Gandhian Nationalism

Gandhi Blog series # 15

It was the second decade of the 20th century. In India, the freedom struggle was heating up. Its leaders were uncertain of how to stoke patriotism in a country whose last drop of hope was squeezed out by the colonialists. As the architect of the struggle, everyone looked up to Gandhi for ideological guidance. Gandhi understood that the country was a fertile ground for militant nationalism but opted not to sow the seeds of hatred.

After a lot of thinking and reading, Gandhi came up with a unique form of patriotism. Swaraj, as he termed it, was a moral standard than just a political ideology. Gandhi hoped that these moral values would form the spirit of the nation. 

Gandhi arrived at this notion after intense research. He directed his efforts to learn about different policies around the globe. At the same time, he was anchored on the indigenous culture of India. He took the right policies from the west and integrated them with the inherently spiritual nature of his country. 

In the present age, when ultra-nationalism gains terrorizing prominence, the Gandhian vision of nationalism and politics might rescue us from the rut of hatred.

 Contempt of hateful nationalism

‘The state represents violence in a concentrated and organized form. The individual has a soul but the state is a soul-less machine, it can never be weaned from violence to which it owes its very existence.’

M. K Gandhi

(Source: The Modern Review, Oct.1935)

Gandhi supported democracy. However, he was against the centralized rule. He resisted the idea of handing over the power of the state to a few individuals.

Though all the governments primarily claimed to be institutions operating for the good of the people, Gandhi saw their inclination towards totalitarianism. He also foresaw the state turning into an arena of conflict between organized interests. He feared the biased leaders might manipulate and control these institutions by leveraging the sentiments of the majority.

To prevent this, he put forward decentralized governance. Power to rule, he believed, should reach the grass root level. He envisioned a nation with self-ruling villages that are brought together by moral high standards. This, he believed, will refute jingoism.

 The problem of fanatic patriotism

“…politics divorced from it (morality) is like a corpse fit only for burning.”

 The Indian freedom struggle demanded utmost sacrifice from the 330 million Indians. It could only be achieved by igniting a strong sense of nationalism. But Gandhi did not resort to that.

Gandhi understood the problems posed by such an extremist society after independence. Even though it would help to fight the iron fists of the mighty British Empire, he saw that ultimately the fanatic ideals will destroy the soul of India. He could never let that happen.

 He held that to achieve complete independence (Purna Swaraj), India had to be free from ultra-nationalism and embrace high moral standards. His contemporaries and critics who dismissed the idea as utopian, observed with awe how the frail old man slowly steered the masses in this direction through his teachings and moral life. 

 Concept of Rama Rajya

‘The Ramraj of my dream ensures the rights alike of prince and pauper.’

 Gandhi envisioned the nation evolving into the kingdom of god. The ultimate aim of his political carrier was to make India one such place. American historian William Roger Louis observed that Gandhi’s nationalism was “..larger than the struggle for independence.”

‘..Ramraj I do not mean Hindu Raj. I mean by Ramraj Divine Raj, The Kingdom of God’.

(Source: Young India, Sept. 19, 1929) 

 Even though he proclaimed himself a Hindu to the very core of his being, Gandhi did not want India to be a Hindu nation. He believed the state should keep its distance from shallow ethnic or religious communalism. The soul of India, according to him, is its pluralistic culture. Hence, he wanted the different religions to live in harmony as they did for more than a millennium.

 Non-supremacist Nation

He wanted to reshape India into a country where people followed a moral code. Such a country is named Ramarajya by Hindus, Khuda- I-raj by Muslims, and the kingdom of God by Christians. With effort and self-purification, he believed it could be created on earth.

He formulated the term Swaraj to refer to the deep philosophy. It was as much a political philosophy as a moral guideline. In his book Hind Swaraj (Indian Home rule), Gandhi explained his concept of state. He believed that a nation established on morality would be above all the political states. 

 Nevertheless, Gandhi explicitly mentioned that the moral superiority should not be a precursor to belief in supreme authority. Once India sees itself thus, moral superiority is lost. Thus the state disintegrates from the inside.

 Relevance Today

Nowadays, our nationalism has so decayed that it is measured with the hatred towards a rival nation. We create slogans to make our countries ‘great again’, discounting the fact that the very idea of a nation is based on an arbitrary geographical demarcation. If the human race becomes extinct, the upcoming intelligent species will be at a loss on why Homo Sapiens created so many barricades on earth. 

In a world ridden with shallow patriotism Gandhian Rama Rajya may seem like Utopia. But how good a nation will be if it is brought together in love and high morality. It will be a triumph over the vile regionalism and fanaticism that makes up the nations today.

In that sense Gandhi’s gospel becomes relevant today.

Thank you for reading. Please post your valuable comments below