Swadeshi is a favourite concept to both Mahatma Gandhi and Hindutva ideologists. Gandhi used swadeshi movement as a means to instil patriotism in the masses and we see the Hindutva brigades also whitewashing the atrocities of their followers against non-Hindus under the pretext of nationalism. Subsequently there arises the question, do they speak of the same patriotism? Gandhiji defined Swadeshi as the spirit in us which requires us to serve our immediate neighbours before others and to use indigenous products in preference to the foreign goods. To put it differently, it consists in promoting indigenous products.

As part of popularizing the Indian goods, Gandhi proposed to increase the production of yarn, to get the yarn woven and then market the cloth thus produced. Some people think, Gandhi says, ‘why to persuade millions of women to spin? Is it not enough that we set up 10 to 20 mills to produce the yarn necessary for Indians?’ Gandhiji replies as follows: ‘setting up of new mills will mean being permanently dependant on foreigners for machinery. Besides, it will give a heavy blow to the artha of the country. Unless we develop subsidiary occupations at homes, millions of people will be under starvation in the country.’ By promoting the hand-spinners and hand-weavers Gandhi expects to send 60 crores of rupees in circulation among the poor every year. Swadeshi’s message was that Indians can do without Englishmen.

To Gandhi swadeshi was not a mere political project; rather a religious discipline. It invites the Indians to make sacrifice out of a feeling of sheer joy for the neighbour. He refused to use foreign products not because of any revenge against them but because of obligation to home country. To Gandhi, if everyone performs his duty to his neighbour, there will be no one who are in need in the world. He who serves his neighbour serves the whole world.

But Gandhi’s swadeshi undertaking was not chauvinistic like that of Hindu nationalists. Gandhi did not deny everything that is foreign. He gave a room for those foreign products which are not manufactured in India. His policy was to refuse those products which go against the interest of the poor in India. But in case of Sangh Parivar, it promotes economic policies that affect adversely the rich Hindu corporates and not the poor. To Gandhi, it is an arrogance to think of launching out to serve the whole world at the expense of one’s own country. He wrote in Young India, ‘I work for India’s freedom because swadeshi teaches me that being born in it and having inherited her culture, she has a prior claim to my service. My patriotism is not exclusive; it is calculated not only not to hurt any other nation but to benefit all in the true sense of the word. India’s freedom as conceived by me can never be a menace to the world.’

As part of swadeshi movement, Gandhi also advocated the movement of non-co-operation. We read a rather satisfactory description of this principle in Young India. He writes, ‘It is nothing but an attempt to isolate the brute force of the British from all the trappings under which it is hidden and to show that brute force by itself cannot, for one single moment, hold India.’ The non-co-operation movement consisted in withdrawing the support of Indians from all institutions and fields which sustained the British government in power in India. It included surrender of titles, boycott of councils, withdrawal of boys from schools and suspension of practice by lawyers. By the movement, Gandhi wanted to convey the message that Indians won’t be happy with anything less than self-governance and full independence.

Against those who labelled the non-co-operation movement as unconstitutional Gandhi affirmed that it is based on a just and religious doctrine. It is the inherent right of every human being not to cooperate with an unjust government. Indian Shastras teach that there shall be no co-operation between injustice and justice, between an unjust man and justice-loving man, between truth and untruth. Co-operation is a duty only so long as Government protects your honour. It is citizen’s right to oppose when the government robs of their honour. But the BJP in power does not permit people to protest against the policies that go against the policies of Constitution.

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