Hind Swaraj, written by Mahatma Gandhi in 1909, still can show in the way out
of the morass India's sinking into.
|
By Prabhash Joshi
Mahatma Gandhi was 40-years old when he wrote Hind Swaraj. He had gone to
England to hold talks with the British government on problems faced by Indian
community in South Africa. He wrote the book on the ship during his return
journey in just 10 days -between 13 and 22 November, 1909. Gandhi had said that
he was so passionate about writing the book that the 'Sermon on the mount' in
Bible too was an out come of a similar compulsion . No wonder , Hind
Swaraj when published in America was titled ' Sermon on the sea'
This book is said to be the cornerstone of Gandhi's thoughts. It is said that
whatever he wrote later in life was an extension of his thoughts in Hind Swaraj-
the genesis of 100-volumes Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi too is
believed to be in this book . The book was originally written in Gujarati and
later translated into English by Gandhi himself.
In the book, he has at no
point mentioned nation for rashtra, nor race for people, as Savarkar has done.
The differentiation gets lost in Hindi and English translations, Gandhi
has instead used the word praja. In Gujarati the word praja means prajapati or
Brahma and not just people. In fact, Gandhi's interpretation of nationality
is synonymous with praja.
When he was writing the book, Gandhi too was
confirmed with kind of globalisation as we are today. The
globalization during his time was dominated by European nations who were
establishing colonies in different parts of the world and exploiting the
resources of those colonies to fuel industrial revolution in their own countries
The globalization then was at the behest of the State. Today, market forces shape
it. Globalization then expanded through establishment of colonies. Today it
expands through establishment of markets. Today it is no longer necessary to
come to another country to exert control over its resources. For the kind
of globalizations or neo-imperialism we face today only one thing is
necessary-to be able to send investment and by-products of that investment into
the local market without any check or curbs. This means that
whatever we have produced or built on our own should be sacrificed at the altar
of foreign economic forces. The aim of today's globalization is to convert us
into a consumerist society, not a productive society. I term this 'neo-liberal
Washington consensus.'
The investment that we today seek so fervently, nearly 80 percent of that is
put into the stock markets. Thus making money out of the money is the real
business not using that money to produce something. The aim is to sell their
products in our markets. They tell our farmers : Leave farming because we have
farm products which is much cheaper than yours, so buy from us. They tell our
entrepreneurs. Shut your units because we have much cheaper and better products
so buy from us. They will tell us that our country needs good governance. For
that, they say your political representatives are not good enough and you need
the help of specialist. And these specialists are those who have been trained in
the World Bank to build this new World. Therefore, if for this you have to
compromise on democratic principles, do so because ' good governance' is better
than democracy.
Gandhi had told the British to leave our country saying that even our
mismanagement is much more desirable than their rule. They are telling us that
our 'good governance' is better than your Swaraj' as it is run by specialists
and not politicians. One of my secretary friends in the South Block told me that World Bank chooses the most efficient
Indian bureaucrats and pays them for a year to work with it. It gives huge
allowances to them and their families and teaches them their concept of 'good
governance'. A main part of the process is to devalue politicians. As a result,
political representatives lose respect. It thus, becomes easy to replace this
lose of respect with the ' non-liberal Washington consensus.' It is the design
of this neo-liberal consensus to cut the links between educated people of the
country from Swaraj and to attach them with the shallow and non-Indian new world
built on the principles of market. The aim - to take away
the educated class
from its roots.
In 1947, we kept Hind Swaraj aside and followed the example of Soviet Union
in running our economy and social and political systems . In 1989, when the
Soviet Union broke, we did not try to search for our own path. We agreed to walk
on the path that the World Bank had already paved. So between 1947 and 1989 ,
when we had the freedom to allow Hind Swaraj, we followed Soviet Union and
today we are following America. How did we leave the path of Hind Swaraj that
was espoused by Mahatma Gandhi behind whom the whole nation fought for
Independence? It is a historical fact that the number of people who came along
with Gandhi to fight for the freedom, is not matched by any freedom struggle of any
nation. It is indeed shameful that today we have forgotten the path he showed in
1909 and are moving on the way that he had then called the way of the devil. In
his opinion, western civilization was the biggest bane for India.
Mahatma Gandhi said:
"There is no doubt that this (Indian) is the best
civilization. But it must be taken into account that all civilization have been
tested. Only that civilization could survive which had the resilience. Since
there were some shortcomings among Indians, their civilization got into
problems. But the whole of India didn't get into problems. Only those suffered
who came under the influence of Western Culture. When we become slaves we start
thinking that whole world is a slave. But this is not true . If we become free,
then India would become free. The definition of freedom is inherent in this
thought. Once we learn to rule on our self, Swaraj will be attained."
Swaraj for Gandhi did not just mean our own government elected by our own
people. For him Swaraj meant freedom of body and soul for each Indian. We cannot
be truly free till we shrug off the dependence we have on consumer goods. In
this context I remember the famous ad line; Yeh dil mange more. Market is
the ruler only till more and more goods are purchased by the people , over and
over; In this case you will become a good consumer, instead of becoming a good
citizen. This tendency to continue being a consumer, according to Gandhi, is the
first sign of slavery. The world shaped by the market will always make rich,
richer and poor, poorer. For Gandhi such an India will not have Swaraj and
will not be worth living. Therefore today,56 years after gaining
Independence, we need a new Hind Swaraj.
|