E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

72 Contextualising Gandhian ThoughtIn Chapter XIV of the Hind Swaraj, he moves a bitfurther in defining the Swaraj of his conception. The primaryunit of that Swaraj would be the individual man who has toexperience that Swaraj first within his own being. As hecomments:“If we (the individuals) become free, India is free ….. Itis Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves. It is, therefore, in thepalm of your hands. Do not consider Swaraj to be like adream…. The Swaraj that I wish to picture before you and meis such that, after we have once realized it, we will endeavourto the end of our lifeline to persuade others to do likewise. Butsuch Swaraj has to be experienced by each one for himself.”20So far the definition of Swaraj is concerned, he leaves us atthat, presumably because he takes it for granted that itsubsumes the goal of political independence which was to befounded on the self-rule of the individuals. The next questionhe takes up is how Swaraj is to be attained. He rejectsGaribaldi’s violent ways of bringing Italy from Austria tutelageas that has not solved the problems of the common Italians. InIndia the situation is much more unfavourable, as it is almostimpossible to arm thousands of Indians for an armed struggleagainst the British – a task that is next to impossible. But evenif it is made possible, India would lose its soul as it would beEuropeanised in the process. Besides, in the Chapter XVI heestablishes a close and direct relationship between ‘ends’ and‘means’ by pointing out that one cannot get a rose throughplanting a noxious weed. In other words, there is as muchdirect connection between ‘means’ and ‘ends’ as between the‘seed’ and the tree. So, he rejects the ‘brute’ force as the basisof any just action, as nothing good would come out of it andpleads for the use of ‘soul force, or love force’ at times, alsodescribed as ‘passive resistance’. Subsequently he goes on todefine ‘passive resistance’ as a method of securing rights bypersonal sufferings. In the process, he makes a simple but