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Work #227 · Early (the founding text of Gandhi's mature political-philosophical vision)

Hind Swaraj

Mohandas K. Gandhi
1909 (written aboard the Kildonan Castle in ten days during the voyage from London to South Africa) · Gujarati (English translation by Gandhi himself, 1910)
Dialogue between Editor and Reader, in twenty chapters · Indian political philosophy / anti-colonial thought

Indian home rule as the rejection of British civilisation itself — Gandhi's 1909 dialogue establishing the philosophical foundation of his subsequent satyagraha

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute Hind Swaraj (Early (the founding text of Gandhi's mature political-philosophical vision))
Time · Extent Infinite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Infinite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Infinite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Partial
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Total
Observer · Physicality Embodied
Observer · Agency Both
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Cosmic-ordering
Observer · Moral Authority Experience
Observer · Theological Method
Energy · Extent Infinite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

Time

Hind Swaraj

Historical-political time of colonial India as the medium of satyagraha practice; the patient unfolding of truth-force.

Space

Hind Swaraj

The village-scale community as the proper space of political-economic life, against the abstract centralised space of the modern state.

Matter

Hind Swaraj

The embodied life of manual labour, spinning, walking — the material practices of swaraj life.

Observer

Hind Swaraj

The satyagrahi — embodied, plural, both active in non-violent resistance and passive in receiving suffering. Truth (satya) as cosmic-ordering framework.

Energy

Hind Swaraj

Truth-force (satyagraha) as the political-spiritual energy; ahimsa as its enabling condition.

Information

Hind Swaraj

The Gandhian tradition's preserved practical wisdom; the satyagrahi's personal commitment preserved through embodied practice.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

Hind Swaraj

Tagore criticised Hind Swaraj as too rejectionist of modernity (the famous Gandhi-Tagore correspondence is a major document). Nehru regarded the book's economic vision as utopian and impractical for an independent India. Post-colonial criticism has both engaged Gandhi appreciatively (Ashis Nandy) and criticised the gendered and caste-related limitations of his framework. The relation between Hind Swaraj's village-scale vision and the actual political reality of independent India has been a continuing scholarly question.