Some of the excerpts from one chapter of Mahatma Gandhiji's 'Hind Swaraj'
titled 'The Condition of India' written in 1908. Some of this below may not
be sufficent to make sense till the other relevant chapters are also read to
get a clear picture on his line of thought.
It is a sad condition. In thinking of it my eyes water and my throat gets
parched.
I have grave doubts whether I shall be able sufficiently to explain what is
in my heart. It is my
deliberate opinion that India is being ground down, not under the English
heel, but under that
of modern civilization. It is groaning under the monster's terrible weight.
There is yet time
to escape it, but every day makes it more and more difficult. Religion is
dear to me and my
first complaint is that India is becoming irreligious. Here I am not
thinking of the Hindu or the
Mahomedan or the Zoroastrian religion but of that religion which underlies
all religions. We are
turning away from God.
There is a charge laid against us that we are a lazy people and that
Europeans are
industrious and enterprizing. We have accepted the charge and we therefore
wish to change our
condition. Hinduism, Islam, Zoroastrianism, Christianity and all other
religions teach that we
should remain passive about worldly pursuits and active about godly
pursuits, that we should set
a limit to our worldly ambition and that our religious ambition should be
illimitable. Our activity
should be directed into the latter channel.
Where there is light, there is also shadow. I am prepared to maintain that
humbugs in worldly
matters are far worse than the humbugs in religion. The humbug of
civilization that I am endeavoring
to show to you is not to be found in religion.
[Q: How can you say that? In the name of religion Hindus and Mahomedams
fought
against one another. For the same cause Christians fought Christians.
Thousands of innocent
men have been murdered, thousands have been burned and tortured in its name.
Surely, this is
much worse than any civilization.]
I certainly submit that the above hardships are far more bearable than
those of
civilization. Everybody understands that the cruelties you have named are
not part of religion
although they have been practised in its name; therefore there is no
aftermath to these cruelties.
They will always happen so long as there are to be found ignorant and
credulous people. But
there is no end to the victims destroyed in the fire of civilization. Its
deadly effect is that people
come under its scorching flames believing it to be all good. They become
utterly irreligious, in
reality, derive little advantage from the world. Civilization is like a
mouse gnawing while it is
soothing us. When its full effect is realized, we shall see that religious
superstition is harmless
compared to that of modern civilization. I am not pleading for a continuance
of religious superstitions.
We shall certainly fight them tooth and nail, but we can never do so by
disregarding
religion. We can only do so by appreciating and conserving the latter.
[Q:You make light of the terror that the Thugs, the Pindaris and the Bhils
were to the
country.]
If you give the matter some thought, you will see that the terror was by no
means
such a mighty thing. If it had been a very substantial thing, the other
people would have died
away before the English advent. Moreover, the present peace is only nominal,
for by it we have
become emasculated and cowardly. We are not to assume that the English have
changed the
nature of the Pindaris and the Bhils. It is, therefore, better to suffer the
Pindari peril than that
someone else should protect us from it and thus render us effeminate. I
should prefer to be
killed by the arrow of a Bhil than to seek unmanly protection. India without
such protection was
an India full of valour. Macaulay betrayed gross ignorance when he libelled
Indians as being
practically cowards. They never merited the charge. Cowards living in a
country inhabited by
hardy mountaineers and infested by wolves and tigers must surely find an
early grave. Have you
ever visited our fields? I assure you that our agriculturists sleep
fearlessly on their farms even
today; but the English and you and I would hesitate to sleep where they
sleep. Strength lies in
absence of fear, not in the quantity of flesh and muscle we may have on our
bodies. Moreover,
I must remind you who desire Home Rule that, after all, the Bhils, the
Pindaris, and the Thugs
are our own countrymen. To conquer them is your and my work. So long as we
fear our own
brethren, we are unfit to reach the goal.
