Episode 2

Professor Sunil Khilnani, author of The Idea of India, continues his journey through the ideas of Gandhi's first major work, Hind Swaraj, which argues for freedom of both self and nation but against violence. Gandhi is often thought of as a nationalist thinker but Khilnani urges us to think again. Most anti-colonial leaders sought the overthrow of white rule and the retention of the modern economy and state. Gandhi's view was precisely the opposite.

'India is being ground down not under the English heel, but under that of modern civilization', Gandhi wrote, arguing that by enslaving themselves to modern civilization, India had enslaved themselves to the British. True freedom, Swaraj, would only come, he believed, when India and individuals found a way to free themselves for the seduction of modern life.