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Chapter 4
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 argues that India shouldn’t copy England, which is in a pitiable state. Its Parliament is “like a sterile woman and a prostitute.” Like a sterile woman, it doesn’t produce anything. While parliamentarians should follow public pressure in theory, in reality, they act out of self-interest and don’t follow through on their promises. They vote based on party, not reason, and it’s always been this way. The Parliament is like a prostitute because it constantly changes its allegiances and aims. Its Prime Ministers are dishonest and bribe others with power and status.
Gandhi has been often criticized for these misogynistic metaphors, and later in his life he explicitly apologized for the degrading language he used in this passage. Metaphors aside, Gandhi’s critique of the English government—that it is corrupt, inconsistent, and ineffective—speaks to why he thinks Indians shouldn’t follow the English model of government. This model rewards politicians by helping them accumulate money and power, and it is top-down, unlike the bottom-up participatory democracy he envisions for India. While England might pretend to be a democracy, in Gandhi’s view, the English government abuses the English people almost like it does the Indian people. In fact, this also explains why Gandhi doesn’t blame ordinary English people for the outlandish crimes their government has committed in India: he knows that officials were acting for their own self-interest, not at the people’s behest.
Themes
The reader asks what the editor thinks of the English people. The editor replies that they read newspapers religiously, but these newspapers are politically biased and dishonest, so public opinion constantly goes back and forth between opposing parties. The English people’s main virtue is that they’d never let anyone conquer them. But otherwise, England is not worth emulating—if it did try to emulate England, India would ruin itself. The editor blames England’s failures on modern civilization.
Gandhi writes Hind Swaraj as a dialogue between a newspaper editor and reader in part because he believes it’s essential for the public to be informed about the political affairs that affect their lives. But this passage shows that he is also well aware of the way that popular media can distort public opinion and make democracies less effective. On another note, Gandhi does not stop at blaming the English for looting India—he is interested in the root causes behind England’s viciousness, because he fears that India might fall victim to the same structural and cultural issues. This is why he identifies modern civilization as the root cause behind England’s problems.
Themes
