Rothermund, Indira. "The Individual and Society in Gandhi's Political Thought". The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol.28, No.2 (1969): 313-320.

Rothermund, Indira. "The Individual and Society in Gandhi's Political Thought". The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol.28, No.2 (1969): 313-320.

• In the modern Western political tradition, the notions of 'state' and 'nation' are bound together within the notion of sovereignty (313). The growth of nationalism create a scenario where the nation upon which a state is founded both serves to legitimate the state and proscribes its legitimate boundaries (314).
• This connection with sovereignty does not exist within indigenous Indian political though. Instead, the root word for both 'rajya' [state] and 'rashtra' [nation] in Hindi comes from the concept of people ruled, literally meaning the land which is ruled and the people under rule. This does not play into any concepts of legitimacy separate from the person of the monarch (314).
• At the time of late British colonialism, there were three approaches to the Indian nation-state: from the extremists, the moderates, and Gandhi. The extremists promoted a concept of essentialist nation-hood built on the European model, where India had always existed; the moderates recognized the lack of a common identity among the people and sought to artificial inculcate nationalism and construct an Indian nation-state; Gandhi rejected Western nationalism and look towards creating an individualist concept of swaraj which could exist without the trappings of Western states (314).
• Gandhi rejects the common views of moderates within the Congress Party that India would gain political freedom from Britain but retain pre-independence modes of governance. Instead, Gandhi demands that true freedom and true swaraj would require the abolition of inequality and force in society, creating a new system of governance (315).
• For Gandhi, the individual can attain a state of enlightenment approaching swaraj through meditation and self-purification, which allows for the advancement of the soul to a higher state of consciousness (315).
• The focus on the role of individual in subordinating themselves to society through self-reflection and purposeful introspection in Gandhi's beliefs separates it from Western conceptions of the relationship between society and individual. Whereas the individual under Rousseau subordinates himself to society by literally giving away part of his free will to the community, the individual under Gandhi subordinates himself to society by meditating to the degree where his will blends with the divine will and dharma, which prioritizes communal needs (316).
• In the Gandhian model, the submission of one's will to that of the community, through the submission and total acceptance of one's dharma, is a sacrifice which benefits both the receiver -- through services offered -- and the giver, because he is enlightened by the activity (316). 
• Under Gandhi there is no need for the forms of coercion against the individual required for redistribution in other systems. The decision to accept one's dharma is entirely personal and cannot be forced, thus any move toward collective action is voluntary and individual. It cannot, by the nature of the terms envision, be forceful (317).
• Gandhi views the acceptance of dharma as a form of freedom, similar to concepts about St. Augustine's rejection of sin. When one is absolutely free, one becomes a slave to self-indulgence, meaning following rules allows for true liberation because one is freed of desires (317).
• Other scholars, particularly Dr. B. Mallik, contest that Gandhi was a conflicted philosopher who tried to rationalize the difference between two important concepts of spiritual individualism and social order. However, this creates a dichotomy which did not exist for Gandhi, whereas the two concepts are opposing in Western thought, in Indian thought the new notions are coexistent and deeply intertwined (318).
• The concepts of individualism and societal duty which are distinct in Western philosophy are represented by the concepts of 'moksha' and 'dharma' in Indian thought. Whereas in Western thought, individual fulfillment is achieved by thwarting societal duties, in Indian thought true individual fulfillment can only be achieved through subordination to dharma and the collective will (319).  
• The conflict with individualism which Dr. Mallik and others see in Gandhi's philosophy is actually with the corrupting and atomizing nature of Western civilization. Gandhi is not opposed to individualism as he defines it, what Gandhi hates is the alienation of man from God and nature, which he sees at the heart of Western individualism (319).
• Many Marxist analysts of Gandhian thought focus on the man as a tool of the bourgeoise, but fail to explain the intense belief of Gandhi in the individual worth of man. The current opinion among Marxists and other critical scholars is now, in the late 1960s, that he was a great man who was used and then discarded by the bourgeoise (320).