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Hind Swaraj, Gandhi’s seminal text
in Gujarati, was written between 13
and 22 November 1909 aboard the
Kildonan Castle bound for South Africa.
It is a dialogue on modern civilisation,
composed at a moment in modern
history when the pre-modern in the
world beyond Europe could still be
touched and spoken of, not as mere
memory or longing but as a living form.
As a mode of exposition and argument,
Hind Swaraj stems from a cognitive
universe that abides beyond the ambit
of modernity. It is perhaps the only
critique of the modern order that seeks
an understanding of its salient facts. Its
referents are tradition and modernity,
the ancient and modern, ethical-moral
and instrumental-effi cient. Hind Swaraj
is a plea for non-violence as a mode of
self-affi rmation and resistance against
oppression and injustice. For anyone
engaged with the life and thought of
Gandhi and with the question of the
meaning of life within the modern order
of things, Hind Swaraj remains a critical
text.
This critical centenary edition is intended
as a renewal of a deeper engagement
with the text and the discourse around
it. It reinstates the 1910 edition of the
English rendering and the original in
Gujarati as the fi rst textual referent in
conversation with the 1921 edition and
the authorised second edition of 1939.
It is presented along three axes: marginnotes
(alternative readings/translations
of the Gujarati original), footnotes
(notations for categories-concepts) and
Hindi translation (to mute the current
placement of English as the exclusive
mediation between languages). This is
also the fi rst edition of Hind Swaraj in
two languages.
ISBN - 9788125039181
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Pages : 212
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