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Chapter 5
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 reader asks the editor about civilization. The editor points out that even many English writers see the barbaric qualities in their civilization, even if most people instinctively defend it. The defining feature of industrial or modern civilization is that it sees “bodily welfare” as the main goal in life. Europeans constantly try to build better houses, clothes, weapons, and technology than before. Now, they have steam-engines, printing presses, and airplanes. And in the future, machines might even make the human body obsolete: people could just press a button and have all their needs met.
When Gandhi talks about civilization, he’s primarily referring to a society’s way of life, which is rooted in its fundamental values. Therefore, he thinks the people must transform their values in order to build a better kind of civilization. Notably, he is not against all technology or any pursuit of “bodily welfare”—rather, he rejects England’s insistence on valuing material pursuits at the expense of spiritual ones. In other words, he's concerned about the balance among different values.
Themes
But modern civilization’s technology also enslaves people: the wealthy now force everyone else to work for them in factories and mines. And the more technologies and luxury goods people have, the more they want. Meanwhile, civilization rejects religion and ignores morality. Ultimately, civilization has made Europeans isolated, exhausted, and miserable. But the editor believes that they can cure it.
Gandhi’s critique of modern civilization is essentially a critique of capitalism: when Indians choose to enter the global economy and work for wages (rather than continuing to live self-sufficiently in small agricultural communities), they soon become dependent on this economy for work. Similarly, there is no purpose in accumulating wealth and technology, which are frivolous distractions rather than meaningful goals for human life.
Themes
