Imagine a single word evolving from a simple translation of “self-government” into the unbreakable spirit of India’s fight for freedom, a term so powerful that English couldn’t fully capture it. That’s the captivating story in a recent paper, “Swaraj (circa 1885-1922): Gandhi and the Early History of an Untranslatable Signifier,” published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, by Assistant Professor Ritwik Ranjan at the Institute of Humanities, ShanghaiTech. Like a linguistic detective novel, Ranjan traces “swaraj”—the key slogan of Indian nationalism—from its colonial origins to its role as a defiant symbol of resistance, offering fresh insights that bridge Indian wisdom with global conversations. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, a prestigious publication with over 200 years of history, is renowned for its rigorous scholarship on Asian cultures and histories.
The paper dives into the late 19th to early 20th century, when British colonial rule in India sparked a push for independence. “Swaraj’ started as a humble Indian word meaning “self-rule,” borrowed to translate the English “self-government.” For instance, in an 1852 Indian newspaper, it appeared in a report on a British prime minister’s speech, suggesting Indians weren’t “ready” for self-rule. By 1885, early reformers like scholar Kashinath Telang used it to advocate for gradual local governance under British oversight, like borrowing a Western idea and wrapping it in local language to make it more relatable.
But the plot twists as tensions rise. Ranjan uncovers how “swaraj” began to shift from its origins. In 1906, an Indian nationalist periodical Hind Swarajya used it to criticize British exploitation, landing in court for sedition. By 1908, during leader Bal Gangadhar Tilak’s trial, British courts treated “swaraj” as a “rebel code,” refusing to translate it and labeling it a threat. This “untranslatability” wasn’t just linguistic—it preserved the word’s emotional punch, evoking India’s ancient self-rule traditions and turning it into a cultural weapon against colonialism.
Gandhi enters the scene in 1909 with his book Hind Swaraj, elevating “swaraj” to new heights. Ranjan argues Gandhi didn’t invent it from scratch but “upgraded” it: not just kicking out the British, but achieving “soul-level self-rule” by rejecting Western materialism and embracing Indian moral strength. This fuzziness was strategic—everyone could interpret it their way, from peaceful reform to full independence. By 1920, India’s Congress Party made “swaraj” its official motto, fueling the freedom movement.
What makes this story universally appealing? Ranjan draws on “untranslatability” theory (inspired by French scholar Barbara Cassin) to show how refusing to translate a word keeps its native power intact, resisting cultural domination.