Mahatma Gandhi’s Hind Swaraj is perhaps his most well-known work, written in the form of a dialogue between an editor and his reader. The early and expatriate GandhiHind Swaraj captures Gandhi’s early political thought on matters related to India’s colonial subjugation by the British. Petitioning of the kind that characterised the early Indian national movement was viewed as ‘derogatory’ in Hind Swaraj. How does Hind Swaraj reflect Gandhi’s position as an expatriate observing colonial India from abroad? What role does language play in Gandhi’s conception of self-rule in Hind Swaraj?