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rediscovering Gandhi for the solutions of its problems. Yet humanity is not prepared to follow in practice what Gandhi suggested as the preconditions for the resolution of human crises in 1921, when Gandhi noted, 'It requires a higher simplicity and renunciation than the people are today prepared for (ibid. 27, emphasis added).
In his article 'Postmodern Gandhi', Lloyd I. Rudolph poses the question, "Hind Swaraj: A Text for its Time or for Our Time?", and after discussing it in about eight pages (14-21) concludes with the title of the book, 'Hind swaraj's post-modernism can be found in its ability to reject and go beyond modernity' (Rudolph and Rudolph 2006:21). The very title of the book by Lloyd I. Rudolph and Sussane Hoeber Rudolph proves that the text is not only for its own time but for all times and societies that would have inequality, injustice and exploitation - physical, economic, intellectual and cultural, epitomised by colonisation - internal and external of the past and neo-colonisation of the present century.
the Ultimate and Narayana (the Lord) with daridra narayana (the Lord of the poor) and practiced seva (Service) of the suffering poor and tyaga (renunciation) for the sake of others, as the highest Indian values with no discrimination. In the process, he re-contextualised the old yet somewhat oversighted practices and terms of Indian culture, i.e. concepts of prem seva lokasangraha (welfare of all), satyagraha swadeshi and swaraj in a new meaning in Hind Swaraj in his life."
Hind Swaraj is 'a soldier's manifesto and not a scholar's survey (Gandhi 2006: 155).? But the fact is soldiers do not write manifestos; they prepare war plans, and beyond war room strategies, they fight on battlefields, Closely examined, Hind Swaraj is a manual of the new non-violent revolutionary soldier without sword, shield or bullet, and a methodology for a scholar inviting him to come out of his speculative mould and put in to practice his or her own altenatives the way they evolved gradually out of Gandhi's incontinent straining for a lasting alternative. In this sense, Hind Swaraj is a poetics of tactics against exploitation, injustice and tyranny, and will serve as a model for all humanists who will wage war against them without shedding even a drop of blood. The tractician or strategist in Gandhi was equally careful about the 'political timing' of launching/implementing his movements/ alternatives - for it was imperative to build strength for the ripe political moment for achieving success through non-violent means which was difficult to follow under some conditions. Even if we reject all his views, his methodology is difficult to reject. Just one concept of satyagraha, Gandhi's version of passive resistance, would suffice to make the book relevant for all times. Leo Tolstoy found it to be so, and wrote that it was, in a letter dated 10 May 1910, 'of the greatest importance not only for India but for the whole of humanity' (ibid).
In addition: Hind Swaraj is a liberating text. It does not instil a sense of inferiority complex those who wish to receive or follow it. It liberates them ઑક્ટોબર- ૨૦૧૮ પણ જીવનઃ ગાંઘી સાર્ધશતાબ્દી વિશેષાંક
The question, however, is: what makes Hind Swaraj a Text for 'our' time and even beyond and Ganhdi, an experimenter and thinker? The answer lies in its/his ability to give a new direction and purpose to humanity in crisis in India in particular and the world in general. The ultimate purpose of human life in the vedic and Upanishadic period was realisation of the Brahman, the Ultimate and infinite, through meditation and penance - which in the course of time was superseded by ritualism. The Buddha brought about a paradigm shift in it by insisting upon the realisation of truth on the basis of rationality, and replaced penance with love and compassion. The Bhakti poets and mystics replaced rationality/intellectuality with prem (love) in its various manifestations as nigum (the unqualified Absolute Being) and sagun (the positively qualified Absolute Being), and extended it to bhakti (devotion). Gandhi, pained at discrimination, exploitation and suffering, replaced
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