Abstract
This chapter discusses Gandhi’s conception of swaraj as self-rule and home rule. It also analyses Tagore’s understanding of individual freedom as the freedom to reason in the context of Kant’s understanding of the Enlightenment as being constituted primarily by the individual’s freedom in the public use of his/her reason. The chapter concludes with bringing out the central points of difference between their philosophically conflicting understandings of swaraj.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Between the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi [CWMG] (1955) and the electronic edition (eCWMG) are disputed differences of content and different volumes and page numbers.
- 2.
Gandhi explains satyagraha as an insistence on truth with the force derivable from such an insistence.
- 3.
In the year 1918 there were semi famine conditions in the Kheda district of Gujarat. The peasants were unable to meet the assessment for that year. They were legally entitled to suspension of tax. However the government refused to grant relief. The kheda Satyagraha led to the grant of partial relief and the consciousness of a moral strength was generated in Gujarat peasantry.
- 4.
In 1927 the revenue department at the Bombay Government enhanced the assessment in Bardoli taluq by 22 %. In some cases it was raised by as much as 60 %. The Bardoli peasants claimed that this rate of enhancement was unjust since it was fixed without full investigation and in addition that the tax department had made an inaccurate report. As the peasants could not pay the raised taxes it was decided (at a conference organized by the congress in Bardoli) to withhold payment of the enhanced portion of the taxes. Sardar Vallabhai Patel who was invited to lead the movement initiated correspondence with the government setting forth the demands of the peasants for an enquiry and also their refusal to pay the enhanced taxes. Bardoli Satyagraha took place in 1928 .The satyagrahi peasants submitted willingly to the penalties of arrest and attachment of their lands. The government appointed the Broomfield committee thereby granting an impartial enquiry into the enhancement of the tax, the forfeited lands were restored to the peasant and the satyagrahi prisoners were released.
- 5.
Gandhi made a distinction between satyagraha and Duragraha. He argued that only those people were fit to be civil resisters/satyagrahis, who were self restrained and above criminal disobedience or violence. A form of protest that involved any violence, even the pelting of stones, could not be described as satyagraha. Again if the protestors did not feel full of love for the opponents and sought to humiliate them such a protest could be described as Duragraha.
- 6.
I am indebted for these points to Ranjit Kumar Dev Goswami.
References
Alam, F. & Chakravarty, R. (Eds.). 2011. The essential Tagore (Shantiniketan: Visva-Bharati).
Bhattacharya, S. (Comp. & Ed.). 2008. The Mahatma and the poet. Letters and debates between Gandhi and Tagore, 1915–1941 (New Delhi: National Book Trust).
Bose, N.K. (Ed.). 1948. Selections from Gandhi (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing).
Chung, T., Dev, A., Bangwei, W., & Liming, W. (et al.). 2011. Tagore and China (Beijing, New Delhi: SAGE Publications India and Central Compilation & Translation Press).
Dalton, D. 2004. Nonviolence in action: Gandhi’s power (New Delhi: Oxford University Press).
Gandhi, M.K. 1947. Collected works of Mahatma Gandhi, electronic edition (eCWMG), Vols. 1–97, accessible online at http://gandhiserve.org/cwmg/cwmg.html.
Gandhi, M. K. 2008. India of my dreams (thirteenth reprint), comp. by R.K. Prabhu (in 1947) (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing).
Kampchen, M. 1991. Rabindranath Tagore and Germany: Documentation (Calcutta: Max Mueller Bhavan).
Kant, I. 1996. “An answer to the question: What is Enlightenment?” first published in 1798. In M.J. Gregor (Trans. & Ed.), Immanuel Kant Practical Philosophy, General Introduction by A. Wood (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
Laborde, C. & Maynor, J. (Eds.). 2008. Republicanism and political theory (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.).
Murdoch, I. 1970. The Sovereignty of good (New York: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
Murti, V.V.R. (Ed.). 1970. Gandhi: Essential writings (New Delhi: Gandhi Peace Foundation).
Nandy, A. (Ed.). 1994. The illegitimacy of nationalism (New Delhi: Oxford University Press).
Narayan, S. (Ed.). 1995. The selected works of Mahatma Gandhi (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing).
Palmer, J.A. (Ed.). 2001. Fifty key thinkers on the environment (London: Routledge).
Parekh, B. 1989. Colonialism, tradition and reform (New Delhi: SAGE Publications).
Parel, A.J. 2009. ‘Hind Swaraj’ and Other Writings (New Delhi: Cambridge University Press).
Parfit, D. 2013. On what matters, Vol. 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Patel, J.P. & Sykes, M. 1987. Gandhi and the gift of the fight (Rasulia, Madhya Pradesh: Friends Rural Centre).
Petit, P. 2008. “Republican Freedom: Three Axioms, Four Theorems.” In C. Laborde & J. Maynor (Eds.), Republicanism and political theory (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.).
Prabhu, R.K. & Rao, U.R. (Eds.). 2007. The mind of Mahatma Gandhi (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing).
Sen, P.C., Bisi, P., Bhattacharyaya, H.D., & Sen, A.K. (et al.). 1961. Rabindra Rachanabali (The collected works of Tagore), in 15 volumes (Calcutta: Government of West Bengal).
Sen, A. 2005. The argumentative Indian (London: Penguin Books).
Sengupta, K. 2005. The philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore (Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.).
Skinner, Q. 2008. “Freedom as the absence of arbitrary power.” In C. Laborde & J. Maynor (Eds.), Republicanism and political theory (pp. 83–101) (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.).
Sorabji, R. 2012. Gandhi and the stoics: Modern experiments on ancient values (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
Tagore, R. 1996a. “The spirit of freedom.” In S.K. Das (Ed.), The English writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Vol. 2 (pp. 544–547) (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi).
Tagore, R. 1996b. “The nation.” In S.K. Das (Ed.), The English writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Vol. II (pp. 548–551) (New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi).
Tagore, R. 2003. Gora. In Rabindranath Tagore omnibus, Vol. I (pp. 211–748) (New Delhi: Rupa).
Tagore, R. 2012a. “Sādhanā.” In Rabindranath Tagore Omnibus, Vol. IV (pp. 71–181) (New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd).
Tagore, R. 2012b. The Home and the World. In Rabindranath Tagore Omnibus, Vol. III (pp. 205–425) (New Delhi: Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Puri, B. (2015). Understanding Swaraj: Tagore and Gandhi. In: The Tagore-Gandhi Debate on Matters of Truth and Untruth. Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures, vol 9. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2116-6_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2116-6_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-2115-9
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-2116-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)