If I Were: The King of India and the World

In his Young India article “Colour Bar v. Swadeshi” (1 July 1926), Gandhi responded to a critic who likened his swadeshi programme to South Africa’s Colour Bar legislation. Mr. Spender claimed that both stemmed from the notion that East and West cannot intermingle without harm. Gandhi firmly rejected this comparison, explaining that while Colour Bar laws upheld European domination by excluding others from social and economic equality, swadeshi sought to restore dignity and livelihood to India’s poorest. It aimed not to isolate but to liberate, not to restrict others but to recover what colonial exploitation had taken away.

Further clarifying, Gandhi wrote that swadeshi was never a rejection of what came from abroad, but a call to produce what India could and import only what she could not make herself. The spinning wheel and the making of khaddar, he insisted, were not symbols of isolation but instruments of equality—means for millions of paupers to find meaningful livelihood and self-respect.

When Mr. Spender teasingly asked what Gandhi would do if made “Emperor of India invested with plenary powers,” Gandhi answered with a remarkable moral vision. He imagined disbanding the colonial army, opening temples and schools to the so-called untouchables, prohibiting liquor and opium except for medical use, ensuring complete freedom of religion, enforcing equality before the law, and compelling Hindus and Muslims to reconcile through dialogue rather than division. His blueprint was not political fantasy but a practical dream of national regeneration—rooted in simplicity, morality, and care for the last person in the social order.

If this vision were extended to the world today—fragmented by violence, inequality, and ecological decline—Gandhi’s moral realism would take on global form. The first duty of power, he would say, must be to the most vulnerable. Governments would be judged by how they protect the weakest, not by how much wealth or weaponry they command. Economic life would be local and human-scaled, ensuring that work dignifies rather than degrades. Truth would govern politics through transparency and dialogue, and nonviolence would remain both the means and the end. Addiction, exploitation, and profiteering from illness would be restrained; worship would be free yet never coercive; youth and women would shape the moral imagination of society; and the earth itself would be treated as a sacred trust.

In short, Gandhi’s imagined rule—whether of India or the world—would aim at transforming power itself: from domination to service, from fear to trust, from competition to compassion. Beginning with the last person in the last village, his raj would seek not empire but harmony born of justice, self-restraint, and truth.

Ashram, December 5, 2025

Footnotes

1. Young India, 1 July 1926, pp. 74-75. Gandhi contrasts the immoral Colour Bar Bills with the inclusive, moral swadeshi programme.
2. Young India, 1 July 1926, p. 75. Swadeshi welcomes foreign goods beneficial to India but excludes goods that harm local livelihoods or moral life, such as intoxicants.
3. Young India, 1 July 1926, pp. 76-77. Gandhi’s imaginative programme as “Emperor of India” illustrates practical reforms rooted in ethical and social concerns.