E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

257 Contextualising Gandhian Thoughtproximate being therefore with whom we can practise altruism.It is the proximate being that enables us to move along the pathof altruism, identification and the conquest of ego, thus helpingus to be 'emancipated from the bondage of the physical body.' 11In the field of politics, Gandhi believed in thepreservation and modernisation of indigenous institutions ofadministration, and institutions and processes for theadministration of justice and the indigenous tradition of selfrestraintand the Rule of Dharma, a state or society in whichthe ruler as well as the ruled was kept on the straight path bythe tenets and codes of Dharma.Thus, in Gandhi's Swadeshi, "there is no room forselfishness; or if there is selfishness in it, it is of the highesttype, which is not different from the highest altruism. Swadeshiin its purest form is the acme of universal service." 12For Gandhi Swadeshi is the extension of the law ofnature to one's environment. ''What the Gita says with regard toSwadharma equally applies to Swadeshi, for Swadeshi isSwadharma applied to one's immediate environment." 13References