[ Hind Swaraj, Mohandas Gandhi ]

Introduction

Mohandas Gandhi led a successful, peaceful revolution in India against British rule. In the following excerpt from his book Hind Swaraj (Indian Home Rule), Gandhi explains the ideas behind his nonviolent method of passive resistance in the form of an imaginary conversation between an editor and a reader. Hind Swaraj was first published in 1909 in South Africa, but was banned in India.

Primary Source

Editor: Passive [accepting or allowing] resistance is a method of securing rights by personal suffering; it is the reverse of resistance by arms. When I refuse to do a thing that is repugnant [offensive] to my conscience, I use soul-force. For instance, the government of the day has passed a law which is applicable to me. I do not like it. If by using violence, I force the government to repeal the law, I am employing what may be termed body-force. If I do not obey the law, and accept the penalty for its breach [act of breaking a law], I use soul-force. It involves sacrifice of self.

Everybody admits that sacrifice of self is infinitely superior to sacrifice of others. Moreover, if this kind of force is used in a cause that is unjust, only the person using it suffers. He does not make others suffer for his mistakes. Men have before now done many things which were subsequently found to have been wrong. No man can claim that he is absolutely in the right, or that a particular thing is wrong, because he thinks so, but it is wrong for him so long as that is his deliberate judgment. It is therefore meet [proper] that he should not do that which he knows to be wrong, and suffer the consequence whatever it may be. This is the key to the use of soul-force.

Reader: You would then disregard laws—this is rank [complete and utter] disloyalty. We have always been considered a law-abiding nation. You seem to be going even beyond the extremists. They say that we must obey the laws that have been passed, but that, if the laws be bad, we must drive out the lawgivers even by force.

Editor: Whether I go beyond them or whether I do not is a matter of no consequence to either of us. We simply want to find out what is right, and to act accordingly. The real meaning of the statement that we are a law-abiding nation is that we are passive resisters. When we do not like certain laws, we do not break the heads of law-givers, but we suffer and do not submit to the laws.

Assessment

1. Draw Inferences Why does Gandhi advocate suffering and self-sacrifice?
2. Analyze Style and Rhetoric Why do you think Gandhi chooses to structure his book as a conversation between an editor and a reader? How does this help him to get his point across?
3. Draw Conclusions Gandhi helped bring about Indian independence from British rule. Why do you think his approach was effective in enacting social and political change?

[ The Fourteen Points, Woodrow Wilson ]

Introduction

In a speech to Congress on January 8, 1918, President Wilson laid out America's war aims and his vision for peace after the war. His speech included fourteen key points upon which he believed the peace following the war must be based. However, not all of Wilson's ideas were adopted at the Paris Peace Conference.

Primary Source

… What we demand in this war, therefore, is nothing peculiar [unique] to ourselves. It is that the world be made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be made safe for every peace-loving nation which, like our own, wishes to live its own life, [and] determine its own institutions [choose its own government]…. The program of the world's peace, therefore, is our only program; and that program, the only possible program as we see it, is this:

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