Hind Swaraj, a book authored by Mahatma Gandhi, is a text which proposes a moral basis for a civilisation as an alternative to the crass materialist-consumerist basis of modern civilisation, according to Chandan Gowda, professor from Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru.
He was delivering a talk on “Hind Swaraj in our Times” to mark Gandhi Jayanti during a webinar organised by the Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences (GCPAS), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal, on Saturday.
Prof. Gowda heads the Ramakrishna Hegde Chair for Decentralisation in ISEC, Bengaluru.
The book, authored in 1909 by Gandhiji, was not taken seriously in between, but today, it has once again assumed a lot of significance, as increasing materialism/consumerism of a certain kind has led civilisation on the path of disaster as manifest in problems such as climate change, global warming and violence of different kinds, he said.
Gandhiji was thinking about how Swaraj, a kind of self-rule — both within and outside — could be the moral basis which could save civilisation from disaster. Achieving something desirable through non-violent means was a matter of utmost significance for Gandhiji, Prof. Gowda said.
He also felt that another little text, authored by Gandhiji, to be read along with Hind Swaraj was called Constructive Programmes that gives an overview of the Gandhian method of reconstruction along the lines of Hind Swaraj.
Responding to a query, he said, the protest by farmers that is going on in the country will hold its moral strength so long as its means remain non-violent.
Centre director Varadesh Hiregange said that Sarvodaya was Gandhiji’s final ideal which included welfare of everyone and everything — men, women, marginalised sections among all castes, classes, region, religion, country and continents, nature, culture, flora, fauna, rivers and mountains.
