The question below contain two statements labeled as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Analyze each statement separately and use the codes given below to indicate your answer:
Assertion: Mahatma Gandhi's concept of Swaraj emphasizes self-rule and self-realization.
Reason: Understanding the real ‘Self ’, and its relation to communities and society, is uncritical to the project of attaining Swaraj.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option 4 - The Assertion is correct but the Reason is incorrect.
Reason: Understanding the real ‘Self ’, and its relation to communities and society, is CRITICAL to the project of attaining Swaraj.
It is the understanding of Swaraj as Rule over the Self that was highlighted by Mahatma Gandhi in his work Hind Swaraj where he states, “It is Swaraj when we learn to rule ourselves”. Swaraj is not just freedom but liberation in redeeming one’s self-respect, self-responsibility, and capacities for self-realisation from institutions of dehumanisation. Understanding the real ‘Self ’, and its relation to communities and society, is critical to the project of attaining Swaraj. Gandhiji believed the development that follows would liberate both individual and collective potentialities guided by the principle of justice. Needless to say, such an under- standing is as relevant to the twenty first century as it was when Gandhiji wrote the Hind Swaraj in 1909.