Hind Swaraj (1909), chapter XX
Self-Rule
In November 1909 Mahatma Gandhi boarded the Kildonan Castle to sail from England back to South Africa. He had spent four months in London trying to persuade the British government to stop discriminatory laws in the Transvaal, and the mission had failed. In London he had met young expatriates at India House who told him that India would win independence through political assassinations and bombs. He disagreed with them completely. On the ten-day voyage across the ocean, he sat at a desk and wrote a book in Gujarati to answer them. When his right hand grew tired, he wrote with his left hand.
Many people around him thought getting rid of the British rulers would make India free. Gandhiji argued that swapping foreign rulers for local rulers changes very little if people keep living under the same appetites, quarrels, and machinery. In chapter XX of the book, he wrote, "Real home-rule is self-rule or self-control." If a person cannot govern their own temper, they will be pushed around by every harsh email or rude stranger. Freedom does not start when someone else stops bothering you. It starts when you manage your own mind and your own habits.
Therefore
Notice what you blame others for causing in your life. Learn to manage your own reactions before you try to change the people around you.
Indian Opinion and the Bombay Ban, 1910
British officials believed that the book would incite violence among readers in India. In March 1910, the British Government of Bombay banned the Gujarati text and seized every copy they found. Gandhiji had already printed the chapters during December 1909 in Indian Opinion, his paper in South Africa, but now his text was illegal in India. He did not turn to rage or violent protests. Instead, he translated the whole book into English himself so anyone could read the arguments directly and judge them. The publication proved his peaceful stance. The underlying truth was that people who master themselves cannot be dominated by force.
A small reminder, on the laptop or the desk, that you cannot run the room until you can run yourself.
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