Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
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Indian Home Rule (Hind Swaraj)

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Content note: Period language and sweeping generalisations: calls Parliament "a sterile woman and a prostitute", makes broad claims about lawyers, doctors, Europeans and relations between Hindus and Muslims, and uses the period term "Mahomedans". This object is shown as it was published. Why

Gandhi wrote Hind Swaraj in Gujarati in 1909, on a voyage from London to South Africa (his 1921 note in this edition says 1908), as a dialogue in which an "Editor" answers a "Reader" on home rule for India. The Bombay government prohibited its circulation, and the 1921 note says Gandhi replied by publishing a translation. This is the English text as reprinted in 1922, with three pieces added around it: a note signed by C. Rajagopalachari (Madras, 6 June 1919) urging the book's wide distribution against "the doctrine of violence", Gandhi's foreword of 28 May 1919, and Gandhi's reply to critics of 26 January 1921, in which he says he withdraws only one word, that he is individually working for the self-rule the book describes, and that his corporate activity is devoted to "Parliamentary Swaraj". The book condemns what it calls "modern civilization" and argues for passive resistance. It is included as a primary text of the Indian independence movement; the library takes no view on its argument.

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Provenance and rights

Edition
Indian Home Rule, by M. K. Gandhi, reprinted with a new foreword by the author, fifth edition (Madras: Ganesh and Co., 1922; printed at the Modern Printing Works, Mount Road, Madras)
Text source
Project Gutenberg, ebook #40461
Text basis
Proofread transcription by Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders, produced from Internet Archive images of the 1922 edition and compared here with the Internet Archive's Wellesley College Library scan of the same edition.
Rights
Published in Madras in 1922; Gandhi died in 1948. A foreign work still protected in its home country in 1996 had its US copyright restored for 95 years from publication, which ended on 31 December 2017 for a 1922 book, so the edition is in the public domain in the United States (Project Gutenberg marks the ebook public domain in the USA; the Internet Archive lists the scan as not in copyright). The edition also prints a note by C. Rajagopalachari (died 1972), published with it in 1922 and covered by the same US rule; its term in India runs to 2032, so readers outside the United States should check their own law. Checked October 2, 2026.
Changes made
Line wraps rejoined and chapter headings set in title case. Removed: the Project Gutenberg licence header, footer and transcriber's note, the title pages, the printed contents list, and the publisher's advertisements printed before and after the text. The prefatory note, foreword, 1921 reply and both appendices are kept. Wording, spelling and punctuation are the source's own. Project Gutenberg's transcribers corrected obvious printer's errors without comment and recorded three changes: "four" to "our" (page 62), "cover" to "cower" (page 115) and "foot" to "roof" (page 128); two probable printer's errors they left ("the will give up his profession" and "It is worth nothing that") are left here too.
Source file checksum
fa2a144d2bad6599… (SHA-256 of the download this text was made from)