in luxury. Everyone will have to do poverty like a recluse. From this accu-
lightened suggested that society would be body labour.22 satory letter of his eldest born, Gandhi
composed of disciplined individuals regu- His many experiments with truth were emerges as a self-absorbed, if not selfish,
lating their own lives. Elaborating on this concerned with taking himself and his individual who was more concerned with
idea he wrote in January 1939, country closer to the goal of swaraj. We his own pursuit of Truth than with the
The power to control national life through know from his remarkable autobiography feelings and lives of his sons. Harilal paid
national representatives is called political that in his personal life, he chose to adopt the price of being the son of a satyagrahi.
power. Representatives will become unnec- a life of chastity and simplicity. He opted Yet an unbreakable bond remained in the
essary if the national life becomes so perfect
for poverty since as a barrister-at-law, both form of Kasturba, and Harilal would not
as to be self-controlled. It will then be a state
of enlightened anarchy in which each person
in South Africa and in India, he could have let his father forget that the achievements
will become his own ruler. He will conduct lived in relative affluence in the style of a of the Mahatma had been possible because
himself in such a way that his behaviour will westernised gentleman. His lifestyle was of the support that Kasturba had provided.
not hamper the well-being of his neighbours. frugal in the extreme. Fearlessness or There is the account of a poignant meet-
In an ideal state there will be no political in-
abhaya became a part of Gandhi’s life ever ing of the parents with their eldest son in a
stitution and therefore no political power.20
since that night of 31 May 1893 when he railway station. I quote below from the
In Gandhi’s ideal of swaraj there would was summarily ejected from a first class recollections of Narayan Desai, son of
be complete and continual reciprocity carriage of a train in Maritzburg in Natal, Mahadev, who witnessed the encounter:
among and participation by every member South Africa. Gandhi had self-consciously
One day when our train stopped at a station
of society. He elaborated thus: trained himself for satyagraha.23 on our way back to Wardha, we heard a cry
from the crowd different from the usual:
Swaraj and Ramrajya are one and the same Personal Anguish Mata Kasturba Ki Jai (victory to mother
thing…We call a State Ramrajya when both
The attempt to self-regulate his life and to Kasturba).
the ruler and his subjects are straight-
It was Harilalkaka. He was emaciated…
forward, when both are pure in heart, when live it according to his own precepts and
From a pocket of his ragged clothes he took
both are inclined towards self-sacrifice, ideals was no easy matter for Gandhi. It an orange and said, “Ba, I have brought this
when both exercise restraint and self-control often caused him personal anguish and for you”. Breaking in, Bapu said, “Didn’t you
while enjoying worldly pleasures, and, when
made him appear cruel and dogmatic to bring anything for me?”. “No, nothing for
the relationship between the two is as good
his dear ones, but this did not deter him you…All the greatness you have achieved is
as that between father and son. It is because
only because of Ba. Don’t forget that!”.
we have forgotten this that we talk of from continuing with his experiment to
democracy or the government of the people. achieve swaraj. Two examples of this an- No amount of pleading on the part of
Although this is the age of democracy, I do guish could perhaps be given here. One both parents could persuade Harilal to
not know what the word connotes; however,
concerns the complete alienation of Gan- come with them. The train left the plat-
I would say that democracy exists where the
people’s voice is heard, where love of the
dhi from his eldest son Harilal, who took form. “Amidst the cries of Gandhiji ki jai”,
people holds a place of prime importance. In to drink and became a complete wastrel. Narayan Desai continues, “we could still
my Ramrajya, however, public opinion In early 1915, Harilal wrote a “Half-Open hear the faint cry, Mata Kasturba ki jai”.25
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Harilal, it would seem, wanted to contrast between Gandhi’s creed of non-violence Shahid Amin has noted that in Gorakhpur
the selflessness of his mother with the and the politics of popular protest was peasants spoke of Gandhiji’s swaraj or
selfishness of his father. One can only best exemplified by what happened in Mahatmaji’s swaraj. Gandhi notes bearing
imagine the pain that this relationship Chauri Chaura in February 1922 during a superficial resemblance to the one rupee
caused all three. On Harilal’s life had the Non-Cooperation Movement. note circulated and its non-acceptance as
fallen the shadow of Gandhi’s quest. What On 5 February 1922 in Chauri Chaura, legal tender was interpreted by the peas-
is not known – and is also difficult to near Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh, ants as opposition to Gandhi. What did
conjecture – is if Gandhi felt that his a crowd of 4,000 Hindus and Muslims the local peasantry mean by swaraj? They
quest for swaraj had done violence to his attacked a police outpost and burnt alive perceived it, the investigations into the
son. Harilal was the fi rst victim of 22 policemen. The crowd chanted Mahat- Chauri Chaura incident revealed, “as a
Gandhi’s swaraj.26 ma Gandhi ki jai while it carried out the millennium in which taxation would be
The other example relates to the death carnage. A shocked Gandhi owned re- limited to the collection of small cash con-
of Kasturba. During the final stage of her sponsibility for the violence – he called it tributions or dues in kind from fields and
last illness, their youngest son, Devdas, “The Crime of Chauri Chaura”30 – and threshing floors, and [in] which the culti-
brought penicillin that he had imported, called off the Non-Cooperation Move- vators would hold their lands at little more
Gandhi advised against using it on ment. How did this happen? How could than nominal rents”.33 The peasants of
Kasturba. He told Devdas, “Why don’t you people carry out an act of violence and Gorakhpur had thus reinterpreted Gan-
trust god? Why do you wish to drug your brutality with the name of the apostle of dhi’s swaraj to suit their own world and its
mother even on her death bed?” He was non-violence on their lips? The answer lies problems. There were other equally sig-
not willing to compromise his position on in the manner Gandhi’s persona was per- nificant features of this reinterpretation.
western medicine even when it meant the ceived and in the impact of his message. In the words of Amin
death of his wife. He told one of his close Gandhi had visited Gorakhpur only …there was for the peasant volunteers of
associates, “How God has tested my faith! once, addressed one meeting there and Chauri Chaura a transformation in the spirit
of that ubiquitous cry, ‘Gandhi Maharaj ki
If I had allowed you to give her penicillin, had returned to Benares but for months
jai’…the jaikar of Gandhi had become a mili-
it could not have saved her. But it would before his arrival, as Shahid Amin has tant avowal of the organised strength of
have meant bankruptcy of faith on my shown in an outstanding essay, stories and peasant volunteers, a cry which mobilised
part.” Yet the decision could not have been rumours about Gandhi had been circulat- and struck terror in the hearts of waverers
easy for him. At the cremation of Kasturba, ing about him in the region.31 All these and enemies alike. For the peasants of north
India this had ceased in effect to be a Gan-
he was seen crying, the first time his stories, reported in the local press, were
dhian cry; it was now a cry with which an
devoted disciple Mirabehn (Madeline about Gandhi’s pratap – power or glory. attack on a market or a thana was an-
Slade) had seen him shed tears, and he Some related to individuals and families nounced. ‘Mahatma Gandhi ki jai’ had, in
said, “The best half of me is dead. What receiving special boons because they had this context, assumed the function of such
am I going to do now?”27 chosen to follow the Gandhian creed and traditional war cries as ‘Jai Mahabir’ or ‘Bam
Bam Mahadeo’…Thus a ‘jaikar’ of adoration
others to curses falling on those who
and adulation had become the rallying cry
Swaraj in Gandhi’s Public Life defied Gandhi’s orders or tested and for direct action. While such action sought to
I turn now to the more public aspects of opposed his power. Gandhi, in the eyes of justify itself by a reference to the Mahatma,
Gandhi’s life where he tried to implement the common people of Gorakhpur, had the Gandhi of its rustic protagonists was not
his ideas about swaraj. The great mass been cast as the traditional Hindu holy as he really was, but as they had thought
him up.34
movements that he launched through the man and had become the object of wor-
Congress Party are the obvious embodi- ship. Women begged for alms in his name, The creed of Gandhi’s swaraj and the
ments of this experiment. Here we find and they performed vrat and aradhana way it was received and interpreted by the
that Gandhi’s swaraj often stumbled when (fast and worship) for him. This percep- peasants were radically different. Neither
faced with the hard realities of politics. tion was not unrelated to Gandhi’s chosen Gandhi nor the Congress had any control
Again and again, the energy and enthusi- lifestyle and beliefs. In a very perceptive over the manner in which the masses
asm of the people that he mobilised essay, M N Srinivas noted how Gandhi’s decoded the message of the Mahatma.
through a non-violent movement spilled choice to be the renouncer in the tradi- Gandhi had somewhat anticipated this
over into militancy. The politics of the tional Hindu mould, even though he when he had written in Hind Swaraj,
people refused to respect the limits im- refused to don the garb of a sanyasi, was “Those in whose name we speak we do not
posed by Gandhi’s swaraj.28 This often intrinsic to his appeal and to his work.32 know, nor do they know us”.35 It was thus
compelled Gandhi to call off the move- His life of abstinence and simplicity and not always possible to regulate the masses
ment or to reduce its pace and momentum. his continuous emphasis on purity rein- and to keep the movements within the
Gandhi would not compromise on the forced this popular image of Gandhi as the limits of satyagraha and non-violence.
issue of violence. “Non-violence”, he was holy man, the Mahatma. This tension was embedded in the mass
to say in his speech at his first trial in 1923, The perception of Gandhi’s pratap also movements called by Gandhi and thus the
“is the first article of my faith. It is also the led to seeing him as an alternative source paradox of violent acts with the name of
last article of my creed”.29 The clash of authority to the British government. Gandhi on the lips of the actors. Gandhi’s
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PERSPECTIVE

swaraj, in its public dimension, could not “there is a fundamental difference be- and I could not keep out of it”.43 The origi-
quite rid itself of this baggage and Gandhi tween his [Gandhi’s] outlook on life gen- nal idea behind the Planning Committee
for his own inner swaraj often had to en- erally and what might be called the mod- “had been to further industrialisation”44
gage himself in fasts to cleanse himself of ern outlook”.40 But Nehru also noted a since, according to Nehru, vintage 1946,
the evil of violence committed by the peo- more profound divergence: “Gandhiji”, he “It can hardly be challenged that, in the
ple. Towards the end of his life Gandhi noted, “is always thinking in terms of per- context of the modern world, no country
confessed that non-violent resistance sonal salvation and of sin, while most of us can be politically or economically inde-
against British rule had not gone quite ac- have society’s welfare uppermost in our pendent…unless it is highly industrialised
cording to his plan and vision. He wrote, minds”.41 The calling of the two men were and has developed its power resources to
“People followed my advice and took to radically different, if not opposed. This the utmost”. It followed that “an attempt
non-violent resistance against the British was reflected in their world views and in to build up a country’s economy largely on
government because they wanted to offer the vision they had for India. It surprised the basis of cottage and small-scale indus-
some sort of resistance. But their non- no one that as prime minister of indepen- tries is doomed to failure”.45 Thus Nehru
violence, I must confess, was born of their dent India, Nehru inaugurated a pro- favoured industrialisation over the rural
helplessness. Therefore, it was the weapon gramme of large-scale industrialisation in economy. What is equally important is his
of the weak”.36 Gandhi’s swaraj became a which the State was a principal actor. This belief that a country has to develop its
victim of the mass forces that Gandhi was not a project of which Gandhi would “power resources to the utmost”. Industri-
himself unleashed. have approved. Within a few years of his alisation and the development of “power
death, Gandhi’s swaraj was nothing more resources” would be carried out in Nehru’s
Nehru’s Scepticism than an idea. programme under a strong and centrali-
It would be simplistic to suggest that the Long before independence, the breach sing state in a position to allocate and
obstacles to Gandhi’s swaraj came only between Gandhi’s swaraj and Nehru’s distribute economic resources. This was
from the masses and their tendency to politics was becoming apparent. In 1938, not exactly Gandhi’s vision of “enlight-
turn violent while defying British rule. Nehru met Clement Attlee and Stafford ened anarchy” where the state had been
Criticism was made and hurdles were Cripps in Goodfellows, Cripps’s house in rendered redundant.46
erected by people very close to Gandhi. the Cotswolds. This was perhaps the first
Take the case of Jawaharlal Nehru. As attempt to arrive at a negotiated transfer Drift of Congress from Gandhi
early as 1936 Nehru had written in his of power in India. At the meeting, Attlee Nor was Nehru alone: the Congress was
autobiography that the ideas of Hind and Cripps conceded the Congress’ de- itself moving away from the main thrust
Swaraj represented an “utterly wrong and mand that India be allowed to decide on of Gandhi’s ideas. Nowhere was this more
harmful doctrine, and impossible of its own constitution through a constituent explicit than in the manner in which Con-
achievement’’. He added, assembly elected by universal suffrage. gress leaders grasped the poisoned chalice
Personally, I dislike the praise of poverty and They, however, added a significant caveat: of a negotiated transfer of power leading
suffering…Nor do I appreciate the ascetic election to the constituent assembly would to independence with India partitioned.
life as a social ideal…Nor do I appreciate in be subject to minority representation. As the second world war drew to a close, it
the least the idealisation of the ‘simple peas-
A nother condition was that after the mak- was clear that the British for their own in-
ant life’. I have almost a horror of it, and in-
stead of submitting to it myself I want to ing of a constitution, the government of terests would pull out of India. The time-
drag out even the peasantry from it, not to free India would be required to sign a table and the manner of the withdrawal
urbanisation, but to the spread of urban cul- treaty that would enable Britain to dis- were open to discussion. The Congress
tural facilities to rural areas.37 charge her obligations and protect her in- leadership never challenged this notion of
It will not be an exaggeration to say that terests for an interim period of 15 years.42 a transfer of power that would be achieved
what Gandhi was rejecting, Nehru was In this first parley, already some of Gan- through parleys across a table. Such an
embracing. If Gandhi considered a civili- dhi’s basic principles – non-acceptance of “escape from empire” – one scholar’s tell-
sation based on industrial production and minority representation and rejection of ing phrase – created conditions in which,
science to be satanic, Nehru was its una- British or western interests – were being according to James Grigg, the finance
bashed admirer. In The Discovery of India, surrendered or compromised by none member of the government of India, “Birla
he wrote, “There is something very won- other than his cup-bearer. and Bentham [could] hunt together for
derful about the high achievement of sci- Nehru’s drift away from Gandhi’s quick profits”.47 Gandhi could not see him-
ence and modern technology”.38 He said swaraj was also evident in the enthusi- self as being part of this process. Gandhi
he was “all for tractors and big machinery asm with which he went about forming attended the Congress Working Commit-
and I am convinced that the rapid indus- the National Planning Committee in tee at the end of June 1946. At the meet-
trialisation of India is essential to relieve 1938. He was the chairman of the com- ing, he asked Pyarelal, his secretary, to
the pressure on land, to combat poverty mittee, a post he accepted, he was to read out the letter he had written to
and raise standards of living, for defence, recall later, “not without hesitation and Cripps, and left immediately.
and a variety of other purposes”.39 Nehru misgiving”. The acceptance came be- Pyarelal writes, “The final phase of ne-
underlined the obvious conclusion that cause “the work was after my own heart gotiations with the Cabinet Mission
38 december 12, 2009 vol xliv no 50 EPW Economic & Political Weekly
PERSPECTIVE

marked the beginning of that cleavage and had forgotten the time for his prayer every activity will be conducted on the coopera-
tive basis”. Penguin Gandhi Reader, p 80.
between Gandhiji and some of his closest meeting, despite the best efforts of Manu 23 This incident is recollected in Gandhi’s auto-
colleagues which in the final phase of the and Abha, his timekeepers as he affection- biography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth
(Delhi, repr, 2007), pp 113-14.
transfer of power left them facing differ- ately called them. As he walked to the 24 Quoted in Rajmohan Gandhi, Mohandas, p 197.
ent ways”.48 He stayed away from negotia- prayer ground, he chided them, “I am late 25 Ibid, p 400.
tions, choosing instead to travel to places by 10 minutes. I hate being late.”54 These 26 Gandhi admitted this when he wrote in 1940, “My
Eldest Son Was the Direct Victim of My Experi-
affected by communal violence. On 20 were his recorded last words before he ments…’’: CWMG, Vol 72, p 355; cited in
February 1947 – the day Attlee announced embraced eternity with the name of Rama Gopalkrishna Gandhi (compiled and edited), The
Oxford India Gandhi, p 457.
in the House of Commons that the British on his lips. “I hate being late” – the man 27 Gandhi’s comment to Devdas Gandhi will be
would leave India latest by June 1948 – who said this moments before his death found in The Oxford India Gandhi, p 520; the
statement about “Bankruptcy of Faith” in
Nehru complained to Gandhi, “You are too was perhaps too early for India’s swaraj. S Nayyar, Kasturba: A Personal Reminiscence
far away for consultation and you refuse (Ahmedabad, 1960), p 101; for Mirabehn’s recol-
lection about Gandhi’s tears, see E Morton,
to move out of East Bengal”.49 Gandhi’s Notes Women behind Mahatma Gandhi (London, 1954),
p 241; for the statement, “The Best Half of Me” see
alternative to the negotiations and his 1 These three statements of Gandhi will be found
A Gandhi, Kasturba: A Life (Delhi, 2000), p 302.
on pages 478, 664 and 615, respectively of The Ox-
vehement opposition to the partition of ford India Gandhi: Essential Writings, edited and 28 This point is made by Ranajit Guha, “Discipline
India in any form were clear from his compiled by Gopalkrishna Gandhi (Delhi 2008). and Mobilise’’ in P Chatterjee and G Pandey (ed.),
Subaltern Studies: Writings on South Asian History
2 This incident is narrated in R J Moore, Escape
statements. On 2 May 1947, he told three from Empire: The Attlee Government and the India
and Society, Vol VII (Delhi, 1992), pp 69-120.
young socialists, Aruna Asaf Ali, Achyut Problem (Oxford, 1983), p 356. 29 This speech is reproduced in Rudrangshu Mukher-
jee (ed.), Great Speeches of Modern India (Delhi,
Patwardhan and Asoka Mehta: “In my 3 The text of Hind Swaraj is available in The
2007), pp 80-85.
Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (CWMG)
opinion, the Congress should in no circum- 90 Vols (New Delhi, 1958), Vol 10; it is also reprint- 30 CWMG, Vol, 22, pp 415-21.
ed in Rudrangshu Mukherjee (ed.), The Penguin 31 Shahid Amin, “Gandhi as Mahatma: Gorakhpur
stance be party to partition. We should tell Gandhi Reader (New Delhi, 1993), pp 3-66; and in District, Eastern UP, 1921-22” in Ranajit Guha
the British to quit unconditionally…Why A J Parel (ed.), Hind Swaraj and Other Writings (ed.), Subaltern Studies: Writings on South Asian
(Cambridge, 1997). The circumstances in which History and Society, Vol III (Delhi, 1984), pp 1-61.
should we make ourselves accessory to the text was composed is taken from the last 32 M N Srinivas, “Gandhi’s Religion’’ in M N Srini-
what we hold to be evil”?50 named book p xiv. Also see Rajmohan Gandhi, vas, Collected Essays (Delhi, 2002), pp 355-61.
Mohandas: A True Story of a Man, His People and 33 Amin, “Gandhi as Mahatma”, p 52.
an Empire (Delhi, 2006), pp 151-56. 34 Ibid, p 54.
Isolation 4 Hind Swaraj in Penguin Gandhi Reader, p 3. 35 Hind Swaraj in Penguin Gandhi Reader, p 36.
5 Raghavan Iyer (ed.), The Moral and Political Writ- 36 In the Harijan, 4 August 1946, CWMG, Vol 85,
Gandhi realised his own isolation. In 1946 ings of Mahatma Gandhi, 3 Vols (New Delhi, pp 54-55.
and 1947, he spoke of how he was left to 1986), i, p 278. 37 Jawaharlal Nehru, An Autobiography (London,
plough his lonely furrow, and remarked 6 Ibid, p 285. 1936), pp 510-11.
7 R Iyer, The Moral and Political Thought of Mahatma 38 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India
that his voice was one in the wilderness.51 Gandhi (New York, 1973), p 24: cited in Partha Chat- (Calcutta, 1946), p 492.
On one occasion, his comments about his terjee, Nationalist Thought and the Colonial World: 39 Ibid, p 488.
A Derivative Discourse? (London, 1986), p 85. 40 Ibid, p 485.
own isolation even seemed to predict what 8 Iyer, Moral and Political Writings of M G, i, p 277. 41 Autobiography, p 511.
would happen to him in independent 9 Quoted in Parel, Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, 42 See Moore, Escape from Empire, p 6; also see Peter
p xviii. Clarke, The Cripps Version: The Life of Sir Stafford
India. In May 1947, he lamented, “Who lis- 10 CWMG, Vol, 79, p 421. Cripps (London, 2002), p 118.
tens to me today?...I am being told to retire 11 This argument is presented in many parts of Hind 43 Nehru, Discovery of India, p 474.
Swaraj.
to the Himalayas. Everybody is eager to 44 Ibid, p 475.
12 See Hind Swaraj in Penguin Gandhi Reader, p 51. 45 Ibid, p 490.
garland my photos and statues. Nobody 13 Ibid. 46 Since the focus of this essay is Gandhi’s idea of
really wants to follow my advice”.52 At a 14 D G Tendulkar, Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Kara- swaraj, his differences with Nehru may appear here
mchand Gandhi, 8 Vols (Bombay, 1951), i, p 103. to be too sharply drawn. In spite of their differences
prayer meeting on 26 September 1947, he 15 This important point is noted by Parel in his intro- on the vision expressed in Hind Swaraj, Gandhi and
expressed his complete disillusionment duction to Hind Swaraj and Other Writings, p liii. Nehru were in complete agreement on a vast
16 See Hind Swaraj in Penguin Gandhi Reader, pp 37-38. number of critical issues. Both believed in democ-
with the path that India was taking under 17 Ibid, p 52. racy and dialogue; both were advocates of Hindu-
an independent dispensation: 18 Penguin Gandhi Reader, p 79. Muslim unity; both saw themselves as Indians first;
and both were committed to India’s freedom. Over
19 Hind Swaraj in Penguin Gandhi Reader, p 12.
Today I am a back number. I have been told I and above these areas of agreement, there was an
20 Penguin Gandhi Reader, p 79. unbreakable bond that held Gandhi and Nehru to-
have no place in the new order, where we 21 CWMG, Vol 35, pp 489-90. gether. In Gandhi’s words, “Our bond is not merely
want machines, navy, air force and what not. 22 Iyer, Moral and Political Writings of MG, i, p 286. political. It is much deeper. I have no measure to
I can never be party to that. If you can have In 1942, Gandhi had spelt out his vision of village fathom that depth. This bond can never be broken”
swaraj thus: “My idea of village swaraj is that it is (Iyer, Moral and Political Writings of MG, i, p 287).
the courage to say that you will retain free- a complete republic, independent of its neigh- 47 Moore, Escape from Empire, p 26.
dom with the help of the same force with bours for its own vital wants, and yet interde- 48 Pyarelal, Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase, 2 Vols
which you have won it, I am your man.53 pendent for many others in which dependency is (Ahmedabad, 1956), i, p 239.
a necessity. Thus every village’s first concern will 49 Cited in The Oxford India Gandhi, p 624.
be to grow its own food crops and cotton for its
Gandhi’s swaraj had been unmade by own cloth. It should have a reserve for its cattle,
50 Pyarelal, Last Phase, ii, p 162 (emphasis in the
original).
the men he had made. recreation and playground for adults and chil-
dren. Then if there is more land available, it could 51 The lonely furrow statement will be found in ibid,
On 30 January 1948, he was murdered grow useful money crops, thus excluding ganja, p 163; “Mine May Be a Voice in the Wilderness”:
tobacco, opium and the like. The village will he wrote to Vallabhbhai Patel on 1 August 1946,
by a Hindu fanatic who wanted India to be see CWMG, Vol 85, p 102.
maintain a village theatre, school and public hall.
a strong and powerful Hindu state. Min- It will have its own waterworks, ensuring clean 52 Pyarelal, Last Phase, ii, p 209: cited in The Oxford
water supply. This can be done through control- India Gandhi, p 642.
utes before he kept his tryst with his mur- led wells or tanks. Education will be compulsory 53 Penguin Gandhi Reader, p 279.
derer, Gandhi had been talking to Patel up to the final basic course. As far as possible 54 See Pyarelal, Last Phase, ii, p 772.

Economic & Political Weekly EPW december 12, 2009 vol xliv no 50 39

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