Political and National Life and Affairs

SECTION TWO : ORGANIC SWARAJ

17

MY SWARAJ

(From "To the Members of the All India Congress Committee")

My Swaraj is to keep intact the genius of our civilization. I want to write many
new things but they must be all written on the Indian Slate. I would gladly
borrow from the West when I can return the amount with decent interest.

Young India, 26-6-'24, p. 209 at p. 210

18

RAMA RAJYA

(From an English translation of Gandhiji's presidential address at the 3rd Kathiawad

Political Conference held at Bhavnagar on 8-1-1925 which was published under the
heading "Kathiawad Political Conference".)

My ideal of Indian States is that of Ramarajya. Rama taking his cue from a
washerman's remark and in order to satisfy his subjects abandoned Sita who
was dear to him as life itself and was a very incarnation of pity. Rama did
justice even to a dog. By abandoning his kingdom and living in the forest for the
sake of truth Rama gave to all kings of the world an object lesson in noble
conduct. By his strict monogamy he showed that a life of perfect self-restraint
could be led by a royal house holder. He lent splendour to his throne by his
popular administration and proved that Ramarajya was the acme of Swaraj.
Rama did not need the very imperfect modern instrument of ascertaining public
opinion by counting votes. He had captivated the hearts of the people. He knew
public opinion by intuition as it were. The subjects of Rama were supremely
happy.

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Such Ramarajya is possible even today. The race of Rama is not extinct. In
modern times, the first Caliphs may be said to have established Ramarajya.
Abubaker and Hazrat Umar collected revenue running into crores and yet
personally they were as good as fakirs. They received not a pie from the public
treasury. They were ever watchful to see that the people got justice. It was
their principle that one may not play false even with the enemy but must deal
justly with him.

Young India, 3-1-'25, p. 9 at p. 13

19

SELF-GOVERNMENT AND THE STATE

(From "Teachers' Condition")

Self-government means continuous effort to be independent of government

control whether it is foreign government or whether it is national. Swaraj
government will be a sorry affair if people look up to it for the regulation of
every detail of life.

Young India, 6-8-'25, p. 275 at p. 276

20

SWARAJ AS FRUIT OF DUTY PERFORMED

(From "Swaraj or Death")

The correspondent reminds me of a statement made by me at Belgaum that

probably at the end of the year if there is not much headway made, I would
find a way whereby we could make our final choice and say 'Death or Swaraj'.
He has evidently in mind some strange upheaval in which all distinction
between violence and non-violence will be abolished. Such confusion as will
most assuredly lead to self-indulgence is not self-rule. Self-indulgence is
anarchy, and though anarchy is every-time better than slavery or suppression of
self it is a state which I would not only have no hand in consciously bringing

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into being but which I am by nature unfitted to bring about. Any method of
'Death or Swaraj' that I may suggest will always avoid confusion and anarchy. My
Swaraj will be therefore not a result of murder of others but a voluntary act of
continuous self-sacrifice. My Swaraj will not be a bloody usurpation of rights
but the acquisition of power will be a beautiful and natural fruit of duty well
and truly performed. It will, therefore, provide amplest excitement of the
Chaitanya type not of the Nero type. I have no formula at the present moment
but with my correspondent I share the belief that it will be a divine guidance. I
am awaiting the sign. It can come, often does come when the horizon is the
blackest. But I know that it will be preceded by the rise of a class of young men
and women who will find full excitement in work, work and nothing but work
for the nation.

Young India, 27-8-'25, p. 296 at p. 297

21

THE FUNCTION OF GOVERNMENT

(From "Swaraj or Death")

The correspondent's mistake lies in his misconception of the function of

government. He evidently thinks that an ideal government is that which orders
everything for us so that we need not think for ourselves. Whereas, in truth a
government that is ideal governs the least. It is no self-government that leaves
nothing for the people to do. That is pupilage— our present state. My
correspondent is evidently unable as yet to rise superior to that state. But if we
are to attain Swaraj, a large number of us must outgrow enforced nonage and
feel our adolescence. We must govern ourselves at least where there is no
deadly opposition from armed authority. . . . If we impute all our weaknesses
to the present government, we shall never shed them.

Young India, 27-8-1925, p. 296 at p. 297

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22

SWARAJ OF THE MASSES

(From a paragraph in "Notes" which appeared under the title "Not Despondent")

He who runs may see that though non-co-operation has not brought us Swaraj in
the tangible sense that the people understand, it has revolutionized our
political aspect; has brought into being mass consciousness which in my opinion
nothing else could have done. And there is no doubt about it that whenever
freedom comes, it will come through some application of non-cooperation
including civil disobedience. For, in spite of whatever may be said to the
contrary, the method of violence has no following worth the name especially
among the masses, and no method for the attainment of Swaraj can possibly
succeed unless the masses also adopt it. If the definition of Swaraj includes the
freedom not of a certain number of individuals or certain classes but of the
whole of the masses of India, only non-co-operation and all that it means can
regulate that mass consciousness which is absolutely necessary for democratic
Swaraj. Only non-violent, and therefore constructive methods, will weld the
masses together and fire them with a national purpose and give them the desire
and ability to achieve and defend national freedom.

Young India, 18-3-'26, p. 104

23

MEANING OF SELF-GOVERNMENT

(The Ceylon National Congress received Gandhiji at the Public Hall on 22nd
November, 1927. In reply to the welcome address of the President, Gandhiji made
a speech which was originally published in Young India under the title "Message to
Ceylon Congress". An extract therefrom is given below.)

But I have also come to the conclusion that self-expression and self-government
are not things which may be either taken from us by anybody or which can be

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given us by anybody. It is quite true that if those who happen to hold our
destinies, or seem to hold our destinies in their hands are favourably disposed,
are sympathetic, understand our aspirations, no doubt it is then easier for us to
expand. But after all self-government depends entirely upon our own internal
strength, upon our ability to fight against the heaviest odds. Indeed, self-
government which does not require that continuous striving to attain it and to
sustain it is not worth the name. I have therefore endeavoured to show both in
word and in deed, that political self-government—that is self-government for a
large number of men and women—is no better than individual self-government,
and therefore it is to be attained by precisely the same means that are
required for individual self-government or self-rule, and so as you know also, I
have striven in India to place this ideal before the people in season and out of
season, very often much to the disgust of those who are politically minded
merely.

Young India, 1-12-'27, p. 402

24

ALPHA AND OMEGA OF ORGANIC SWARAJ

(Some extracts from an address by Gandhiji to the volunteers of Bardoli Taluka

delivered on 12th August, 1928 which appeared under the title "Work As You Have
Fought")

The Acid Test

Although the battle is fought and won, may I remind you that your task has only
just begun? The pledge, that you took in 1922 under this very tree 1 after a
searching cross-examination and which you have reiterated times without
number since then, still hangs on your head, and so long as it remains
unfulfilled, you dare not put off your uniforms. The work which you will have
now to do will constitute your acid test.

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Fighting not the only Work

You are labouring under a great delusion if you think that fighting by itself will
bring Swaraj. Let me tell you that even veteran warriors, men of the sword do
not make fighting the sole concern of their lives. Garibaldi was a great Italian
General, but he drove the plough and tilled the soil just like an ordinary
peasant whenever he could get respite from fighting. Again what was Botha,
the South African General? A farmer among the farmers like any in Bardoli. A
great keeper of sheep as he was, his flock numbered forty thousand. As a judge
of sheep he could hold his own against any expert and even won a diploma for
sheep keeping. Although he won laurels as a general, fighting occupied only a
small part of his life which was mostly devoted to 'peaceful constructive
pursuits. He thus showed constructive talent of no mean order. And General
Smuts? He was not merely distinguished General but a lawyer by profession,
being at one time the Attorney General of South Africa, and an excellent
farmer to boot. He has an extensive farm near Pretoria and his fruit orchard is
among the finest in South Africa. All these are instances of men who though
they made their mark in the world as generals were none the less keenly alive
to the value and importance of steady constructive work.

South Africa was not from very first the rich prosperous country that it is today.
When the colonists arrived there, they found before-them an undeveloped
country. They cleared the waste and established a prosperous colony on it. Do
you think they did it by mere dint of fighting? No. The development was the
result of patient constructive labour. Will you follow Vallabhbhai's lead in his
constructive campaign just as you did when he led you against the Government,
will you take up the burden of constructive work, or will you hang back?
Remember, if you fail in this, all the fruits of your victory will be lost and the
peasants' last state will be worse than their first in spite of one lakh of
enhanced assessment that they might save as a result of this struggle.

Repair and Reconstruction

Look at the condition of the roads in your Taluka. The local volunteers can
clean them up and set them in proper order by a couple of days' effort if they

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like. And once they are set in order, it should not need more than half an hour's
instruction daily to teach the villagers how to keep them in a fit condition. You
may doubt, but you may take it from me that there is a very close connection
between this sort of work and Swaraj. Driving out the English will not by itself
establish Swaraj in India. Of course we must fight when our liberty is interfered
with. But what next? Do we want the Swaraj of barbarism, freedom to live like
pigs in a pigsty, without let or hindrance from anybody? Or do we want the
Swaraj of orderliness in which every man and everything is in his or its proper
place? Only yesterday I had to motor from Vankaner to Bardoli, the journey
well nigh finished me. The road was so wretched. This reminds me of a similar
incident that once happened in Champaran. The road was bad, but the
volunteers there put their shoulders to the wheel and forthwith made the
necessary repairs without waiting for anybody's help. It is no use saying that
this is the duty of the Government and not yours. The Government has no doubt
many a grievous sin to answer for. Let us not impute our sins also to the
Government or use the latter's lapses to justify ours. Enough unto the day is the
evil thereof. Surely the Government cannot prevent us from repairing our roads
if we want to.

Village Sanitation

Then, may I ask you what you have done to popularize the principles of
sanitation and hygiene in the villages? It involves no complications as in
untouchability. It only puts to the test our sincerity and depth of feeling
towards those amongst whom we live. We shall be unfit for Swaraj if we are
unconcerned about our neighbour's insanitation and are content merely to keep
our own surroundings clean. With the wonderful awakening and the spirit of co-
operation that has come over the men and women of Bardoli, you should be
able to convert it into a model Taluka. By a general cleanup of the village
surroundings, you should be able completely to eliminate the danger of
scorpions and poisonous reptiles that infest this Taluka. And I want to burn the
lesson deep on your mind that all this will constitute a distinct step towards
Swaraj.

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***

Organic Swaraj

An act of Parliament might give you constitutional Swaraj. But it will be a mere
chimera that will profit us but little, if we are unable to solve these internal
problems. 1 In fact, ability to solve these problems, is the alpha and omega of
real Swaraj, the Swaraj of the masses that we all want.

Young India, 13-9-'28, p. 310

1 The internal problems besides bad roads, village sanitation referred to by Gandhiji in his
speech were, temperance, communal unity, Khadi, removal of untouchability, and evils of
child marriage, marriage of young girls with aged men and inhuman treatment accorded to
widows.

25

REFORMS IN NATIONAL LIFE FOR ATTAINING SWARAJ

(An extract from an article published under the heading "A National Defect" is
reproduced below.)

There is, I know, the custom of saying that these reforms must not be
permitted to take the nation's attention away from the work of Swaraj. I
venture to submit that conservation of national sanitation is Swaraj work and
may not be postponed for a single day on any consideration whatsoever. Indeed
if Swaraj is to be had by peaceful methods it will only be attained by attention
to every little detail of national life. Such work will promote cohesion among
workers and create an indissoluble bond between them and the people—a bond
necessary for the final overthrow of the existing system of Government. The
system depends for its existence upon the weaknesses of the nation. If there
are no weaknesses to exist, it will automatically cease to exist. A foreign
government is like a foreign body in a diseased system. And even as for
eradication of a foreign body the system has to be made healthy from within,
so also for the removal of a foreign government, it is necessary to remove all

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the internal causes of disease. Corporate insanitation is not the least of such
diseases.

Young India, 25-4-'29, p. 132

26

FREEDOM TO THE FREE

(From "Notes")

Whilst we are cutting one another's throats in the name of religion and some of
us running to the Statutory Commission in the vain hope of getting freedom, a
friend sends me the following from James Allen to remind us that even in the
land of so-called freedom, the real freedom has still to come. Here is the
passage:

"All outward oppression is but the shadow and effect of the real
oppression within. For ages the oppressed have cried for liberty, and a
thousand man-made statutes have failed to give it to them. They can
give it only to themselves; they shall find it only in obedience to the
Divine Statutes which are inscribed upon their hearts. Let them resort to
the inward freedom, and the shadow of oppression shall no more darken
the earth. Let men cease to oppress themselves, and no man shall
oppress his brother. Men legislate for an outward freedom, yet continue
to render such freedom impossible of achievement by fostering an inward
condition of enslavement. They thus pursue a shadow without, and
ignore the substance within. All outward forms of bondage and
oppression will cease to be when man ceases to be the willing bond-slave
of passion, error and ignorance."

The outward freedom therefore that we shall attain will only be in exact
proportion to the inward freedom to which we may have grown at a given
moment. And if this is the correct view of freedom, our chief energy must be
concentrated upon achieving reform from within. In this much needed work all
who will can take; an equal share. We need neither to be lawyers, nor

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legislators to be able to take part in the great effort. When this reform takes
place on a national scale no outside power can stop our onward march.

Young India, 1-11-'28, p. 363

27

INDEPENDENCE NOT AN END IN ITSELF

(From "My Inconsistencies")

Boycott of legislatures is wholly consistent with the demand for the reforms
suggested in the eleven points.1 I would myself sit if need be in a legislature in
which the passage of the reforms is assured. But the existing legislatures are
powerless to pass most of those measures if any at all. I have not said that the
struggle for independence is to cease the moment eleven points are gained.
What I have said is, that if they are gained, the Congress will lift the ban on the
conference and that civil disobedience will be suspended. The points were
mentioned in order to prevent the misconception that the Viceroy's speech had
given rise to. Even the independence constitution is not an end in itself.
Independence is wanted in order to remove the grievous defects of the present
rule. Independence means at least those eleven points, if it means anything at
all to the masses, the man in the street. Mere withdrawal of the English is not
independence. It means the consciousness in the average villager that he is the
maker of his own destiny, he is his own legislator through his chosen
representatives. The eleven points are some of the vital tests of the villagers'
authority. The very letter of the Bezwada barrister shows how necessary it was
to clear the issue. By mentioning the eleven points I have given a body in part
to the elusive word independence. I should be prepared to reconsider my
attitude towards the legislatures if the legislators can accomplish the things
covered by the eleven points. And if they are covered, I should have no
hesitation in advising Congress representation at the Conference where
independence could be made the basis. For I do conceive the possibility of a
Conference even for discussing an Independence Constitution.

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Young India, 13-2-'30, p. 52

1 1. Total prohibition, 2. Reduction in the ratio to Is. 4d., 3. Reduction of the land
revenue to be at least 50% and making it subject to legislative control, 4. Abolition of the
salt tax, 5. Reduction of the military expenditure to at least 50% to begin with, 6.
Reduction of the salaries of the higher grade service to one-half or less so as to suit the
reduced revenue, 7. Protective tariff on foreign cloth, 8. The passage of the Coastal
Traffic Reservation Bill, 9. Discharge of all political prisoners save those condemned for
murder or the attempt threat by the ordinary judicial tribunal, withdrawal of all political
prosecutions, abrogation of Section, 124A, the Regulation of 1818 and the like, and
permission to all the Indian exiles to return, 10. Abolition of C.I.D. or its popular control,
11. Issue of licences to use fire arms for self-defence subject to popular control.

Young India, 30-1-'30, p. 36

28

SWARAJ IS EMANCIPATION

(An extract from an English translation of Gandhiji's reply to an address presented

by the Bombay Municipal Corporation is given below from "Weekly Letter" by M. D.)

I claim to live for the semi-starved paupers of India and Swaraj means the
emancipation of these millions of skeletons. Purna Swaraj denotes a condition
of things when the dumb and the lame millions will speak and walk. That
Swaraj cannot be achieved by force, but by organization and unity. Your
address I take it is a token of your sympathy for Daridranarayan.

Young India, 23-4-1931, p. 80 at p. 81

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29

POWER NOT AN END

Sjt. Satyamurti writes :

"I write to you about the article "Substance and Shadow" by you, in the Young
India, of the 18th June ....

"... the sentence which causes me grave anxiety is that which ends as follows:
'We can gain our end without political power and by directly acting upon the
powers that be.' I would add the following sentences also from your article in
order to make my doubts clear to you.

'One form of direct action is adult suffrage; a second and more potent form is
satyagraha. It can easily be shown that whatever is needful and can be gained
by political power can perhaps be more quickly and certainly, gained by
satyagraha.' I venture to join issue with you. I was always and am today under
the impression that what the Congress wants is political power more than
anything else. And, concretely speaking prohibition can be more easily brought
about by State action than by peaceful picketing, and the necessary reforms
embodied in the Karachi resolution on Fundamental Rights can be enforced only
by a Swaraj Government.

"In any case, I do not see why the Nation should not concentrate all its energies
today upon the gaining of political power.

"You say further in the course of the article: 'The Congress wants the substance
not the shadow. It can, therefore wait for the shadow of power, it cannot wait
for the substance of freedom which the dumb millions so need and can
understand.' Frankly I do not appreciate the distinction. To me, political power
is the substance, and all ether reforms can and ought to wait. If, today we are
engaged in various Congress activities, I feel that we do so only, with a view to
get real political power.

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"In view of these doubts, I shall be highly obliged if you will kindly let me have
your usually frank and full answer, at your earliest convenience."

I am thankful for this letter. It enables me more clearly than I have been able
to explain my position.

***

Now for Sjt. Satyamurti's . . . difficulty. To me political power is not an end but
one of the means of enabling people to better their condition in every
department of life. Political power means capacity to regulate national life
through national representatives. If national life becomes so perfect as to
become self-regulated, no representation is necessary. There is then a state of
enlightened anarchy. In such a state everyone is his own ruler. He rules himself
in such a manner that he is never a hindrance to his neighbour. In the ideal
state therefore there is no political power because there is no State. But the
ideal is never fully realized in life. Hence the classical statement of Thoreau
that that Government is best which governs the least.

If then I want political power it is for the sake of the reforms for which the
Congress stands. Therefore when the energy to be spent in gaining the power
means so much loss of energy required for the reforms, as threatens to be the
case if the country is to engage in a duel with the Musalmans or Sikhs, I would
decidedly advise the country to let the Musalmans and Sikhs take all the power
and would go on with developing the reforms.

If we were to analyse the activities of the Congress during the past twelve
years, we would discover that the capacity of the Congress to take political
power has increased in exact proportion to its ability to achieve success in the
constructive effort. That is to me the substance of political power. Actual
taking over the government machinery is but a shadow, an emblem. And it
would easily be a burden if it came as a gift from without, the people having
made no effort to deserve it.

It is now perhaps easy to realize the truth of my statement that the needful can
be gained more quickly and more certainly by satyagraha than by political

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power'. Legislation in advance of public opinion has often been demonstrated

to be futile. Legal prohibition of theft in a country in which the vast majority
are thieves would be futile. Picketing and the other popular activities are
therefore the real thing. If political power was a thing apart from these
reforms, we would have to suspend latter and concentrate on the former. But
we have followed the contrary course. We have everywhere emphasized the
necessity of carrying on the constructive activities as being the means of
attaining Swaraj. I am convinced that whenever legal prohibition of drinks,
drugs and foreign cloth comes, it will come because public opinion had
demanded it. It may be said that public opinion demands it today but the
foreign Government does not respond. This is only partly right. Public opinion in
this country is only now becoming a vital force and developing the real sanction
which is satyagraha.

Young India, 2-7-'31, p. 161

II

(Some relevant extracts from an article which originally appeared under the title
"Further Clearance" are given below.)

Having read my reply to him in Young India Sjt. Satyamurti thus returns to the
charge:

"Your insistence on the statement that political power is not an end itself
disturbs me seriously. Even if tomorrow we get all the reforms we want, I
would still resist British rule in this country. I am also convinced that
very few of the reforms we want can be fully or effectively achieved,
unless we get political power.

"You must recognize that the ideal of political anarchy, with which I
entirely agree is not of practical politics in the world today. If the
Musalmans and the Sikhs, therefore, get all the power, the majority
community in the country will have to be perpetual civil resisters,
leading to civil war.

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"I agree that political power can easily become a burden, if it came as a
gift from without, the people having made no effort to deserve it. But I
claim that the nation has already shown, and will show increasingly in
the next few years, that it fully deserves political power.

"Public opinion, I agree should support legislation. Legislation in advance

of public opinion is often futile. But public opinion, without legislative
sanction, is often very largely impotent. I feel that political power is the
thing, and that these reforms must follow. After all, the freedom of a
nation and the liberty of the individual are priceless political privileges;
and each nation must be free to decide what is good for itself. Once,
therefore, we get political power, we can and ought to decide what is
good for us. And if I understand my countrymen aright, the largest public
opinion in India today is in favour of getting political power.

"If you think this letter deserves a further answer from you, I shall be
glad to have it. But may I again express the hope that you may reconsider
your position in the light of what I have stated above?"

There seems to me to be a question of emphasis between Sjt. Satyamurti and

myself. His emphasis is on political power in itself, mine on political power as a
weapon for enabling the reformer to achieve the reforms in the quickest
manner possible. To me therefore all depends upon the way political power is
attained. If it cannot be attained without the combined exertion of all the
communities, I would wait. After all a strenuous exertion itself is a getting. In
that sense political power is daily | coming to the nation. A constitution will
merely be a symbol of | the full achievement. But it may also be a mirage, if it
is not consciously a fruition of a nation's endeavour. Thus supposing by some
accident England collapsed all of a sudden and therefore India imagined that
she had all she wanted, she would be wholly wrong. Virtue therefore lies in our
getting political power as a result of our strength, not as a result of the foreign
ruler's weakness. But I must not labour the point any further. It is enough that
just at present, though I may have a different outlook from that of many
others, we are all striving for the same thing in the same way.

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I do not share the fear that, if Musalmans and Sikhs got all the power, the
'majority community', i.e. Hindus would have to be 'perpetual civil resisters'. In
the first instance this deduction ignores the assumption that Hindus willingly
surrendered their right to power and in the second it ignores the law of civil
resistance that it is never needed to be applied perpetually to a cause. Its
sovereign efficacy lies in the fact that it secures redress within a measurable
though previously unascertainable period.

Young India, 6-8-'31, p. 200

30

A DEMOCRATIC STATE

(An extract from an article called "A Fatal Fallacy" is reproduced below.)

Referring to a question of the correspondent who asked whether any great

reform was possible without winning political freedom, Gandhiji observed as
follows:

"I have often heard this argument advanced as an excuse for failure to do many
things. I admit that there are certain things which cannot be done without
political power, but there are numerous other things which do not at all depend
upon political power. That is why a thinker like Thoreau said that 'that
government is the best which governs the least'. This means that when people
come into possession of political power, the interference with the freedom of
people is reduced to a minimum. In other words a nation that runs its affairs
smoothly and effectively without much State interference is truly democratic.
Where such a condition is absent, the form of government is democratic in
name."

Discussing further the activities in which lack of political power made no

difference, he proceeded to write: "No, I am afraid the correspondent's
question betrays his laziness and despair and the depression that has overtaken
many of us. I can confidently claim that I yield to none in my passion for
freedom. No fatigue or depression has seized me. Many years' experience has

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convinced me that the activities that absorb my energies and attention are
calculated to achieve the nation's freedom, that therein lies the secret of non-
violent freedom, That is why I invite everyone, men and women, young and old,
to contribute his or her share to the great sacrifice.

Harijan, 11-1-'36, p. 380

31

THE SQUARE OF SWARAJ

(From a speech at the opening of a Khadi exhibition which appeared under the
title "A Restatement of Faith")

Let there be no mistake about my conception of Swaraj. It is complete

independence of alien control and complete economic independence. So at one
end you have political independence, at the other the economic. It has two
other ends. One of them is moral and social, the corresponding end is Dharma,
i.e. religion in the highest sense of the term. It includes, Hinduism, Islam,
Christianity, etc., but is superior to them all. You may recognize it by the name
of Truth, not the honesty of expedience but the living Truth that prevades
everything and will survive all destruction and all transformation. Moral and
social uplift may be recognized by the term we are used to, i.e. non-violence.
Let us call this the square of Swaraj, which will be out of shape if any of its
angles is untrue. In the language of the Congress cannot achieve this political
and economic freedom without truth and non-violence, in concrete terms
without a living faith in God and hence moral and social elevation.

By political independence I do not mean an imitation of the British House of

Commons, or the Soviet rule of Russia or the Fascist rule of Italy or the Nazi
rule of Germany. They have systems suited to their genius. We must have ours
suited to ours. What that can be is more than I can tell. I have described it as
Ramarajya, i.e. sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority....

Then take economic independence. It is not a induct of industrialization of the

modern or the Western type Indian economic independence means to me the

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economic uplift of every individual male and female by his or her own conscious
effort. Under that system all men and women will have enough clothing—not
the mere loin cloth, but what we understand by the term necessary articles of
clothing—and enough food eluding milk and butter which are today denied to
millions.

Harijan, 2-1-'37, p. 374

32

HOW TO BRING HEAVEN UPON EARTH

(From "Fasting in Non-violent Action")

To practise non-violence in mundane matters is to know its true value. It is to

bring heaven upon earth. There is no such thing as the other world. All worlds
are one. There is no 'here' and no 'there'. As Jeans has demonstrated, the whole
universe including the most distant stars, invisible even through the most
powerful telescope in the world, is compressed in an atom. I hold it therefore
to be wrong to limit the use of non-violence to cave dwellers and for acquiring
merit for a favoured position in the other world. All virtue ceases to have use if
it serves no purpose in every walk of life. I would therefore plead with the
purely political minded people to study non-violence with sympathy and
understanding.

Sevagram, 20-7-'42

Harijan, 26-7-'42, p. 248

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SECTION THREE: CONSTITUTIONAL SWARAJ

33

IDEAS OF THE CONGRESS ABOUT SWARAJ IN 1920-21

"Swaraj means a state, such that we can maintain our separate existence
without the presence of the English. If it is to be a partnership, it must be a
partnership at will. There can be no Swaraj without our feeling and being the
equals of Englishmen."

Young India, 22-9-'20, p. 1

"What I am doing today is that I am giving the country a practicable

programme, not of the abolition of law-courts, posts, telegraphs and of
railways, but for the attainment of Parliamentary Swaraj."

Calcutta Speech, 13-12-1920

"Swaraj according to the Congress means Swaraj that the people of India want,
not what the British Government may condescend to give. In so far as I can see,
Swaraj will be a Parliament chosen by the people with the fullest power over
the finance, the police, the military, the navy, the courts and educational
institutions."

Young India, 8-12-'20, p. 1

To a representative of the Madras Mail who asked, 'What is your Swaraj and
where does the Government come in there? he replied:

"My Swaraj is the Parliamentary Government of India, in the modern sense of

the term, for the time being and that Government would be secured to us
either through the friendly offices of the British people or without them."

(This interview which took place about the 25th December 1920, was published
as an A.PI. telegram in the papers.)

"Today my "corporate activity is undoubtedly devoted to the attainment of

Parliamentary Swaraj in accordance with the wishes of the people of India."

Young India, 26-1-'21, p. 27.

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34

CONSTITUTIONAL SWARAJ OF MY CONCEPTION

(From "Interrogatories Answered")

Q. What do you mean by Swaraj and what are its limitations, if any?

A By Swaraj I mean the Government of India by the consent of the people

ascertained by the vote of the largest number of the adult population, male or
female, native born or domiciled who have contributed by manual labour to the
service of the State and who have taken the trouble of having their names
registered as voters. This government should be quite consistent with the
British connection on absolutely honourable and equal terms. Personally I have
not despaired of the substitution for the present servile condition of equal
partnership or association. But I would not for one moment hesitate to
countenance or bring about complete severance if it became necessary, i.e. if
the connection impeded India's full growth.

Young India, 29-1-'25, p. 40

35

INDEPENDENCE v. SWARAJ

(Some extracts from an article which appeared under the above title are
reproduced below.)

Let us . . . understand what we mean by independence, England, Russia, Spain,

Italy, Turkey, Chilli, Bhutan have all their independence. Which independence
do we want? I must not be accused of begging the question. For if I were told
that it is Indian independence that is desired, it is possible to show that no two
persons will give the same definition. The fact of the matter is that we do not
know our distant goal. It will be determined not by our definitions but by our
acts, voluntary and involuntary. If we are wise, we will take care of the present

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and the future will take care of itself. God has given us only a limited sphere of
action and a limited vision. Sufficient unto the day is the good thereof.

I submit that Swaraj is an all satisfying goal for all time. We the English-
educated Indians often unconsciously make the terrible mistake of thinking that
the microscopic minority of English-speaking Indians is the whole of India. I
defy anyone to give for independence a common Indian word intelligible to the
masses. Our goal at any rate may be known by an indigenous word understood
of the three hundred millions. And we have such a word in Swaraj first used in
the name of the nation by Dadabhai Naoroji. It is infinitely greater than and
includes independence. It is a vital word. It has been sanctified by the noble
sacrifices of thousands of Indians. It is a word which, if it has not penetrated
the remotest corner of India, has at least got the largest currency of any similar
word. It is a sacrilege to displace that word by a foreign importation of
doubtful value.

Personally I crave not for 'independence' which I do not understand, but I long
for freedom from the English yoke. I would pay any price for it. I would accept
chaos in exchange for it. For the English peace is the peace of th e grave.
Anything would be better than this living death of a whole people. This satanic
rule has well-nigh ruined this fair land materially, morally and spiritually. I
daily see its law-courts denying justice and murdering truth. I have just come
from terrorized Orissa. This rule is using my own countrymen for its sinful
sustenance. I have a number of affidavits swearing that in the district of Khurda
acknowledgements of enhancement of revenue are being forced from the
people practically at the point of the bayonet. The unparalleled extravagance
of this rule has demented the Rajas and the Maharajas who, unmindful of
consequences, ape it and grind their subject to dust. In order to protect its
immoral commerce this rule regards no means too mean, and in order to keep
three hundred millions under the heels of a hundred thousand it carries a
military expenditure which is keeping millions in a state of semi-starvation and
polluting thousands of mouths with intoxicating liquor.

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But my creed is non-violence under all circumstances. My method is conversion,

not coercion; it is self-suffering, not the suffering of the tyrant. I know that
method to be infallible. I know that a whole people can adopt it without
accepting it as its creed and without understanding its philosophy. People
generally do not understand the philosophy of all their acts. My ambition is
much higher than independence. Through the deliverance of India, I seek to
deliver the so-called weaker races of the earth from the crushing heels of
Western exploitation in which England is the greatest partner. If India converts,
as it can convert, Englishmen, it can become the predominant partner in a
world commonwealth of which England can have the privilege of becoming a
partner if she chooses. India has the right, if she only knew, of becoming the
predominant partner by reason of her numbers, geographical; position and
culture inherited for ages. This is a big talk I know. For a fallen India to aspire
to move the world and protect weaker races is seemingly an impertinence. But
in explaining my strong opposition to this cry for independence, I can no longer
hide the light under a bushel. Mine is an ambition worth living for and worth
dying for. In no case do I want to reconcile myself to a state lower than the
best for fear of consequences. It is therefore not out of expedience that I
oppose independence as my goal. I want India to come to her own and that
state cannot be better defined by any single word than Swaraj. Its content will
vary with the action that the nation is able to put forth at a given moment.
India's coming to her own will mean every nation doing likewise.

Young India, 12-1-'28, p. 12

36

CHAOS v. MISRULE

An esteemed friend writes:

"It is not often that I intrude upon your expressions of political opinion.
But a sentence of yours in a recent editorial, repeating a heresy uttered
by you long ago, compels me to ask you whether you have measured your

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words with the care that one expects of an expounder of moral issues.
You declare that you would accept chaos in exchange for freedom from
the English yoke. That an Indian should desire and work for freedom from
any foreign yoke is perfectly natural, normal and healthy. That anyone in
his senses should exchange any kind of orderly government for chaos is
simply incomprehensible, for the one implies some sort of discipline,
whether imposed or stimulated, whereas the latter is the very negation
of self-discipline. Chaos is a word that may find a place in the vocabulary
of the Deity. In the mouth of a human being it is meaningless, and is just
as] much a dangerous exaggeration and hallucination as is the] word
'independence', against which you properly gird. Moreover, it seems to
me and you yourself have recognized it 1 so often that wisdom lies in
refraining from acts and words 1 calculated (though not intended) to
mislead the ignorant, who will undoubtedly give it a connotation that you
have not contemplated. Every wild man will emphasize the term without
reference to your condition of non-violence. If non-violence be, as you
claim it to be, creative, purposeful, and divine in its nature, then chaos
cannot be its consequence or characteristic. If you have used the term
with deliberation, then I should comment that you have rendered no
service to mankind, who need rather a reminder, that they should
acquire the cosmic vision, rather than the chaotic one, to which they are
already prone. If you have fallen into a mere looseness of language under
the urge of a deep and noble emotion, I hope, upon reflection, you will
find a way to make clear your real meaning."

There is no mistaking the real earnestness running through the letter. And I
have so much regard for the friend's views, that if I could have suited mine to
his, I would gladly have done so.

But I must say that my choice was deliberate. Chaos means no rule, no order.
Rule or order can come, does Come out of no I rule or no order, but never
directly out of misrule or disorder masquerading under the sacred name of rule
or order. My friend's difficulty arises, I presume, out of his assumption that the

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present Government of India represents 'some sort of discipline 1 whether

imposed or stimulated'. It is likely that our estimates of the existing system
differ. My own estimate of it is that it is an unmitigated evil. No good can
therefore come out of this evil. I hold misrule to be worse than no rule.

Nor need my words cause any confusion in the minds of the ignorant or the
violent. For I admit my correspondent's contention that chaos can be the result
only of violence. Have I not often said in these pages that if I were compelled
to choose I between this rule and violence I would give my vote for the latter
though I will not, could not, assist a fight based on violence? It would be a
matter for me of Hobson's choice. The seeming quiescence of today is a
dangerous form of violence kept under suppression by greater violence or
rather readiness for it. Is it not better than those, who, out of a cowardly fear
of death or dispossession, whilst harbouring violence refrain from it, should do
it and win freedom from bondage or die gloriously in the attempt to vindicate
their birthright?

My non-violence is not an academic principle to be enunciated on favourable

occasions. It is a principle which I am seeking to enforce every moment of my
life in every field of activity. In my attempt, often frustrated through my own
weakness or ignorance, to enforce non-violence, I am driven for the sake of the
creed itself to countenance violence by way of giving mental approval to it. In
1921 I told the villagers near Bettiah that they had acted like cowards in that
they had instead of resisting the evil-minded amlas left their wives and homes
on their approach. On another occasion I expressed myself ashamed of a priest
who said he had quietly slipped away and saved himself when a ruffian band
had entered his temple to loot it and break the idol. I told him that if he could
not die at his post defending his charge non-violently, he should have defended
it by offering violent resistance. Similarly do I hold that-, if India has no faith in
non-violence, nor patience for it to work its way, then it is better for her to
attain her freedom from the present misrule even by violence than that she
should helplessly submit to a continuing rape of her belongings and her honour.

***

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My own position and belief are clear and unequivocal. I neither want the
existing rule nor chaos. I want true order established without having to go
through the travail of chaos. I want this disorder to be destroyed by non-
violence, i.e. I want to convert the evil-doers. My life is dedicated to that task.
And what I have written in the previous paragraphs directly flows from my
knowledge of the working of non-violence which is the greatest force known to
mankind. My belief in its efficacy is unshakable, so is my belief unshakable in
the power of India to gain her freedom through non-violent means and no
other. But this power of hers cannot be evoked by suppressing truth or facts
however ugly they may for the moment appear to be. God forbid that India
should have to engage in a sanguinary duel before she learns the lesson of non-
violence in its fullness. But if that intermediate stage, often found to be
necessary, is to be her lot, it will have to be faced as a stage inevitable in her
march towards freedom and certainly preferable to the existing order which is
only so-called but which is like a whited sepulchre hiding undiluted violence
underneath.

Young India, 1-3-'28, p. 68

37

THE NEHRU REPORT

Pandit Motilal Nehru and his colleagues deserve the highest congratulations for
the very able and practically unanimous report they have been able to bring out
on the question that has vexed all parties for the past long months. The report
is well got up, accessible in book form and printed in bold type. No public man
can afford to be without it. It is signed by Pandit Motilal Nehru, Sir A. H. Imam,
Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru, Sjt. M. S. Aney, Sardar Mangal Singh, M. Shuaib Qureshi,
Sjt. Subhash Chandra Bose and Sjt. G. R. Pradhan. About Mr. Shuaib Qureshi's
signature however there is the following note at the end of the report:

"Mr. Shuaib Qureshi was unfortunately unable to be present at the last

meeting of the Committee when the draft report was considered. The

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draft however was sent to him and he has informed us that in regard to
the recommendations contained in Chapter III he is of opinion that one-
third seats in the Central Legislature should be reserved for Muslims.
Further he says: 'I agree with the resolution adopted at the informal
Conference of July 7th but do not subscribe to all the figures and
arguments produced in its support.' "

The report covers 133 pages, appendices 19 pages. The report is divided into
ten chapters of which four deal with the communal aspect, reservation of
seats, redistribution of provinces and Indian States. The seventh chapter
contains the final recommendations of the Committee. I must not attempt to
summarize the report, if only because it has come into my hands at the
moment of sending the last articles for Young India. I have not even the time to
study the report in full beyond having a cursory glance through it. But the great
merit of it is that All Parties Conference Committee has at last been able to
produce a unanimous report bearing weighty representative signatures. In the
matter of the constitution the main thing was not to present perfect
recommendations but to secure unanimity for the recommendations that might
in the circumstances be considered the best possible. And if the practical
unanimity arrived at after strenuous labours by the Committee is sealed by the
Conference about to meet at Lucknow, a tremendous step will have been taken
in the direction of constitutional Swaraj as distinguished from what might be
termed organic Swaraj. For if the country arrives at a workable unanimity
about the questions that have been agitating it for years, the next thing would
be to work the acceptance of our demands. And we have arrived at such a step
in the country's history in our evolution that if we can secure real unanimity
about any reasonable proposal, there should be no difficulty in securing
acceptance. I hope therefore that the Conference will meet at Lucknow with a
fixed determination to see the thing through and that the members who will be
there will not engage in a critical examination of the report with a view to tear
it to pieces but with the determination of arriving at a proper settlement. And
if they will approach the report in that spirit, they will endorse the
recommendations, except for valid reasons which would appeal to any sane

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persons. In thus commending this report to the public, I tender my

congratulations to Pandit Motilal Nehru without whose efforts there would have
been no committee and there would have been no report.

Young India, 16-8-'28, p. 276

38

AFTER LUCKNOW

The most brilliant victory achieved at Lucknow following as it does closely on

the heels of Bardoli makes a happy conjunction of events. Pandit Motilalji is
today the proudest man in India and has every reason to be so. But even he
could have done nothing if everyone had not conspired to make the proceedings
a success. It would have been easy for the Hindus or the Musalmans to block
the way. The Sikhs could have done likewise. But no one had the heart to
destroy the patient labours of the Nehru Committee. Little wonder that Pandit
Malaviyaji the irrepressible optimist said that Swaraj would be attained in 1930.

The honour for the happy result must however be shared with Pandit Nehru by
Dr. Ansari. His invisible help was much greater than his visible and tactful
guidance of the proceedings at Lucknow. He was ever at the beck and call of
the Nehru Committee. He used all his unrivalled influence with the Musalmans
in disarming their opposition. Hindus could not resist his transparent honesty
and equally transparent nationalism. The Liberals led by Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru
lent a weight to the Conference which it would otherwise have lacked. I join
Dr. Besant in her wish that they would re-renter the National organization.
They need not lose their identity even as the Hindus and Musalman
organisations do not lose theirs.

The mention of the Liberals brings us to the future work. There is still much
diplomatic work to be done. But more than the diplomatic work is that of
forging the sanction. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru truly observed that whether it
was Dominion Status or Independence, a proper sanction would be necessary if
the national demand was to be enforced. Bardoli has shown the way, if the

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sanction has to be non-violent. The Congress creed has non-violence as its

integral part. There is no denying the fact that non-violence had receded in the
background before Bardoli. But even as the Nehru report has made a unanimous
demand possible, Bardoli has brought back the vanishing faith in nonviolence.

If then we are sure of the sanction, we need not worry whether Swaraj is
otherwise spelt Dominion Status or Independence. Dominion Status can easily
become more than Independence, if we have sanction to back it. Independence
can easily become a farce, if it lacks sanction. What is in a name if we have the
reality? A rose smells just as sweet whether you know it by that name or any
other. Let us therefore make up our minds as to whether it is to be non-
violence or violence and let the rank and file work for the sanction in real
earnest even as the diplomats must work at constitution making.

Young India, 6-9-'28, p. 300

39

WHAT IS IN A NAME?

At the time of writing this (forenoon, 29th December) it is too early to give my
impressions of the Congress. The events are moving and changing so fast that
the impressions of the morning are nullified by those of the evening.
Meanwhile, therefore, it may be well to understand the controversy raging
round Dominion Status and Independence. The more I hear the arguments of
those who have forced the issue, the more clearly do I see the harm that is
being done by it. Up to a certain point it was perhaps health giving and
necessary. It was certainly good to appreciate the fact that nothing short of
independence could possibly be the goal of the nation and that therefore every
advance should be interpreted in terms of independence. It follows therefore
that every political change of reform that may impede the nation's march
towards independence should be rejected.

But what is the meaning of this independence? For me its meaning is Swaraj.
Independence is a word employed for European consumption. And those whose

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eyes are turned outward whether it be towards West or East, North or South,
are thinking of anything but India's independence. For finding India's
independence we must look to India and her sons and daughters, her needs and
capacity. It is obvious that the contents of her independence must therefore
vary with her varying needs and increasing capacity. India's independence
therefore need not have the meaning current in the West. Italian independence
is different from that of England, Sweden's differs from both.

One thing that we need is undoubtedly freedom from British control in any
shape or form. But freedom from such control of any other power is equally our
need in terms of independence. The Nehru report points the way to such
freedom and it prescribes the remedy that India can assimilate today. It is a
worthless document if it means anything less. Its acceptance is wholly
compatible with the national goal and I venture to think that the fiercest
champion of national independence can and should safely work for its full
fruition. The report is not an end in itself. It simply gives us the formula
according to which we should work. It presumes concentrated ceaseless work
by all the different parties before it can bear fruit.

Great confusion has been created by tearing the much abused expression
'Dominion Status' from its context. It is not an elixir of life to be imported from
Westminster to put life into us. The expression has been used by the
distinguished authors of the report to show by analogy what in their opinion is
needed for India's political growth. The scheme of Government adumbrated in
the report, whether it is known by the expression Dominion Status or any other,
whilst it may fully answer our needs today, may easily fall short of them
tomorrow. But it contains its own corrective. For it is a scheme worked out by
the nation, not one to be imposed upon or thrown at her by Britain. If it
fructifies, it contains all we need for future growth; hence I call it the charter
of our independence.

After all if the Nehru report is consigned to oblivion, we shall still need a
charter. It may be known as the charter of India's independence and may still
conceivably be much less than the Dominion Status of the Nehru report.

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If what we want therefore cannot be sufficiently described by the Swadeshi

word Swaraj, it cannot be described by any other word that can be coined. All
that the man in the street should know is that he wants the scheme of
Government framed by the nation's representatives without the change of a
comma and that he can say with the greatest confidence, 'What is in a name?'

That the Nehru scheme requires endorsement by the British Parliament is no

defect in it. Since we are connected with Britain, we shall in every case need
some sort of endorsement from her Parliament whether the scheme is to be
transmutation of the present bondage into an absolutely equal partnership to
be destroyed at will or whether it is to end 'every sort of connection with
Britain. I shall always maintain that the transmutation, complete conversion, is
any day a higher status than destruction. But of this later. Enough for us to
learn by heart for the moment that any scheme to take us towards Swaraj or if
you will, independence, must be framed by us and must be accepted without a
single alteration dictated by the British Parliament.

Young India, 3-1-1929, p. 4

40

INDEPENDENCE DAY

It was easy enough to pass the Independence Resolution at Lahore. It is difficult

enough to achieve it even by 'peaceful and legitimate means'. The first
essential is to let the masses know, understand and appreciate the message of
the Congress. They must know what Independence means and what it is likely
to cost. And so the Working Committee whose business is to make the Congress
live in the daily life of the people has fixed Sunday the 26th instant as Purna
Swaraj (Complete Independence) Day when a declaration approved by the
Working Committee will be made by those present. It is intended to be
complete by itself. No speeches are therefore necessary. They are inadvisable,
because the idea is abroad that people may indulge in loose talk when
independence is in the air. These should understand that loose irresponsible

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talk is not independence, it is license; it is not energy generated by love of

freedom, it is froth to be thrown away as useless and harmful, whereas 26th
instant is intended to be one of complete discipline, restraint, reserve, dignity
and real strength. It would be good, if the declaration is made by whole cities,
whole villages even as happened on that ever memorable 6th of April 1919. It
would be well if all the meetings were held at the identical minute in all the
places. In order that these meetings may be numerously attended, there should
be house to house visits, there may be also leaflets circulated among the
people. The villages may follow the customary method of advertising the time
by the drumbeat. Those who are religiously minded may as before begin the
day by ablutions and concentrating on the task before the country and the
means for its fulfilment. They will therefore pass the day in doing some
constructive work, whether it is spinning, or service of 'untouchables' or reunion
of Hindus and Musalmans, or prohibition work, or even all these together,
which is not impossible. Thus a Hindu may get hold of an 'untouchable' and
invite a Musalman, a Parsi, a Christian, a Sikh to join in a spinning competition
for a stated time, and then they may all go together for say one hour to hawk
Khadi which they can together buy to resell and then devote an hour to visit
the neighbouring liquor shop and speak to the keeper about the evil of gaining a
livelihood or making money by such means. They may also speak to the visitors
to such places and wind up the day by attending the celebration. It should be
remembered that Sunday is also the flag hoisting day. The day may be well
begun by attending the flag hoisting ceremony.

If the Congress Committee and Congress workers are serious about the
resolution, I hope they have already begun enlisting new members and inviting
old ones to pay their subscription for the current year. In doing so, they, the
old and the new ones, should be informed of the change in the creed and its
implications. And if Congress Committees begin methodical work, they will
materially help in re-organizing the Congress on a solid foundation, and the
people who may then attend the celebration on the 26th will be not merely
curiosity-mongers or idlers, but men and women gathered together with a fairly
full knowledge of what they are about and determined to fulfil their common

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purpose. It ought to be possible to make the demonstration universal and yet

ensure perfect orderliness throughout the whole length and breadth of India.
Nothing untoward or unintended should happen on this Independence Day. In
order to enable the Central office to gauge the strength of the movement and
the Congress organization, it is as necessary to send an absolutely accurate
account of the day's doings in each village or locality as it is to have the
celebration itself. A full and faithful record of the day's happenings will enable
the Working Committee that is to meet on the 14th February to shape its future
course.

And this work requires whole-timers, in other words, permanent paid

volunteers. Part-time workers are good and valuable only when and where
there is at least one whole-time worker.

I have already suggested that there should be a permanent Provincial Service

Board formed for the U.R which should draw up a workable constitution and
immediately set about enlisting recruits. Let us hope that there will be no time
lost in bringing into being this very desirable organization. If it works efficiently
and honestly it will serve as a model for the rest of the provinces.

Young India, 16-1-'30, p. 20

41

WHY 'PURNA' SWARAJ?

A fair friend writes:

"We are out to win independence by non-violent means. I wonder how we

are going to do it. Non-violence means solid preparation without
violence. Where is that preparation? And we are incapable of organizing
a violent revolution. The prospect is as dark as ever. And how does the
substitution of the word 'independence' for 'Swaraj' help us any further?
To make matters worse the word 'independence' has been translated to
mean 'Purna Swaraj'. Frankly this vernacular word stinks in my nostrils.
What was there wanting about the beautifully perfect word 'Swaraj'

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which connotes something more than the word 'independence' can ever
do? The prefixing of the adjective ‘Purna’ is nothing short of violence on
the word Swaraj. Two years ago in an article entitled "Independence v.
Swaraj" you yourself said: 'I defy anyone to give for independence- a
common Indian word intelligible to the masses. Our goal at any rate may
be known by an indigenous word understood of the three hundred
millions. And we have such a word in Swaraj first used in the name of the
nation by Dadabhai Naoroji'. That I believe clinches the matter. We
should not have disturbed the sacred word 'Swaraj', sacred both because
of its vast implications and wonderful associations, a word which was
used by Dadabhai Naoroji and clung to as a rich legacy by Lokamanya,
Deshabandhu and yourself."

This letter raises two questions. I shall take the last first. To qualify 'Swaraj' is
no doubt doing violence to art. The writer's logic is also irresistible. But very
often in national and similar complex matters logic and art have apparently to
be sacrificed. In substance that which carries out a good intention is both true
logic and true art. 'Swaraj' in the Congress constitution was given a double
meaning; it could be within the Empire if possible, without if necessary. A word
or an expression had therefore to be found in order to connote the last meaning
only. We could not do without the word 'Swaraj'. Hence the expedience of
'Purna Swaraj'. I admit that it does not sound well to the ear. But if it] carries
out the nation's meaning as it does, it will presently found well. We would not
have managed with a dubious word.

The second question is more difficult to dispose of. But attainment of 'Swaraj'
means conquest over all difficulties. Non-violence or rather non-violent men
are on their trial. They have to find out the best method of offering battle in
spite of the; violent atmosphere surrounding them. Non-violence is not off
much consequence if it can flourish only in a congenial] atmosphere. It is not
then non-violence. It may easily be fear of being hurt. But my reading of the
national temper is somewhat different from the friend's. Dissensions and
squabbles do not: affect those who have ultimately to take part in the struggle.

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The' latter will instinctively react to active non-violence. But whether they do
or not, the party of non-violence must now use up all its resources. There can
be no more waiting without the creed being laughed at or itself being
thoroughly and rightly discredited. If it cannot act, it must own its incapacity
and retire from the field of battle.

Young India, 6-2-'30, p. 45 42

42

PURNA SWARAJ

(From "The Settlement and Its Meaning—A Catechism"; three questions and
Gandhiji's answers are reproduced herein below from the Catechism.)

Q. You say that complete independence is an indifferent rendering for Purna

Swaraj. What then is the real meaning of Purna Swaraj?

A. Proper translation I cannot give you. I do not know any word or phrase to
answer it in the English language – I can, therefore, only give an explanation.
The root meaning of Swaraj is self-rule. "Swaraj" may, therefore, be rendered
as disciplined rule from within and 'Purna' means 'complete'. 'Independence'
may mean licence to do as you like. Swaraj is positive. Independence is
negative. Purna Swaraj does not exclude association with any nation, much less
with England. But it can only mean association for mutual benefit and at will.
Thus, there are countries which are said to be independent but which have no
Purna Swaraj, e.g. Nepal. The word Swaraj is a sacred word, a Vedic word,
meaning self-rule and self-restraint, and not freedom from all restraint which
'independence' often means.

Q. What is your idea of Purna Swaraj? Would it be possible within the British
Empire?

A. It would be possible but on terms of absolute equality. Complete

independence may mean separation and popular imagination does understand it
in that light. But, if we remain part of the Commonwealth on terms of absolute
equality, instead of Downing Street being the centre of the Empire, Delhi

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should be the centre. India has a population of 300 million and that is a factor
that cannot be ignored. Friends suggest that England will never be able to
reconcile itself to that position. But I do not despair.

The British are a practical people and as they love liberty for themselves, it is
only a step further to desire the same liberty for others.

I know if the time comes to concede equality to India, they will say that that
was what they had all along meant. The British people have a faculty of self-
delusion as no other people have. Yes, to my mind equality means the right to
secede.

Q. Would you like to have Purna Swaraj under the British flag?

A. There may be a common flag or each party may have its own.

Young India, 19-3-'31, p. 38

43

MY CONCEPTION OF POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE

(From the speech at the opening of the Exhibition at the Faizpur Session of the
Indian National Congress on 25th December 1936 which appeared under the title "A
Restatement of Faith".)

By political independence I do not mean an imitation of the British House of

Commons, or the Soviet Rule of Russia or the Fascist Rule of Italy or the Nazi
Rule of Germany. They have systems suited to their genius. We must have ours
suited to ours. What that can be is more than I can tell. I have described it as
Ramarajya, i.e. sovereignty of the people based on pure moral authority.

Harijan, 2-1-'37, p. 374

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44

INDEPENDENCE DOES NOT EXCLUDE VOLUNTARY PARTNERSHIP

(From "Weekly Letter" by M. D.)

Capt. Strunk, representative of the official daily newspaper ' in Germany and a
member of Hitler's staff, also visited Segaon "with a view to investigate
conditions in India". He wanted to know the content of independence and how
far people of India seriously meant it. To him Gandhiji said: "What we mean by
independence is that we will not live on the sufferance of any ; people on earth
and that there is a big party in India which will die in vindicating this position.
But we will not die killing, though we might be killed. It is a novel experiment I
know. Herr Hitler, I know, does not accept the position of human dignity being
maintained without the use of force. Many of us feel that it is possible to
achieve independence by non-violent means. It would be a bad day for the
whole world if we had to wade through blood. If India gains her freedom
through a clash of arms, it will indefinitely postpone the day of real peace for
the world. History is a record of perpetual wars, but we are trying to make new
history, and I say this as I represent the national mind so far as non-violence is
concerned. I have reasoned out the doctrine of the sword, I have worked out its
possibilities and come to the conclusion that man's destiny is to replace the law
of the jungle with the law of conscious love. The aspiration for independence is
the aspiration that fires all nations in Europe. But that independence does not
exclude voluntary partnership. Imperialistic ambition is inconsistent with
partnership."

Harijan, 3-7-'37, p. 164 at p. 165

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45

PANCHAYATS

Panchayat has an ancient flavour; it is a good word. It literally means an

assembly of five elected by villagers. It represents the system by which the
innumerable village republics of India were governed. But the British
Government, by its ruthlessly thorough method of revenue collection, almost
destroyed these ancient republics, which could not stand the shock of this
revenue collection. Congressmen are now making a crude attempt to revive the
system by giving village elders civil and criminal jurisdiction. The attempt was
first made in 1921. It failed. It is being made again, and it will fail if it is not
systematically and decently, I will not say, scientifically tried.

It was reported to me in Nainital, that in certain places in the U.P even

criminal cases like rape were tried by the so-called Panchayats. I heard of some
fantastic judgments pronounced by ignorant or interested Panchayats. This is
what comes to me from far off Assam.

"It has been ascertained that the Congress Committee at Chaparmukh has set
up a sort of rival administrative machinery there for the trial and disposal of
civil and criminal cases. There are a few branch offices in the neighbourhood of
Chaparmukh which dispose of similar business. At Chaparmukh office registers
are being maintained for civil and criminal cases. It is understood, that fines
are imposed in criminal cases, and decrees are passed in civil suits, and that in
a few cases attachment of property have been made or attempted in execution
of decrees."

This is all bad if it is true. Irregular Panchayats are bound to fall to pieces
under their own unsupportable weight. I suggest therefore the following rules
for the guidance of village workers:

1. No Panchayat should be set up without the written sanction of Provincial

Congress Committee;

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2. A Panchayat should in the first instance be elected by a public meeting

called for the purpose by beat of drum;

3. It should be recommended by the Tehsil Committee;

4. Such Panchayat should have no criminal jurisdiction;

5. It may try civil suits if the parties to them refer their disputes to the
Panchayat;

6. No one should be compelled to refer any matter to the Panchayat;

7. No Panchayat should have any authority to impose fines, the only sanction
behind this civil decrees being its moral authority, strict impartiality and the
willing obedience of the parties concerned;

8. There should be no social or other boycott for the time being;

9. Every Panchayat will be expected to attend to:

(a) The education of boys and girls in its village,

(b) Its sanitation,
(c) Its medical needs,
(d) The upkeep and cleanliness of village wells or ponds,
(e) The uplift of and the daily wants of the so-called untouchables;
10. A Panchayat, that fails without just cause to attend to the requirements
mentioned in clause 9 within six months of its election, or fails otherwise to
retain the goodwill of the villagers, or stands self-condemned for any other
cause, appearing sufficient to the Provincial Congress Committee, may be
disbanded and another elected in its place.

The disability to impose fines or social boycott is a necessity of the case in the
initial stages. Social boycott in villages has been found to be a dangerous
weapon in the hands of ignorant or unscrupulous men. Imposition of fines too
may lead to mischief and may defeat the very end in view. Where a Panchayat
is really popular and increases its popularity by the constructive work of the
kind suggested in clause 9, it will find its judgments and authority respected by

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reason of its moral prestige. And that surely is the greatest sanction any one
can possess and of which one cannot be deprived.

Young India, 28-5-'31, p. 123

46

VILLAGE SWARAJ

(From "Question Box'')

Q. In view of the situation that may arise at any moment in India, would you
give an outline or skeleton of a Village Swaraj Committee, which could function
in all village matters in the absence of, arid without relying upon an over-head
Government or other organization? In particular, how would you ensure that the
Committee should be fully representative and that it would act impartially,
efficiently and without favour or fear? What should be the scope of authority
and the machinery to enforce its commands? And what should be the manner in
which a Committee or an individual member of it could be removed for
corruption, inefficiency or other unfitness?

A. My idea of village Swaraj is that it is a complete republic, independent of its

neighbours for its own vital wants, and yet interdependent for many others in
which dependence is a necessity. Thus every village's first concern will be to
grow its own food crops and cotton for its cloth. It should have a reserve for its
cattle, recreation and playground for adults and children. Then if there is more
land available, it will grow useful money crops, thus excluding ganja, tobacco,
opium and the like. The village will maintain a village theatre, school and
public hall. It will have its own waterworks ensuring clean water supply. This
can be done through controlled wells or tanks. Education will be compulsory up
to the final basic course. As far as possible every activity will be conducted on
the co-operative basis. There will be no castes such as we have today with their
graded untouchability. Non-violence with its technique of Satyagraha and non-
cooperation will be the sanction of the village community. There will be a
compulsory service of the village guards who will be selected by rotation from

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the register maintained by the village. The Government of the village will be
conducted by the Panchayat of five persons annually elected by the adult
villagers, male and female, possessing minimum prescribed qualifications.
These will have all the authority and jurisdiction required. Since there will be
no system of punishments in the accepted sense, this Panchayat will be the
legislature, judiciary and executive combined to operate for its year of office.
Any village can become such a republic today without much interference, even
from the present Government whose sole effective connection with the villages
is the exaction of the village revenue. I have not examined here the question of
relations with the neighbouring villages and the centre if any. My purpose is to
present an outline of village government. Here there is perfect democracy
based upon individual freedom. The individual is the architect of his own
government. The law of non-violence rules him and his government. He and his
village are able to defy the might of a world. For the law governing every
villager is that he will suffer death in the defence of his and his village's
honour.

The reader may well ask me, as I am asking myself while penning these lines, as
to why I have not been able to model Sevagram after the picture here drawn.
My answer is, I am making the attempt. I can see dim traces of success though I
can show nothing visible. But there is nothing inherently impossible in the
picture drawn here. To model such a village may be the work of a life-time.
Any lover of true democracy and village life can take up a village, treat it as his
world and sole work, and he will find good results. He begins by being the
village scavenger, spinner, watchman, medicine man and school-master all at
once. If nobody comes near him, he will be satisfied with scavenging and
spinning.

Sevagram, 18-7-'42

Harijan, 26-7-'42, p. 238

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47

IMPLICATIONS OF 'QUIT INDIA'

In terms of non-violence 'Quit India' is a healthy, potent cry of the soul. It is not
a slogan. It means the end, through means purely truthful and non-violent, of
foreign rule and domination. It does not mean the foreigner's destruction but
his willing conversion to Indian life. In this scheme there is no room for hatred
of the foreigner. He is a man, even as we are. It is fear of him that gives rise to
hatred. Fear gone, there can be no hatred.

Thus his conversion implies our conversion too. If we cease to be inferiors, he

cannot be our superior. His arsenals and his weapons, typified in their extreme
in the atom bomb, should have no terror for us. It follows that we may not
covet them. We often make the mistake of thinking that we must first have
things before we cease to covet them. This tempting argument leads to the
prolongation of the agony. Must I do all the evil I can, before I learn to shun it?
Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough
to admit that we love evil too well to give it up.

Let us assume that foreign rule is ended. What should the foreigner do? He
could hardly be considered free when he was protected by British arms. As a
free man, he will discover that it was wrong to possess privileges which the
millions of India could not enjoy. He will live doing his duty as behoves a son of
India. He will no longer live at India's expense. On the contrary, he will give
India all his talents and by his services render himself indispensable to the land
of his adoption.

If this is true of the European, how much more true must it be for those Anglo-
Indians and others who have adopted European manners and customs in order
to be classed as Europeans demanding preferential treatment? All such people
will find themselves ill at ease, if they expect continuation of the favoured
treatment hitherto enjoyed by them. They should rather feel thankful that they

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will be disburdened of preferential treatment to which they had no right by any

known canon of reasoning and which was derogatory to their dignity.

We have all—rulers and ruled—been living so long in a stifling unnatural

atmosphere that we might well feel in the beginning that we have lost the
lungs for breathing the invigorating ozone of freedom. If the reality comes in an
orderly, that is a non-violent manner because the parties feel that it is right, it
will be a revealing lesson for the world.

Uruli, 29-3-'46

Harijan, 7-4-'46, p. 70

48

INDEPENDENCE

Q. You have said in your article in the Harijan of July 15, under the caption
"The Real Danger", that Congressmen in general certainly do not know the kind
of Independence they want. Would you kindly give them a broad but
comprehensive picture of the Independent India of your own conception?

A. I do not know that I have not, from time to time, given my idea of Indian
Independence. Since however, this question is a part of a series, it is better to
answer it even at the risk of repetition.

Independence of India should mean the independence of the whole of India,

including what is called India of the States and the other foreign Powers,
French and Portuguese, who are there, I presume, by British sufferance.
Independence must mean that of the people of India, not of those who are
today ruling over them. The rulers should depend on the will of those who are
under their heels. Thus, they have to be servants of the people, ready to do
their will.

Independence must begin at the bottom. Thus, every village will be a republic
or Panchayat having full powers. It follows, therefore, that every village has to

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be self-sustained and capable of managing its affairs even to the extent of

defending itself against the whole world. It will be trained and prepared to
perish in the attempt to defend itself against any onslaught from without. Thus,
ultimately, it is the individual who is the unit. This does not exclude
dependence on and willing help from neighbours or from the world. It will be
free and voluntary play of mutual forces. Such a society is necessarily highly
cultured in which every man and woman knows what he or she wants and, what
is more, knows that no one should want anything that others cannot have with
equal labour.

This society must naturally be based on truth and non-violence which, in my

opinion, are not possible without a living belief in God meaning a self-existent,
all-knowing living Force which inheres every other force known to the world
and which depends on none and which will live when all other forces may
conceivably perish or cease to act. I am unable to account for my life without
relief in this all-embracing living light.

In this structure composed of innumerable villages, there will be ever-

widening, never-ascending circles. Life will not be a pyramid with the apex
sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose centre will be
the individual always ready to perish for the village, the latter ready to perish
for the circle of villages, till at last the whole becomes one life composed of
individuals, never aggressive in their arrogance but ever humble, sharing the
majesty of the oceanic circle of which they are integral units.

Therefore, the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner
circle but will give a strength to all within and derive its own strength from it. I
may be taunted with the retort that this is all Utopian and, therefore, not
worth a single thought. If Euclid's point, though incapable of being drawn by
human agency, has an imperishable value, my picture has its own for mankind
to live. Let India live for this true picture, though never realizable in its
completeness. We must have a proper picture of what we want, before we can
have something approaching it. If there ever is to be a republic of every village

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in India, then I claim verity for my picture in which the last is equal to the first
or, in other words, no one is to be the first and none the last.

In this picture every religion has its full and equal place. We are all leaves of a
majestic tree whose trunk cannot be shaken off its roots which are deep down
in the bowels of the earth. The mightiest wind cannot move it.

In this there is no room for machines that would displace human labour and
that would concentrate power in a few hands. Labour has its unique place in a
cultured human family. Every machine that helps every individual has a place.
But I must confess that I have never sat down to think out what that machine
can be. I have thought of Singer's sewing machine. But even that is perfunctory.
I do not need it to fill in my picture.

Q. Do you believe that the proposed Constituent Assembly could be used for the
realization of your picture?

A. The Constituent Assembly has all the possibilities for the realization of my
picture. Yet I cannot hope for much, not because the State Paper holds no such
possibilities but because the document, being wholly of a voluntary nature,
requires the common consent of the many parties to it. These have no common
goal. Congressmen themselves are not of one mind even on the contents of
Independence. I do not know how many swear by non-violence or the Charkha
or, believing in decentralization, regard the village as the nucleus. I know on
the contrary that many would have India become a first-class military power
and wish for India to have a strong centre and build the whole structure round
it. In the medley of these conflicts I know that if India is to be leader in clean
action based on clean thought, God will confound the wisdom of these big men
and will provide the villages with the power to express themselves as they
should.

Q. If the Constituent Assembly fizzles out because of the "danger from within",
as you have remarked in the above- mentioned article, would you advise the
Congress to accept the alternative of a general country-wide strike and capture
of power, either non-violently or with the use of necessary force? What is your
alternative in that eventuality if the above is not approved by you?

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A. I must not contemplate darkness before it stares me in the face. And in no

case can I be party, irrespective of nonviolence, to a universal strike and
capture of power. Though, therefore, I do not know what I should do in the
case of a breakdown, I know that the actuality will find me ready with an
alternative. My sole reliance being on the living Power which we call God, He
will put the alternative in my hand when the time has come, not a minute
sooner.

Panchgani, 21-7-'46

Harijan, 28-7-'46, p. 236

II

Friends have repeatedly challenged me to define independence. At the risk of

repetition, I must say that the independence of my dream means Ramarajya,
i.e. the Kingdom of God on Earth. I do not know what it will be like in Heaven. I
have no desire to know the distant scene. If the present is attractive enough,
the future cannot be very unlike.

In concrete terms, then, the independence should be political, economic and

moral.

'Political' necessarily means the removal of the control of the British army in
every shape and form.

'Economic' means entire freedom from British capitalists and capital, as also
their Indian counterpart. In other words, the humblest must feel equal to the
tallest. This can take place only by capital or capitalists sharing their skill and
capital with the lowliest and the least.

'Moral' means freedom from armed defence forces. My conception of Ramarajya

excludes replacement of the British army by a national army of occupation. A
country that is governed by even its national army can never be morally free
and, therefore, its so-called weakest member can never rise to his full moral
height.

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Though Mr. Churchill is claimed to have won the war for the British, he has in
his Aberdeen speech uttered words of wisdom from the stand-point of a radical
non-violent reformer. He knows, if any panoplied warrior knows, what havoc
the two wars of our generation have wrought. In another column 1 I reproduce
summary of his speech as reported in the public press. Only I must warn the
public against the pessimistic note underlying the speech. Nothing will be found
to have gone wrong if mankind recoils from the horrors of war. The bloodletting
that men have undergone to the point of whiteness will not have been in vain,
if it has taught us that we must freely give our own blood in the place of taking
other peoples' blood, be the cause ever so noble or ignoble.

If the Cabinet Mission 'delivers the goods', India will have to decide whether
attempting to become a military power she would be content to become, at
least for some years, a fifth rate power in the world without a message in
answer to the pessimism described above, or whether she will by further
refining and continuing her non-violent policy prove herself worthy of being the
first nation in the world using her hard-won freedom for the delivery of the
earth from the burden which is crushing her in spite of the so-called victory.

New Delhi, 29-4-'46

Harijan, 5-5-'46, p. 116

1 Reproduced at the end of this article.

PRESS SUMMARY OF MR. CHURCHILL'S SPEECH

The world is very ill. This is the time when hatred is rife in the world and when
mighty branches of the human family, victors or vanquished, innocent or guilty,
are plunged in bewilderment, distress or ruin. Two fearful wars in our lifetime
have torn the heart out of its grace and culture.

Measureless injury has been done too much that the 19th century would have
called "Christian civilization", for all the leading nations have been racked by
stresses which have blunted their sensibilities and have destroyed their
agreeable modes of social intercourse.

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Only science has rolled forward, whipped by the fierce winds of mortal war,
and science has placed in the hands of men agencies of destruction far beyond
any development of their commonsense or virtue.

In a world where over-production of food was formerly from time to time a

problem, famine has laid its gaunt fingers upon the peoples of many lands and
scarcity upon all.

The psychic energies of mankind have been exhausted by the tribulations

through which they have passed and are still passing. It is not only bloodletting
that has weakened and whitened us.

The vital springs of human inspiration are, for the moment, drained. There
must be a period of recovery. Mankind cannot, in its present plight bear new
shocks and quarrels without taking to altogether cruder and primordial forms.

Yet we do not know that the hatreds and confusion which are found will not
confront us with even harder trial than those we have so narrowly and painfully
survived.

In many countries, where even united efforts would fall short of what is needed
party strife and faction is fomented or machine-made and skeleton fanatics
rave at each other about their rival ideologies.

All the while the ordinary folk of every country show themselves kindly and
brave and serviceable to their fellow-men. Yet, they are driven against one
another by forces and organizations and doctrines as wantonly and
remorselessly as they ever were in the ages of absolute emperors and kings.

There never was a time when breathing space was more needed, a blessed
convalescence, a truce of God and man.

Statesman, 29-4-'46

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