This day 100 years ago

21 April 2020

On this day 100 years ago, Gandhi brought out a new issue of his newspaper Young India. This English weekly was started by Gandhi in 1919 and was operational until 1931. In 1933, Gandhi started another weekly newspaper called Harijan which lasted until 1948.

This new issue of Young India carried in it several news articles of national importance. Some of the matters covered in this issue of the weekly included a critical piece on the demand for communal representation made by Indians in Burma, an article expressing disapproval of the deportation of the journalist and editor of The Bombay Chronicle BG Horniman by the British government, an update on the financial contributions received for the Jallianwala Memorial Fund, a reporting on the plight of Indians under colonial rule in Fiji and a case for increased use of vernacular languages in the country as opposed to English. The recent issue of the weekly newspaper also carried an article by Gandhi titled ‘Swadeshi’ in which he elaborated on the meaning of the term.

“Swadeshi work is the most constructive of all. It does not lend itself to speeches so much as to solid action. It is not possible to save fifty crores of rupees annually by speeches or demonstrations. It involves much more than the severing of this annual drain…Swadeshi means even distribution of wealth from an occupation next in importance only to agriculture. It supplements agriculture and therefore automatically assists materially to solve the problem of our growing poverty. Thus swadeshi is our veritable Kamadhenu supplying all our wants and solving many of our difficult problems. And an occupation which saves our honour and provides our livelihood becomes a religious duty.”