Today marks the 140th birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most potent theologians, reformers, and political philosophers in the modern world. Much has been said of his dedication to non-violence in the struggle for Indian independence, and his writings on the power of moral righteousness against coercion are well worth looking at. Few people know that Gandhi also applied this belief in discipline as the ethical superior to violence to politics, too.
Gandhi dubbed his political philosophy “Swaraj,” or “self rule.” In addition to the term’s traditional definition, referring to the sovereignty of a nation, Gandhi envisioned Swaraj as the rule of every person over his own affairs. This meant that there would be no state, but instead the “free and voluntary play of mutual forces” in an atmosphere of freedom.
Unlike other, more individualistic, brands of anarchy, Swaraj emphasizes the natural relationships between people. As Gandhi put it, under Swaraj, “Life will not be a pyramid with the apex sustained by the bottom. But it will be an oceanic circle whose center will be the individual. Therefore the outermost circumference will not wield power to crush the inner circle but will give strength to all within and derive its own strength from it.” Every individual will order her own life in accordance with nature, for mutual benefit and strength.
Swaraj is also founded on the duties of people: “At the individual level Swaraj is vitally connected with the capacity for dispassionate self-assessment, ceaseless self-purification and growing self-reliance.” In other words, the expansion of Swaraj is not based on traditional power dynamics and the ability of its supporters to prevent anyone else from gaining power. Instead, Swaraj expands in direct response to the moral formation of individuals taking responsibility for their actions and needs. Far from being abolished, rule and authority would fall fully on every person: “It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves.” The freedom of Swaraj is not an excuse to indulge desires, it is the ability to fulfill natural duties. Gandhi believed so firmly in the responsibility of every person that he turned down an offer to help draft an international charter on human rights, responding that, “In my experience, it is far more important to have a charter for human duties.”
The notion of anarchy in any form is difficult for any supporter of natural law, as natural law empowers the civil law. Human nature will never be so restrained and disciplined as to accept such a world without being overpowered by our wickedness and depravity. The reality of human evil means that power will never truly go away and neither will domination. The best we can manage is to create institutions that channel and dispense power in a humane and natural way, for the sake of the good.
That is not to say that Gandhi can be dismissed as naïve. To his skeptics, Gandhi responded that “we must have a proper picture of what we want before we can have something approaching it.” Of any political ideal, that of freedom so far as allowed by the moral formation of individuals is willing to permit is well worth striving for. It is also a proper picture of the right relationship between freedom and morality. Indeed, “Swaraj,” defined as “self rule,” is far more compatible with true and natural freedom than is “anarchy,” which is literally “the absence of rule.”
Gandhi’s philosophy of Swaraj combines conservatism’s appreciation for the flaws of humanity with anarchy’s desire for people to live free. As a reminder of the inseparable relationship between disciplined self-restraint and civil liberty, Gandhi’s political thought is at least as important to the world today as is his insistence on non-violence in the face of oppression.
