DECOLONIZATION OF THE INDIAN MIND: A CRITICAL STUDY OF GANDHI’S HIND SWARAJ

Philosophy of freedom has remained most debated concern of the 19th and 20th century Oriental countries. The encounter of western and eastern cultures reached warlike climax during early 20th century India. The proliferation in intellectualism and humanism opened up new discourse of political and spiritual freedom and equality. Various thinkers criticised colonial government across the globe and initiated freedom movements. The exploitation and subjugation which colonizer practiced over colonized explained in majority of theories. But there is interesting issue about western culture that is its hegemonic impression on colonized minds. The western culture established and imprinted its hegemonic impression on Eastern subjects in such a depth that people started condemning their own culture. Many critics have explained it in considerable depth. One of such thinkers was Gandhi who looked at western superiority from wrong end of the telescope. He developed his own views on colonial government. Gandhi's discourse of freedom consists of self consciousness and self control. His work Hind Swaraj nicely portrays how Indian people accepted superiority of white people. Majority of people examined the existence of whites in India as a result of their superiority in weapons but Gandhi rejects this hypothesis. Gandhi formulates a discourse where he says that we are enslaved by our mind that is the reason why we are colonized. Thus, it would be crucial to map down how the process of decolonization of Indian mind might be helpful in getting rid of British rules.