Gandhi’s social and political ideas are a significant milestone in India’s freedom struggle and its aftermath.

These ideas were constructed during Gandhi’s encounter with colonialism, yet remain transcendental in meaning and application.

Gandhi’s ideas hold civilizational relevance in post-colonial societies where political power changed hands without radically altering the social context of colonialism.

While confronting the British politically, Gandhi also fought against socially crippling practices justified in the name of religion.

Gandhism was not merely a political ideology but combined both social and political aims.

The basic model Gandhi provided in Hind Swaraj remained a constant referent in his later writings in Harijan.

There is a difference between Hind Swaraj and Harijan writings: Hind Swaraj was written after the South African satyagraha experience, while Harijan articles were written after Gandhi became the supreme leader of the Indian national movement.

Articles in Harijan were less philosophical and more commentaries on contemporary issues related to the national movement and India’s evolution as an independent entity.

The chapter aims to address five contemporary issues Gandhi dealt with in Harijan and includes select excerpts from Gandhi’s writings to give the text an original flavor.

This approach helps acquaint readers with Gandhi’s prose, style, and thematic focus of Gandhism along with its problematic.

The selected texts are useful for understanding Gandhi’s social and political ideas within the context of an emerging independent nationalist thought confronting colonialism.

This will also enable a critical analysis of nationalist thought that was hardly derivative but rooted in the discourse of colonialism.