Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj glorified poverty as a chosen moral simplicity

Evidence

The more we indulge in our emotions the more unbridled they become. Millions will always remain poor. Observing all this, our ancesrors dissuaded us from luxuries and pleasures. We have managed with the same kind of plough as existed thousands of years ago. We have retained the same kind of cottages that we had in former times, and our indigenous education remains the same. It was not that we did not know how ro invent machinery, but our forefathers knew that, if we set our hearts after such things, we would become slaves and lose our moral fibre. They, therefore, after due deliberation, decided that we should do what we could with our hands and feet. They further reasoned that large cities were a snare and a useless incumbrance and people would not be happy in them, that there would be gangs of thieves and robbers, prostitution and vice flourishing in them, and that poor men would be robbed by rich men. They were therefore satisfied with small villages. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 1063

Categorization

• SHARE: A quotable primary text illustrating Gandhi’s idealization of preindustrial poverty that Ahmad juxtaposes against Marx.
• XREF: connects to: Gandhi idealized traditional Indian poverty as morally superior to modernity — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 252; Gandhi idealized India’s unchanging past as morally superior civilization — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 252

Broader Connections

• Gandhi idealized traditional Indian poverty as morally superior to modernity #expands (0.93) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 252
• Gandhi idealized India’s unchanging past as morally superior civilization #expands (0.82) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 252