1 janv. 1908 - 1908: Gandhi's critique of Western culture

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"Much of Gandhi’s criticism of Western civilization is entwined with his condemnation of high capitalism and industrialization. He seeks to dispel the notion that technological innovation and the pursuit of luxury equal progress. Rather, he states that these values only lead to people getting alienated from each other, a loss of empathy, and dire inequalities. Another criticism Gandhi makes of a highly mechanized society is that it leads to the atrophy of human faculties, much like someone today would say that dependence on satellite navigation systems has eroded our instinct for figuring out directions. Because the capitalistic model leads to inequality, violence, and moral decay, Indian home-rule should not be based on such an erroneous template.
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Having rejected Western systems, such as law courts, railways, and even parliamentary democracy, Gandhi now suggests that India look to its own past for its future course. Again, Gandhi’s Indocentric approach is informed by the project of reasserting and healing a cultural identity deemed “savage” and inferior by white colonialism.

Gandhi states that since India has an unbroken, continuous material culture, unlike Greece and Rome, this is proof of the longevity of Indian civic values. Individual and handcrafted—rather than mass-produced—implements, such as the plow and spinning wheel, which have been used for millennia, symbolize the nonmaterialistic, subtle, and equitable aspects of Indian civilization, according to Gandhi. Here it is important to note that Gandhi does not say Indian civilization is perfect. In fact, he acknowledges some of the evils of Indian civilization, such as child-marriage, religion-based sexual exploitation of young girls, and the ritual sacrifice of animals. The Indian civilization Gandhi valorizes is an essence or an aspirational model for swaraj, or home rule.

Finally, the swaraj Gandhi talks about refers not just to home rule, but also to self rule at the individual level and has much to do with the mastery of one’s desires and ambitions. When the individual follows a socialist model, becomes self-limiting, and acts in accordance with the public good, then the seeds of ideal rule will be sowed.

From this definition, it is clear that Gandhi was talking more of an idealized state. Indeed, in his preface to the 1921 edition of “Indian Home Rule,” Gandhi states that though “modern civilization” is a complete curse, the world may not yet have a viable alternative to such a system. The swaraj he envisions for India still may be an abstraction, since it is contingent on a degree of moral and ethical purity which most Indians still have not adopted. Till the time such changes are achieved on an individual level, Western systems may remain a necessary evil.
As he states:

I am not aiming at destroying railways or hospitals, though I would certainly welcome their natural destruction. Neither railways nor hospitals are a test of a high and pure civilization. At best they are a necessary evil. Neither adds one inch to the moral stature of a nation. Nor am I aiming at a permanent destruction of law courts, much as I regard it as a 'consummation devoutly to be wished'. Still less am I trying to destroy all machinery and mills. It requires a higher simplicity and renunciation than the people are today prepared for.

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