The essential Gandhi as literary journalism in Hind Swaraj

Mohandas Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule in 1909 in just nine days on a boat between London and South Africa – but this short production period belies a longer gestation of profound literary and philosophical influences – principally Ruskin (Unto This Last) and Tolstoy (The Kingdom of God is Within You). Gandhi’s literary journalism takes the form of a dialogue between two characters – the Reader (a typical Indian countryman) and the Editor (Gandhi) – who says: ‘It is my duty patiently to try to remove your prejudice.’ The essay argues that this seed-corn work encapsulating Gandhi’s philosophy stretches the boundaries of literary journalism in four respects: through its connections with newspaper contexts, its selection of a moment in time, its aim for the transformation of the individual and its use of literary devises. At one level, these provides a backbone of understanding of the aesthetic elements that make Hind Swaraj a seminal but also an accessible work; at another level it can also be read as the politically engaged and impassioned thoughts of one man – a man with a mission, first announced to the world in this publication.