Making of Swaraj in India: From Gandhi's Vision to Kejriwal's Misadventures and Everything in Between

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“Swaraj is my birthright and I shall have it!" declared Bal Gangadhar Tilak on 1 June, 1916. This slogan became a cornerstone of the Indian Independence Movement, and fueled India’s fight for home-rule. Though the concept of Swaraj had several proponents during the Indian freedom struggle, like Dayanand Saraswati, Annie Besant and Tilak, it is now synonymous with Mahatma Gandhi.

Swaraj literally means “self-rule”. While many reformers and social leaders of the time were fighting for ‘freedom from British rule’, Gandhi evolved the idea of Swaraj in India from simply political freedom into a holistic form of self-governance, accounting for political, economic, social and moral domains.

Gandhi argued that true Swaraj has three levels: First, the individual exercising self-control. Second, Gram Swaraj, or village rule. Third, on a national level, freedom from British rule.

In his weekly journal Young India, Gandhi stated "At the individual level Swaraj is vitally connected with the capacity for dispassionate self-assessment, ceaseless self-purification and growing swadeshi or self-reliance". He clarified that good governance was not the same as self-governance, which meant independence from a state and a sovereignty based on moral authority.

“Real Swaraj will come, not by the acquisition of authority but by the acquisition of the capacity by all to resist authority when it is abused. In other words, Swaraj is to be attained by educating the masses to a sense of their capacity to regulate and control authority.” – Gandhi, Young India

Gandhi’s idea of Swaraj started from the grassroots and centred community building. With first-hand experience of the British parliamentary system, Gandhi declared that representative democracy was insufficient to represent the Indian people, instead advocating for participatory democracy and Panchayati Raj, local governance. He believed that focusing on individual and community change is the only way to affect larger societal change.

His idea of Swaraj, on a national level, involved first a dismantling of the British state and then rebuilding it through voluntary, participatory social action. He supported a decentralized government where communities exercised complete control in their localities.

In his 1909 book Hind Swaraj, Gandhi says that some “want English rule without the Englishman” and India cannot be truly free without rejecting the values imposed on it by modern, Western Civilization. He went on to say that colonial subjugation was only half of India’s problem, the other half came from within in the form of discrimination, oppression and wealth accumulation.

To achieve his goal of Swaraj, Gandhi advocated for satyagraha and constructive action. He promoted his values of ahimsa and self-reliance, through his work and writings, while also setting up voluntary organisations to carry out social transformation through constructive action. His aim was to empower citizens to be self-reliant and challenge the colonial state.

See Also: Reappraisal of The Gandhian Concept- ‘Swaraj’

Though Gandhi’s idea of Swaraj was an important catalyst for Indian independence, not all of his contemporaries agreed with his views – one in particular.

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was a staunch critic of Gandhi’s Swaraj. He argued that villages were dens of social inequalities incapable of fair governance. His view was informed by the social reality that caste discrimination was worst at the village level. If Gram Panchayats were given complete autonomy, they would become instruments of caste hegemony and exploitation.

During the drafting of the Constitution, though Gram Panchayats were included as units of self-governance, they were not given constitutional status and mandatory powers. The Constitution came into effect in 1950, 2 years after Gandhi’s assassination in 1948. His vision of a decentralised Indian government had failed to come into effect, and his constructive action organizations devolved into NGOs and social movements.

Over the next few decades, the Panchayati Raj movement saw little progress. Gandhi’s Swaraj bodies organized themselves under Vinoba Bhave in 1951 as part of the Bhoodan Movement, which attempted to reform land ownership by persuading landowners to distribute parts of their land amongst landless groups. Later, Jayaprakash Narayan, a social reformer inspired by Gandhi’s idea of Swaraj, led the Bihar Movement against state corruption, which turned into the Total Revolution Movement, or Sampoorna Kranti, against the Indira Gandhi government.

It was only in 1992 under the Panchayati Raj Act that the concept of Gram Swarajya made it back into legislation. Though the system had been officially inaugurated by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1959, it had been widely unsuccessful. It was only through the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution in 1993 that the first major step towards local governance was taken.

Under the current model, there are three levels of Panchayati Raj, at the district, block and village levels. Elections are held every 5 years, with at least 1/3rd of seats reserved for women, as well as reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. Panchayats are regulated funds through State Finance Commissions. In spite of these provisions, in practice Panchayats still act as platforms for dominant groups, with men undermining women in elected positions, and officials engaging in unregulated practices.

Over the years some model villages have shown effective models of self-governance, as highlighted in the documentary Transparency: Pardarshita directed by Dr. Munish Kumar Raizada. 

Among these is Hiware Bazar, Sewagram, Maharashtra, which transformed itself from a den of drugs, alcohol and gambling into a model green village. In 1990, women from the village raised their grievances to the Gram Panchayat of the village. Popatrao Pawar, who became Pradhan in 1989, heeded their complaint. Under his guidance the Panchayat implemented a watershed development program inspired by Ralegan Siddhi. Ralegan Siddhi was a nearby village that, thanks to the efforts of Anna Hazare, prioritised water conservation and cooperative practices to become a fully self-sustaining community.

Following the same path, Hiware Bazar applied to the Adarsh Gaon Yojana or Ideal Village Schemes, and prioritized groundwater conservation, education and welfare infrastructure to transform the village. The Panchayat functions with 100% financial transparency and promotes social harmony across groups to foster cooperative practices.

Transparency: Pardarshitha highlights two similar cases of successful self-governance, and interviews Anna Hazare on the steps he took to achieve Swaraj in his hometown. Anna Hazare has been the biggest anti-corruption activist in India in recent years, who brought Gandhi’s idea of Swaraj to the forefront of political thought once again.

During the India Against Corruption movement, Hazare stood with Arvind Kejriwal and other social reformers demanding accountability within the government. After the struggle for the Jan Lokpal Bill, Kejriwal, with the blessing of Hazare, started the Aam Aadmi Party. This party was supposed to uphold the values of Swaraj, prioritizing transparency, cooperation and welfare. Kejriwal even wrote his own book titled Swaraj in 2012.

The party got off to a strong start, but within a few years many of its founding members and supporters had left. Even Anna Hazare had rescinded his support for the party. In an interview with Munish Raizada, Anna Hazare admitted that he no longer talked to Kejriwal and lamented that he had gone down the wrong path, forgetting what he stood for.

Transparency: Pardarshita details how the Aam Aadmi Party used the concept of Swaraj to garner support, but ended up becoming the very thing it was fighting against, betraying the vision of a decentralized, self-ruled country. [Rh/DS]

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