Hind Swaraj / Beyond a Boundary

Melissa Chow
27^th April, 2017
ASA 04- A04

              In the reading, “Hind Swaraj”, by M.K. Gandhi, I was surprised by how radical Gandhi’s views were. Throughout the interview, it seemed Gandhi did not approve of anything new. Machines, tram-cars, trains were all thought to be evil inventions brought in to bring down India. The reader believes that in order to stop British overrule, the Indian people need to but drive out the British, but Gandhi believed that everything, including the culture the British brought, must be abolished. This idea relates back to the idea of hegemony, because Gandhi suggests that the people of India are letting British culture stay. At the same time, I think Gandhi’s words contradict the ideas of popular culture brought in by Stuart Hall. Hall declares that popular culture is a site of “fighting” and that culture is constantly changing throughout time. However, Gandhi seems to want to revert to an older state of culture. As if to rewind everything and pretend newer technology and culture never existed. His tone seems regretful because he thinks if not for the machines, India would be thriving. Still, I think he kind of dodged the questions about slavery. He simply says that slaves will not think about freeing other slaves because they are thinking of their own freedom and slavery, but he doesn’t say much else about it. It was weird reading this because it was from a period a long time ago. Maybe I just don’t connect with it because we live in a period where machines are everywhere? Eventually machines will replace many human jobs, so maybe at that time we will curse the machinery that took over our lives just like the mills in India? Still, I think some of the things Gandhi suggests are silly. How did we do things before? Yes, let’s just do that. I mean, while it is possible for us to start a fire with flint and sticks to cook over, it doesn’t mean that a modern-day stove-top has destroyed any country’s culture.

              I had trouble delving into “Beyond a Boundary,” due to a lot of the references to what I’m assuming are other cricket players? Basically I think one of the main ideas of this reading is that British culture basically ruled over James and shaped him into the adult he became, so he was disconnected from Indian culture. In a way, I feel quite sad about that, but after the fact, what is there that can be done? History can’t be changed, so I sympathize with James’s efforts.