by MK Gandhi

(you can find it in Hind Swaraj: and other writings)

"Civilisation is not an incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English people are at present afflicted by it."

Talk about turning things on their head!

My reading of Gandhi's Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule was an incredibly inspiring and invigorating experience. Swaraj means freedom and in this little text of Gandhi's he speaks to why the freedom - and self-rule - that Indians were longing for, was not true freedom. Indeed they wanted India to be free of the English, but not of the mechanisms of governance and or the aim of society of the English. "you want the tiger's nature, but not the tiger."

And through a simple constructed conversation between Gandhi and a young questioner who is pro-independence, but also pro-western civilisation, Gandhi proceeds to share his insightful and at times startling view of what true freedom is and what it takes to gain it, and how true freedom and western civilisation are at odds with each other - and in my reading of it, I would say, even for the westerner. So while it is writen in the context of Indian independence, it is relevant to all, and it is as relevant today as it was when it was written 93 years ago.

Civilisation

Despite the challenges faced by our our civilisation and especially our focus on material progress, we continue toiling away within the systems we have developed, believing that if we just work a little harder, things will work out for the best. In a candid and clear way Gandhi lends us one perspective on why it is the essence of our civilisation and values that is wrong, and that it will only continue devouring and destroying communities, lives and the earth. His view on the English back then was that they wished to convert the whole world into a vast market for their goods, and that was all. Everything else was done with that aim. And looking around us now much later it seems that they - and other trading nations - have done just that.

"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."

He criticised key professions and roles in the western societal structure including law and medicine. And his insights into the harm they can bring is quite compelling:

When someone brings a case to court, most of the time both parties will be more or less at fault. A court of law judges one 100%, and the lawyers job is to side with his or her client. Thus any real quest for truth and for resolving the dispute in a way that may also heal the division between the two parties, is put aside in the interest of winning. It is a win-loose system, in which the winner too loses much, as ill-will and encouragement to fighting is promoted.

Doctor and modern medicine… help us ignore the symptoms. Take for example overeating, head aches, etc.. If I have indulged in a vice, which leads me to feeling ill, and the doctor cures me (gives me tables for indigestion, pills to combat the headache etc.), chances are I will repeat the vice, and not learn the relationship between unhealthy living and health problems. "Had the doctor not intervened, nature would have done its work, and I would have acquired mastery over myself, would have been freed from vica and would have become happy."

Today we spend billions of dollars, marks or pounds annually on lifestyle related diseases, that might never have come so far if prevention and a focus on healthy living had been placed above cure, which is the primary job of our doctors.

"Civilisation" says Gandhi "is that mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty. Performance of duty and observance of morality are convertible terms. To obtain morality is to attain mastery over our mind and our passions. So doing, we know ourselves. The gujarati equivalent for civilisation means 'good conduct.'"

In our societies it seems that civilisation is geared entirely towards dominion over nature, her resources, and the creation of ever more complicated and mind-blowing tools. In the traditional India they saw that happiness was largely a mental condition, and that that was their aim.

"if we become free, India is free. And in this thought you have a definition of Swaraj [freedom/home rule]. It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves. It is, therefore, in the palm of our hands. Do not consider this Swaraj to be like a dream. There is no idea of sitting still. The Swaraj that I wish to picture is such that, after we have once realised it, we shall endeavour to the end of our life time to persuade others to do likewise. But such Swaraj has to be experienced, by each one for himself. One drowning man will never save another. Slaves ourselves, it would be mere pretension to think of freeing others."

And it was developing this understanding of freedom, that led to his remarkable ideas (and subsequent results) of opposing the British by Soul-force. As he said, "We simply want to find out what is right and act accordingly." And in that it became unthinkable to kill and to nurture hatred against the British. But it also became unthinkable to follow laws or demands by the British that went against his conscience and understanding of truth and goodness. And so he suggested that people simply choose no longer to be governed by the British. "If man will only realise that it is unmanly to obey laws that are unjust, no man's tyranny will enslave him. This is the key to self-rule or home-rule"

And to the British his message was, "You can govern us only so long as we remain the governed; we shall no longer have any dealings with you."

"The force implied in this may be described as love force, soul-force, or more popularly, but less accurately, passive resistance. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant to my conscience, I use soul force. This force is indestructible. The force of arms is powerless when matched against the force of love or the soul."

His words have inspired and challenged me. I have quickened my own path to personal freedom through a deepening of the practice of meditation. However, I have wondered what Gandhi's commitment to truth, love and to living with total integrity might mean for me, and the way I live my life today, where I am aware that I am an actice co-participant in a global system of capitalism which I no longer believe in, and which I believe has negative and destructive consequences for people and nature across the world.

What does it mean to choose no longer to be governed by, or be active participants to such a system?

I stay with the question.

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