Self knowledge is a prequisite for attaining autonomy.

Gandhi’s project of swaraj too begins with

obtaining self knowledge.

The swaraj is a sacred word, a vedic word, meaning self rule and self restraint, and not freedom from all
restraints. The root meaning of swaraj for Gandhi is self rule. It is the rulership of the self over itself. It is
swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves. But Gandhi departs from Indian philosophy which accentuates
a dichotomy between the spiritual and the political. He conceptualizes swaraj in a way that the very
premise of it rests on a synthesis of the spiritual and the political. The spiritual, the key element of which
is Dharma will supply morality to the political, which is a sphere of power, politics and economics. The
idea is to moralize the individual first and the rest will follow.

Gandhi draws on the metaphysics of bhagavad gita. He borrows from Gita tge two-fold formations of
the selves: the higher self and the lower self. The latter is thesphere of illusion, the domain of
attachments. Power and passion are the biggest vices in the inventory of the lower self. People ruled by
the lower self are bound to be captivated by acquisitive vices, such as last, greed, caprice, and an
insatiable desire for materialistic pursuits. The lower itself has a tendency for fetishism. It manifests in
the form of fetishism of commodity, technology, and utility. This is one of the foundational reasons of
goddess critique of western modernity.

The higher self is the zone where one connects with the whole of humanity. It is a sphere of dharma. For
Gandhi dharma is not a specific religion. It is a quality of the soul through which we know our duty in
human life. It is true Dharma that we understand our relationship with other selves. The biggest
problem with the lower self is that the light of dharma is eclipsed by our outwardly gaze [i.e. uncritical
pursuit of materialistic desires]. Thus, it closes the fundamental possibility of knowing ourselves.
Gandhi’s problem with modern civilization was precisely this: modernity presents a tormented picture of
the self. So doing, it deprives us of the possibility of self knowledge. Contrary to this, the highest self
makes it a fundamental duty to know ourselves first before we venture into knowing other things.

Then he started and has noted rightly that the rejection of the western conceptual categories is a
necessary component of the gandhian idea of swaraj.

Colonialism was undoubtedly the reason behind India’s impoverishment: however, he was convinced
that modern civilization was a bigger manace than colonialism, for colonialism itself was a product of
modern civilization. Colonialism was sapping India and her people economically, but modern civilization
was making her spiritually impoverished too. It was not only causing economic poverty but poverty of
ideas too, for it prevented persons from knowing themselves, their true self, their moral purpose, and
their duties towards the other.

Fascination for commodity, utility, and materiality was driving people towards a fierce, ugly, and
unethical competition for resources, pushing the poor and the destitute towards involuntary poverty.
The fact that even Indians two were falling way to unbridled fetishism and thereby becoming
structurally constrained to satisfy and multiply their wants by exploiting the poor pained him immensely.
He invoked the metaphysics of swaraj to tell people that self restraint and self knowledge is the key to
spiritual life, which alone will bring them closer to God. Pursuit of self knowledge leading to self
realization, enabling one to have the will to rule oneself, is how we can best capture Gandhi’s idea of
swaraj.

In his hind swaraj, the purpose of civilization is to facilitate individuals to know themselves. The
individual is a unit recipient of knowledge. Knowing oneself is the central epistemic goal, which in turn
built a strong civil society. He is convinced that the ethos of modern civilization does not relate a duty
with morality. It is not facilitative of self knowledge. Obsession with materialistic pursuit is characteristic
of modern civilization, he laments. Bodily pressure becomes the ultimate purpose. It leaves an alienating
effect. It presents a distorted picture of the self, alienating it from the whole, God, and the cosmos.
Modern civilization acquires an essential character in that it prohibits the fundamental possibility of
knowing oneself. Such as civilization is self destructive in that it takes one away from oneself.

The self always yearns for unison with the ultimate, but the course of unison is full of obstacles that lie
both within and outside the domain of the self. Those who succeed in winning over obstacles are able to
know themselves, realize their Dharma i.e their moral duty in this world, and ultimately in the end they
attain ultimate freedom. That is what we call spiritual freedom or moral freedom, the bliss of swaraj.

Dharma is not a religious faith but a quality of the soul. It teaches persons lessons of duty toward the
self, the other, and god;and finally and most importantly, it guides people to rule, regulate, and govern
the false self, which is the home of power, passion,and caprice. Thus, to be moral is to perform duty in
accordance with dharma. Dharma enlightens us of our duty to be moral. it reminds us of our duty to
govern the false self, which is lower in order, which is driven toward uncritical passion, unbridled greed,
and unrestrained power. One is able to do all this if one acquires self knowledge. Self knowledge is
therefore an enabling notion in Gandhi’s epistemic framework.

ForGandhi,, self knowledge is not an end in itself. It is a continuous process. It is a transformative

activity. It is an emancipatory exercise. The attainment of swaraj begins with self examination. It
facilitates us with self knowledge, which further enables us to know whether we are governed by a
higher self or a lower self. If we are too much into self indulgence, we need to control our lower self by
higher self. The logical next step is self transformation in the light of knowledge acquired about the
actual proclivities and involvements of our ‘self’. Self transformation leads us to bask in the light of
swaraj. Thus Swaraj is a journey beginning with self examination to self knowledge to self
transformation finally culminating into self rule.

For Gandhi, even independence is much more than physical absence of a foreign rule. Replacing the
British rule by the Indian rulership would not yield Indians the kind of freedom Gandhi wanted for his
people. Western frameworks were evolved in altogether different conditions. In contrast, Gandhi
derived his metaphysics from advaita vedanta and the bhagavad gita; India civilizational ethos, Ghandi
points out in Hind Swaraj, are different. Gandhi harps on that ethos. This trying to fathom his concepts
by subscribing to western cognitive methods will not yield the quintessence.

The most fundamental cause of self indulgence for Gandhi was neither the family, nor capitalism, nor
even colonialism. Rather it was the spectre of modern civilization, which was at the root of it.
Colonialism and capitalism both were products of modern civilization, which created a creed and culture
of self indulgence. The biggest damage that it did was that it prohibited the fundamental possibility of
the persons knowing themselves, for it produced, propagated, and domesticated a false notion of the
self, engrossed an insatiable desire for multiplying wants, and derelicted persons from duties to the self
and the God. It debased human from the metaphysical roots of the self, therefore from self knowledge.
Thus it will be fair to conclude that Gandhi’s quest for the self involves a liberation from the arbitrary
identity imposed on persons by western modernity.