Gandhi's Philosophy Of The Independence Of India

In order to better understand Gandhi’s philosophy, we need to bear in mind that all of his life was striving for independence of India from British colony. Indian independence means that all Indians are controlled by themselves rather than one hundred thousand of British. He used the Sanskrit word swaraj to express his ambition of India’s independence. The original meaning of swaraj is self-governance or self-rule. Gandhi extended this word by denoting “a sovereign kingdom’s freedom from external control”, on the one hand; “being free from illusion and ignorance, free to gain greater self-knowledge and consequent self-mastery,” on the other hand (Dalton 11). The former is called external swaraj (freedom) and the latter is called internal swaraj

He believes that the knowledge of swaraj and satyagraha are inseparable. He saw swaraj as the end and satyagraha as the means. He compared the end to a tree and the means to a seed. If we want a tree, we must put the seed in the earth first. This is also true for the independence of India in which “true liberation comes only through the purest of means, the power of nonviolence.” (Dalton 15) Missions of Gandhi after he came back from South Africa were to make people believe that love was the strongest weapon in the world. He advocated that Hindus should love Muslims, Indians should love British, and even the oppressed should love the oppressors. He was put into prisons for several times by the British government for unjustified charges, but he did not fight against the laws and the government by violence. He was an example of practicing love and non-violence. Although Indians paid for the means of nonviolence in Chauri Chaura and riots between Hindus and Muslims, the application of nonviolence were successful in noncooperation campaign, resisting salt tax movement, independence of India, and stopping riots between Hindus and Muslims. These successes had proved that satyagraha is efficacious for