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Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hind Swaraj, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Passive Resistance and Indian Independence
Modern Civilization and Colonialism
The Personal and the Political
Indian Nationhood and Identity
Summary
Analysis
The editor says that freeing India requires removing the root cause of its slavery: modern civilization. If Indians can achieve Swaraj (self-rule) then India as a whole will overcome its slavery and achieve Swaraj (self-rule for the nation, or home-rule). People can educate others about Swaraj, but ultimately everyone has to achieve it individually. Swaraj doesn’t require expelling the English, who can be Indianized instead. The reader still thinks this is impossible and wants to remove the English with force. He suggests imitating the Italian revolutionaries Garibaldi and Mazzini.
Having defined and critiqued modern civilization, Gandhi returns to the book’s central question: what is real Swaraj, and what does achieving it require? Rather than focusing on who holds power (like the reader and the extremists in the Congress), he focuses on the question of how those people wield their power. He makes it clear that Swaraj for the nation—which is translated into English as “home-rule”—is really just an expanded version of Swaraj for individuals, which is translated in this book as “self-rule.” Just as an individual must learn to control their emotions, make wise decisions, and balance their bodily and spiritual needs in order to live a happy life, to be truly independent and sovereign, the nation has to control its passionate quarreling factions, enact wise policies, and fulfill both the bodily and spiritual needs of its people. Accordingly, Gandhi believes that moral reform will bring Indian people to self-rule and thereby create home-rule for the nation as a whole (which is just the aggregate of its individuals and communities).
Themes
