UNIT 11 GANDHIAN VISION

Structure
11.1 Introduction
Aims and Objectives
11.2 Critique of Modern Civilisation
11.3 Gandhi’s idea of Swaraj
11.3.1 Gram Swaraj
11.3.2 Swadeshi and Self-reliance
11.3.3 Ramrajya
11.3.4 Sarvodaya and Antyodaya
11.4 Religion and Society
11.5 Education
11.6 Trusteeship
11.7 Role of Women
11.8 Freedom from Untouchability
11.9 Conservation of Resources
11.10 India’s place in Modern World
11.11 Summary
11.12 Terminal Questions
Suggested Readings

11.1 INTRODUCTION
Truth and non-violence form the two main pillars of Gandhi’s vision and practice.
Gandhi’s vision could be articulated and executed only through the means of non-
violence, for he believed that only good means could lead to good ends. Ends and means
were thus interrelated in Gandhi’s thought.

Gandhi opined that human beings were not capable of knowing the complete or absolute
truth and that is why nobody had the right to commit violence on others, lest they may be
in the wrong. Gandhi also believed in the goodness of human beings and that they had
divine powers. These divine powers could be used to awaken the conscience.

Gandhi laid out his vision for India in Hind Swaraj, as well as in his speeches and
writings in Young India and Harijan. His vision was a holistic one which touched upon
all the areas of life – religious, moral, social-cultural (includes education), political
(includes foreign policy), and economic. He wrote and spoke about it extensively and
therefore it will not be possible to touch on all the facets of his vision for India. In the
section given below, some important and most talked about aspects of his vision have
been discussed.

Aims and Objectives

After going through this Unit, you will:
· Understand Gandhi’s criticism of modern civilisation;
· Comprehend the Gandhian alternative to modern civilisation; and
· Appreciate the ideas and programmes to actualise the alternative to modern
civilisation as expounded by Gandhi.

11.2 CRITIQUE OF MODERN CIVILISATION

Gandhi was among the few leaders of the world who thought deeply about the problems
afflicting human civilisation and ways to overcome them. He had done intensive study of
works of thinkers like Edward Carpenter, John Ruskin, Thomas Carlyle, Thoreau and
Leo Tolstoy. These thinkers, in various ways, were critical of modern western society and
its materialistic achievements behind which lay hidden deep-seated social and moral
problems. Gandhi was also deeply moved by the moral ideas found in different religious
traditions including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Jainism, and other traditions.
Gandhi’s experience of colonial oppression in South Africa further disillusioned him and
led him to develop a far reaching critique of Modern society as it had developed in the
west. This he published in the form of a booklet named Hind Swaraj in 1909.
Throughout his life, Gandhi stood by the thoughts he had expressed in Hind Swaraj
which contains the most coherent expression of Gandhi’s world view.

According to Gandhi, the basic problem with the Modern civilisation was that there was
too much emphasis on increasing people’s physical comforts through production of
goods and services rather than ensuring true physical, social, emotional and spiritual well
being of the people. Gandhi measured the progress of a civilisation not through its
material comforts but by its morality. He said in Hind Swaraj in 1909:
“The people in Europe today live in better-built houses than they did a hundred
years ago. This is considered an emblem of civilization, and this is also a matter
to promote bodily happiness…This civilization takes note neither of morality nor
of religion.”

Gandhi’s critique of modern civilisation was not just a philosophical or abstract critique.
Displaying acute insight into the social problems resulting from industrialisation, he
pointed out the poor condition of millions of workers in Europe, the decline in quality of
life with new diseases and new forms of exploitation, the degradation of women, the
stranglehold of money and selfish interests on the Parliamentary system, and
consumerism and unbridled competition that took away all fellow feeling and enslaved
man to his darker side and dehumanised society.

Gandhi’s critique of modern civilisation was also related to the nature of impact that
British rule had on India. He believed that rather than Britain as a country, it was
Modern civilisation as it was expressed in British rule in India that was responsible for
the suffering of the Indian people. In Hind Swaraj he opined:
“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.”

Gandhi argued that India was not won by physical force but the temptation that East India
Company offered to Indians in the form of commerce and profit. In Hind Swaraj he
wrote:
“The English have not taken India; we have given it to them. They are not in India
because of their strength, but because we keep them… Recall the Company
Bahadur. Who made it Bahadur? They had not the slightest intention at the time
of establishing a kingdom. Who assisted the Company’s officers? Who was
tempted at the sight of their silver? Who bought their goods? History testifies that
we did all this… it is truer to say that we gave India to the English than that India
was lost.”

Under the impact of the British rule India had been impoverished, its traditional village
economy destroyed, seeds of communalism sown between Hindus and Muslims, and its
traditional culture transformed. Gandhi was acutely aware that what British rulers called
the gifts of civilisation in the form of new system of government, laws and technology
had actually been instrumental in the exploitation of India. He wrote to that effect in Hind
Swaraj:
“Railways, lawyers and doctors have impoverished the country so much so that, if
we do not wake up in time, we shall be ruined…the railways, too, have spread
bubonic plague. Without them the masses could not move from place to
place…Railways have also increased the frequency of famines because, owing to
facility of means of locomotion, people sell out their grain and it is sent to the
dearest markets.”

Gandhi was thus not making a statement against progress by opposing Modern
civilisation, what he was opposing was the greed and brutality that were the driving
forces behind colonialism which had no moral justification. Colonialism represented the
worst aspect of Modern civilisation where abandoning all moral principles, the British
were exploiting India.
11.3 GANDHI’S IDEA OF SWARAJ
Since the root cause of India’s exploitation was not Englishmen as such but the
civilisation they represented, for India, freedom did not mean just replacement of British
rule by Indian rule. He did not just want the ‘replacement of British Rockfeller by Indian
Rockefeller’. For him Swaraj meant cultural freedom or the freedom from the domination
of modern civilisation. It implied recreating a society based on India’s traditional
civilisation. For Gandhi, Indian civilisation lived in its villages. The essence of this
civilisation was moral restraint and spirit of fellow feeling among the people. In other
words it was the moral fiber of village society that Gandhi considered as the hallmark of
Indian civilisation. This made Indian villages the basis of Indian civilisation. For Gandhi,
therefore, the true meaning of Swaraj lay in recovering the civilisation that India had lost.
Swaraj has political, economic, moral and social connotations.

11.3.1 GRAM SWARAJ

Panchayats had become defunct during the British rule. They would have to be revived.
The revival of Panchayats would ensure participation of the villagers in the political life
and the decision-making process of the village community. This would lead to Gram
Swaraj, the political dimension of Swaraj.

11.3.2 SWADESHI AND SELF-RELIANCE

Swadeshi or the use of indigenous resources, is the economic aspect of Swaraj.
Reconstruction of the village economy that had been destroyed by the British rule was
essential in order to make villages self-reliant. Swaraj would then mean freedom for the
Indian villages. The Constructive Programme could make the village economies self-
reliant. The Constructive Programme was an integral part of the Gandhian strategy. The
use of indigenous resources plus the development of village handicrafts and khadi
industries were to be the moral and economic means for the regeneration of Indian
villages and hence the attainment of Swaraj.

11.3.3 RAMRAJYA
Gandhi’s vision of Swaraj was part of a wider programme of social transformation which
emphasised removal of the wants of millions of poor who had suffered as a result of
British rule. Gandhi did not separate the political, the economic and the cultural aspects
of Swaraj, rather they were part of his holistic conception in which all these aspects were
interrelated. This holistic conception was represented by the idea borrowed from
Ramayana tradition – Ramarajya. Ramarajya was Gandhi’s vision of a just society and
he elaborated it in the following way:
“In my opinion swaraj and Ramarajya are one and the same thing…We call a Sate
Ramarajya when both the ruler and his subjects are straightforward, when both
are pure in heart, when both are inclined towards self-sacrifice, when both
 exercise restraint and self control while enjoying worldly pleasures, and, when the
relationship between the two is as good as that between a father and a son. It is
because we have forgotten this that we talk of democracy or the government of
the people. Although this is the age of democracy, I do not know what that word
connotes; however, I would say that democracy exists where the people’s voice is
heard, where love of the people holds a place of prime importance. In my
Ramarajya, however, public opinion cannot be measured by counting of heads or
raising hands.……The rishis and the munis …….after doing penance came to the
conclusion that public opinion is the opinion of people who practice penance and
who have the good of the people at heart.”

Ramrajya was thus not a theocratic state. It was essentially a moral idea defined by
people’s sense of duty towards right social conduct and fellow feeling. The British
justified their rule in India by saying that they were trying to modernise the Indians.
Ramrajya provided an alternative to that Western modernity. By rejecting the Western
form of parliamentary democracy and nation-state, Gandhi also undermined the
ideological hegemony of colonialism.

Ramrajya, an idiom that was taken from rural Indian society, found an echo in the hearts
and minds of millions of peasants in India. It provided the ideology for mobilising the
masses of India against the domination of the British.

11.3.4 SARVODAYA AND ANTYODAYA

Sarvodaya represents Gandhi’s vision of the new human society, a new social order,
which would strive for the betterment and welfare of all humankind and living beings. It
has both positive and negative connotations. B S Sharma in his article “The Philosophical
Basis of Sarvodaya”, in the journal Gandhi Marg published in July 1960 defined the
negative conception of Sarvodaya as “… not something which one man or set of men can
gain or enjoy to the exclusion of others.” Positively speaking, it is “an activity in which
all may partake and in which all must partake if it is to amount to a full realization of the
human faculties of the human soul.” Sarvodaya would thus mean the welfare of all –
every individual and all individuals, in all the areas – religious, moral, political, social
and economic. The ultimate goal of Sarvodaya is the greatest good of all living beings.
What constitutes ‘the greatest good’ has been explained by Gandhi in a note written in
August 1947:
“I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes
too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the
weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself if the step you
contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it
 restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead
to swaraj for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?
Then you will find your doubts and yourself melting away.”

Gandhi’s ideal of Sarvodaya was borrowed from John Ruskin’s Unto His Last and
contains three concepts: community, equality and dignity of labour. Each individual has
to work for the welfare of all, as there is no growth without the growth of the society and
vice versa. Thus the growth of the individual and the society are interrelated. Equality
means equality of both intellectual work and body work. Dignity of labour acknowledges
the dignity of physical labour. Through the doctrine of Sarvodaya, Gandhi rejected the
laissez-faire theory as well as the utilitarian concept of the greatest good of the greatest
number.

Gandhi believed that Antyodaya was the means to achieve Sarvodaya. Antyodaya
literally means the rise of the last. A Sarvodaya society can only come about when we
have reached the poorest of the poor.

11.4 RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Gandhi was a deeply religious person. The moral principles underlying various religious
traditions had played an important part in shaping his basic attitudes. For example, the
Jain principles of aparigraha, asteya, brahmacharya, satya and ahimsa were his abiding
guide to social conduct. Yet Gandhi did not hold any narrow view of religion or religious
identity. As he wrote in Young India on 22 December 1927:
“I do not expect India of my dream to develop one religion, i.e., to be wholly
Hindu, or wholly Christian, or wholly Musalman, but I want it to be wholly
tolerant, with its religions working side by side with one another.”

Gandhi never accepted the idea that the basis of nationality has to be religion in spite of
his belief that religion plays an important role in society. He expressed this view
categorically in Hind Swaraj:
“India cannot cease to be one nation because people belonging to different
religions live in it. The introduction of foreigners does not necessarily destroy the
nation; they merge in it. A country is one nation only when such a condition
obtains in it. That country must have a faculty of assimilation…. India has ever
been such a country. In reality, there are as many religions as there are
individuals; but those who are conscious of the spirit of nationality do not
interfere with one another’s religion. If the Hindus believe that India should be
peopled only by Hindus, they are living in dreamland. The Hindus, the
Musalmans, the Parsis and the Christians who have made India their country are
fellow countrymen, and they will have to live in unity, if only for their own
 interest. In no part of the world are one nationality and one religion synonymous
terms; nor has it ever been in India.”

Gandhi, while standing for the freedom of a person to live according to the dictates of his
or her religion, upheld the principle of coexistence of faiths and principle of non-
interference. It was this openness of Gandhi that made him a votary of Hindu-Muslim
unity which he built as a pillar of his vision of Swaraj. Gandhi never accepted the two-
nation theory and was deeply saddened by the partition.

11.5 EDUCATION
The idea of education and how it should be conducted was another important theme in
Gandhi’s vision and thought. Gandhi’s ideal of an educated man is as described by
Huxley in the following words:
“His body is the servant of his will and does its work with ease and pleasure….his
mind is stored with knowledge of the fundamental truths of nature; his passions
are under the control of a vigorous will and a tender conscience; he has learned to
hate all vileness and to respect others as himself. Such a man and no other has had
a liberal education.”

Gandhi believed in a conception of education where man was in harmony with nature
and was able to control his senses. His vision of education was thus one where it had to
be necessarily geared towards character-building. Primary education or Nai Talim or
Buniyaadi Talim should be focused on character-building—this becomes the
foundation—a building built on this foundation will be able to sustain itself. Education
had to be training of the body, mind and soul. Ethical education or training of the spirit
was to be given prime importance. Children had to be taught the dignity of labour right
from their infancy. Gandhi wanted teachers to teach students through the medium of
handicrafts, laying emphasis on manual training, not just intellectual training. Also they
had to lead by example. Gandhi wanted the Indian children to be educated in their mother
tongues. He felt that English education was of very little value to the Indians. Higher
education was missing out from the Gandhian visionary thought; however, he did
mention that higher education could be left to private enterprise and should be related to
national necessities.

The most unique suggestion that Gandhi proposed with regard to education especially
compulsory mass education was that India’s national system of education should be made
self-sufficient. He wrote in Harijan:
“..as a nation, we are so backward in education that we cannot hope to fulfill our
obligations to the nation in this respect in a given time during this generation, if
the programme is to depend on money. I have therefore made bold, even at the
 risk of losing all reputation for constructive ability, to suggest that education
should be self-supporting…I would therefore begin the child’s education by
teaching it a useful handicraft and enabling it to produce from the moment it
begins its training. Thus every school can be made self-supporting, the condition
being that the State takes over the manufactures of these schools.” (5:197)

Henry Fagg in his book Back to the Sources: A Study of Gandhi’s Basic Education
written in 2002 is supportive of the above idea on three counts:
“Gandhi’s confidence in the practicality of self-support although abrasive, was
not ill-founded…Part of his motives were undoubtedly financial; the task of
educating India’s millions would be an undertaking of colossal proportions, for
which there were simply no funds……A second reason….was that to produce
saleable items would be a kind of quality control, a check put in place to ensure
that the education imparted had been truly vocational. His scheme of education
can also therefore be understood as facilitating a form of economic
planning….The third reason…is that craft training results in ‘the conservation of
the intellectual energy and indirectly also the spiritual.”

Thus Gandhi’s main purpose in advocating for education that was self-supporting was
that it would not just ensure imparting of education but will also cut at the roots of
unemployment and develop the body, mind and soul.

Gandhi also gave some thought to adult education. He elaborated upon it in his
Constructive Programme in the following manner:
“If I had charge of adult education, I should begin with opening the minds of the
adult pupils to the greatness and vastness of their country.……My adult education
means, therefore, first true political education of the adult by word of
mouth….Side by side with the education by the mouth will be the literary
education.”

Gandhi managed to do some practical experiments in the field education during his days
in the Tolstoy Farm. These experiments further affirmed his ideas on education.

11.6 TRUSTEESHIP
Gandhi explained the theory of trusteeship as expounded by him in the following words
in Harijan written on 3 June 1939:
“Suppose I have come by a fair amount of wealth either by way of legacy, or by
means of trade and industry, I must know that all that wealth does not belong to
me, what belongs to me is the right to an honourable livelihood, no better than
 that enjoyed by millions of others. The rest of my wealth belongs to the
community and must be used for the welfare of the community…..”

Trusteeship thus meant that “each would hold whatever assets they possessed in trust for
the good of the society.” The rich would use their wealth for the benefit of all those who
worked for them while the labourers on the other hand would provide their labour to all
those who needed them. In the Gandhian vision, nobody should indulge in an extravagant
life but just take only that which is required for a simple, comfortable life. Gandhi also
talked of trusteeship more as a conviction, not something that can be forced and therefore
even if one person adopted the approach, it was worth it. Henceforth, he said the
following on 3 June 1939 in Harijan:

“The question how many can be real trustees according to this definition is beside
the point. If the theory is true, it is immaterial whether many live up to it or only
one man lives up to it. The question is of conviction…”

Gandhi’s aim in proposing the theory of trusteeship, was to inculcate the spirit of
aparigraha or non-possession.

11.7 ROLE OF WOMEN

Gandhi’s vision of creative social transformation by non-violent means did not ignore the
women of India. In his vision of Ramrajya, men and women had an equal place in
society. Speaking at the Women’s Conference, Sojitra on January 16, 1925, he said:
“To women I talk about Ramarajya. Ramarajya is more than swarajya. Let me
therefore talk about what Ramarajya will be like—not about swaraj. Ramarajya
can come about only when there is likelihood of a Sita arising. Among the many
shlokas recited by Hindus, one is on women. It enumerates women who are
worthy of being remembered prayerfully early in the morning…..As long as
women whose body and mind tend in one direction—i.e, towards the path of
virtue—do not come into public life and purify it, we are not likely to attain
Ramarajya or swaraj. Even if we did, I would have no use for that kind of swaraj
to which such women have not made their full contribution…..”

In Gandhi’s vision, women were thus not confined to the walls of the household but were
encouraged to play a part in India’s freedom struggle. Under Gandhi’s leadership, women
leaders like Sarojini Naidu and Sucheta Kripalani, came to the fore.

11.8 FREEDOM FROM UNTOUCHABILITY

The practice of untouchability represented for Gandhi not only a social evil which had no
place in civilised society but also something which he held to be a ‘sin against God and
man’, something profoundly immoral. While reformers like Dayanand Saraswati,
Vivekananda, Jyotiba Phule had attacked untouchability, what was significant about
Gandhi was that he made the campaign against untouchability a part of the freedom
movement. Thus when the Non-cooperation movement was launched, removal of
untouchability was included among the basic prerequisites for the attainment of Swaraj.
He stated in Young India on 29 October 1920:
“Non-cooperation against the government means cooperation among the
governed, and if Hindus do not remove the sin of untouchability there will be no
swaraj whether in one year or in hundred years….swaraj is unattainable without
the removal of the sins of untouchability as it is without Hindu-Muslim unity.”

Gandhi considered himself to be a ‘Sanatani Hindu’, that is someone who abided by

Hindu scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads and Puranas and yet he was not orthodox in his
religious beliefs. For him ‘truth’ was the highest expression of religion and truth in a
relative sense was something that represented the ‘inner voice’ or the ‘voice of
conscience’. Gandhi thus rejected anything which he considered to be immoral and
against truth. Religion for him was a matter of praxis or a lived reality rather than a body
of beliefs or rituals. He constantly reminded that morality and truth should not be
dissociated from religion. He always tested scriptures on the yardstick of reason and
truth. It is in this perspective that we can understand his rejection of untouchability even
while retaining his belief in Varnashram dharma.

Varnashram, according to Gandhi, was simply a ‘law of heredity’, a scientific truth

which Hinduism accepted. Thus he said “Not to abide by one’s varna is to disregard the
law of heredity”. What Gandhi rejected however, was division into numerous castes or
jatis, the idea of high and low or superior and inferior and the concept of pollution by
touch. While varna division related to division of labour by defining duties, they did not
define privileges. He wrote in Young India on 6 October 1921:
“I hold against the genius of Hinduism to arrogate oneself a higher status or
assign to another a lower. All are born to serve God’s creation, a Brahmin with
knowledge, a Kshatriya with his power of protection, a Vaisya with his
commercial ability and Sudra with his bodily labour. This however does not mean
that a Brahmin for instance is absolved from bodily labour, or the duty of
protecting himself and others… But a Brahmin who claims superiority by right of
knowledge falls, and has no knowledge. And so with others who pride themselves
upon their special qualities. Varnashrama is self-restraint and conservation and
economy of energy”.
It is clear therefore that Gandhi considered all varnas as equal. Moreover Gandhi
attached highest value to the dignity of labour which he demonstrated from his personal
example. For him no work was ‘polluting’. All the members of Sabarmati Ashram,
which was founded in 1915, were enjoined to clean the toilets themselves. The rejection
of the idea of social hierarchy and pollution erased the very basis of untouchability. He
rejected the view that untouchables were a ‘fifth caste’ or panchamas as it was against
the varna theory. He considered untouchability to be ‘a blot on Hinduism’ and an
‘excrescence’. He spoke thus in Young India:
“In my opinion, untouchability in the form in which we practise today is not and
ought not to be, an essential part of Hinduism. There is sheer ignorance and
cruelty behind it. I look upon it as an excrescence on Hinduism.”

The attack on untouchability reflects the depth of Gandhi’s vision of creative social
transformation. Gandhi differed from Ambedkar in two fundamental respects in his
criticism of untouchability. One, he did not reject varnashrama dharma which Ambedkar
considered to be the real basis of untouchability and was thus not willing to separate
untouchables from Hinduism. It was for this reason that he opposed the Communal
Award by Ramsay Macdonald in 1932 recognising the separate electorates for Scheduled
Castes and went on a fast unto death.

Secondly, unlike Ambedkar who considered caste Hindus to be antagonistic to depressed

classes and believed in social struggle on their behalf, Gandhi believed that change has to
come from within caste Hindus by changing their attitude. It was for this reason that he
addressed untouchables as Harijans and launched his Harijan campaign in the 1930s for
the acceptance of Harijans as legitimate Hindus and as equals.

11.9 CONSERVATION OF RESOURCES

In the Gandhian conception, ‘nature’ had a very inclusive meaning. The interaction
between human and non-human nature was necessary only to the point where humans
were to use nature to earn subsistence and nothing more than that. In a speech given at
YMCA, Madras on 16 February 1916, Gandhi said:
“If I take anything that I do not need for my own immediate use, and keep it, I
thieve it from somebody else. I venture to suggest that it is the fundamental law of
Nature, without exception, that Nature produces enough for our wants from day to
day, and if only everybody took enough for himself and nothing more, there
would be no pauperism in this world, there would be no man dying of starvation
in this world.”

Gandhi thus emphasized the need to conserve resources and use nature only to meet our
daily subsistence needs. Today’s conception of sustainable development and movements
for conservation of the environment draw heavily from Gandhi’s ecological ideas. The
Chipko Andolan is one such movement.

11.10 INDIA’S PLACE IN MODERN WORLD

In the Gandhian vision, India’s foreign policy post-independence had to be guided by
cooperation rather than conflict. Writing in Young India on 11 August 1920, he said, “If
India takes up the doctrine of the sword, she may gain momentary victory. Then India
will cease to be the pride of my heart.” Indulging in violence and making it a creed was
thus out of question.

Gandhi wanted India to be different from the rest of the countries of the world and
emphasize on soul-force and stand for peace. There would then be no need for weapons.
He said the following to this effect:
“.. India’s mission is different from that of others. India is fitted for the religious
supremacy of the world. ……India is less in need of steel weapons, it has fought
with divine weapons, it can still do so……India can win all by soul force….”
(Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi).

As far as maintaining an army was concerned, Gandhi wanted India to have the “smallest
army imaginable”. The core of Indian foreign policy had to be non-violence. Writing in
Harijan on 21 June 1942, Gandhi’s advice to future foreign policy makers was:
“…I would advise the adoption of non-violence to the utmost extent possible and
that will be India’s great contribution to the peace of the world and the
establishment of a new world order.”

In Gandhi’s vision thus, India had to assume a higher position in the world through the
use of soul-force. This would lead to the establishment of a new and peaceful world
order.

11.11 SUMMARY
Gandhi believed that the Indian civilisation was superior to the western one and it had the
necessary ability to endure and survive the onslaughts of modernity. Only India could
provide the alternative to modern civilisation as millions of Indians who lived in villages
had not been influenced by the frills and fancies of modern civilisation. The idea of
Swaraj, Ramrajya, Sarvodaya, Trusteeship, basic mass education and India’s usage of
soul-force to bring about peace and a new world order formed some of the major aspects
of Gandhi’s vision. All these components of the Gandhian alternative were essentially
Indian.
In the later years of his life, Gandhi realised that practically speaking, it was not possible
to rid India of many of the facets of modern civilisation such as railways and hospitals.
They will have to be accepted as a ‘necessary evil’. However, what he wanted or
advocated for, was a vision of a world in which human beings would not be ruled by
these things.

Gandhi’s vision was essentially a transformative one, for he wanted to bring about these
changes through the methods of non-violence, persuasion, appealing to the conscience,
and attitudinal and behavioural interventions.

11.12 TERMINAL QUESTIONS

1. Write a note on the Gandhian critique of modern civilisation.
2. What is the Gandhian ideal of Swaraj? What are the means or mechanisms to achieve
Swaraj?
3. What is the Gandhian alternative to modern civilisation? Discuss its major
ingredients.
4. Discuss the Gandhian vision of education for India.
5. Describe the idea of Trusteeship as expounded by Gandhi.
6. Why is the abolition of untouchability a major goal for Gandhi? What were some of
steps he undertook for the removal of untouchability?
7. What, according to Gandhi, should be India’s role in the creation of a new world
order? How does he suggest going about it?

SUGGESTED READINGS
B R Nanda., (1985), Gandhi and His Critics, Oxford University Press, Delhi (Second
Impression 1995)

Bhikhu Parekh., (1999), Colonialism, Tradition and Reform: An Analysis of Gandhi’s

Political Discourse, New Delhi, Thousand Oaks & London: Sage Publications, Revised
Edition (First published in 1989)

David Hardiman., Gandhi in His Time and Ours: The Global Legacy of Ideas, Hurst &
Company, London, 2003

Henry Fagg., Back to the Sources: A Study of Gandhi’s Basic Education, National Book
Trust, New Delhi, (First published in 2002, Third Reprint in 2008)

Judith Brown., Gandhi: Prisoner of Hope, Yale University Press, New Haven and
London, 1989
M K Gandhi (1947) [compiled by R K Prabhu], India of My Dreams, Navajivan
Publishing House, Ahmedabad (First published in 1947; Revised edition in 1959 and
Thirteenth reprint in 2008)

Marjorie Sykes., The Story of Nai Talim: Fifty Years of Education at Sevagram, India
(1937-1987), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), New
Delhi, 2009

Nirmal Kumar Bose., Studies in Gandhism, Navajivan Publishing House, Ahmedabad,

1972 (Reprinted in 1998)

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