Hind Swaraj (1909), chapter XX
Self-Rule
In November 1909 Mahatma Gandhi boarded the steamship Kildonan Castle in London to sail back to South Africa. He had spent four months trying to persuade British politicians to respect the rights of Indians in the Transvaal, and the trip had failed. In London he had also met Indian students at India House who argued that assassinations and bombs would win freedom. On the voyage home he sat down at a small table to write an answer. He wrote on ship stationery for ten days straight. When his right hand gave out, he wrote with his left.
His book was called Hind Swaraj, which means Indian home-rule. The revolutionaries thought freedom meant driving out the British while keeping their armies, courts, and factories. Gandhiji argued that this would give India English rule without the Englishman. In chapter XX he wrote the definition: "Real home-rule is self-rule or self-control." The Gujarati word was swaraj, which means rule over oneself. Before you can run a country, you have to govern your own desires and your own temper. If people cannot govern themselves, getting rid of an outside ruler changes nothing.
Therefore
Before you try to change who is in charge, look at how you manage yourself. Freedom starts with self-control, not with taking the reins from someone else.
Indian Opinion, December 1909
Gandhiji reached South Africa on 30 November 1909 with Hajee Habib, his partner on the London mission. He printed the text in two parts in his weekly paper, Indian Opinion, in December. In January 1910 he published it as a small booklet. In March the British government in Bombay banned the Gujarati edition as seditious. Gandhiji did not back down. He translated the whole book into English so readers across the empire could see his argument. He believed that if people used violence to win power, the new rulers would simply turn that violence on their own neighbours.
A small reminder, on the desk or the notebook, that freedom begins with mastering your own habits before trying to manage anyone else.
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