Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Editor's introduction
- A note on the history of the text
- Principal events in Gandhi's life
- Biographical synopses
- Guide to further reading
- Glossary and list of abbreviations
- HIND SWARAJ
- SUPPLEMENTARY WRITINGS
- Gandhi's letter to H. S. L. Polak
- Gandhi's letter to Lord Ampthill
- Preface to Gandhi's edition of the English translation of Leo Tolstoy's Letter to a Hindoo
- Gandhi–Tolstoy letters
- Gandhi–Wybergh letters
- Gandhi–Nehru letters
- Economic development and moral development (1916)
- Gandhi on machinery, 1919–47
- Constructive programme: its meaning and place (1941), 1945
- Gandhi's ‘Quit India’ speech, 1942
- Gandhi's message to the nation issued before his arrest on 9 August 1942
- Gandhi's political vision: the Pyramid vs the Oceanic Circle (1946)
- Draft Constitution of Congress, 1948
- Bibliography
- Index
Gandhi's political vision: the Pyramid vs the Oceanic Circle (1946)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 November 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Editor's introduction
- A note on the history of the text
- Principal events in Gandhi's life
- Biographical synopses
- Guide to further reading
- Glossary and list of abbreviations
- HIND SWARAJ
- SUPPLEMENTARY WRITINGS
- Gandhi's letter to H. S. L. Polak
- Gandhi's letter to Lord Ampthill
- Preface to Gandhi's edition of the English translation of Leo Tolstoy's Letter to a Hindoo
- Gandhi–Tolstoy letters
- Gandhi–Wybergh letters
- Gandhi–Nehru letters
- Economic development and moral development (1916)
- Gandhi on machinery, 1919–47
- Constructive programme: its meaning and place (1941), 1945
- Gandhi's ‘Quit India’ speech, 1942
- Gandhi's message to the nation issued before his arrest on 9 August 1942
- Gandhi's political vision: the Pyramid vs the Oceanic Circle (1946)
- Draft Constitution of Congress, 1948
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Gandhi's vision of the relationship between the individual, the state and the world community is articulated in an interview he granted on 28 July 1946.
[Ed.]Question: You have said in your article in the Harijan of July 15, under the caption ‘The Real Danger’ that Congressmen in general certainly do not know the kind of independence they want. Would you kindly give them a broad but comprehensive picture of the Independent India of your own conception?
Answer: I do not know that I have not, from time to time, given my idea of Indian independence. Since, however, this question is part of a series, it is better to answer it even at the risk of repetition.
Independence of India should mean independence of the whole of India, including what is called India of the States and the other foreign powers, French and Portuguese, who are there, I presume, by British sufferance. Independence must mean that of the people of India, not of those who are today ruling over them. The rulers should depend on the will of those who are under their heels. Thus, they have to be servants of the people, ready to do their will.
Independence must begin at the bottom. Thus, every village will be a verity for my picture in which the last is equal to the first or, in other words, no one is to be the first and none the last.
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- Information
- Gandhi: 'Hind Swaraj' and Other Writings , pp. 188 - 191Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997