.jpeg)
The Gandhis were Vaishnavas. My
parents were particularly staunch Vaishnavas.... Jainism was strong in Gujarat,
and its influence was felt everywhere and on all occasions. The opposition to
and abhorrence of meat-eating that existed in Gujarat among the Jains and
Vaishnavas were to be seen nowhere else in India or outside in such strength.
These were the traditions in which I was born and bred.
A wave of "reform" was
sweeping over Rajkot at the time when I first came across this friend.... It
began to grow on me that meat-eating was good, that it would make me strong and
daring, and that, if the whole country took to meat-eating, the English could
be overcome.... It was not a question of pleasing the palate. I did not know
that it had a particularly good relish.... We went in search of a lonely spot
by the river, and there I saw, for the first time in my life - meat. There was
baker's bread also. I relished neither. The goat's meat was as tough as
leather. I simply could not eat it. I was sick and had to leave off eating. I
had a very bad night afterwards. A horrible nightmare haunted me. Every time I
dropped of to sleep it would seem as though a live goat were bleating inside
me, and I would jump up full of remorse. But then I would remind myself that
meat-eating was a duty and so become more cheerful. My friend was not a man to
give up easily. He now began to cook various delicacies with meat, and dress
them neatly.... This went on for about a year. But not more than half a dozen
meat feasts were enjoyed in all.... If my mother and father came to know of my
having become a meat-eater, they would be deeply shocked. This knowledge was
gnawing at my heart. Therefore I said to myself: "Though it is essential
to eat meat, and also essential to take up food 'reform' in the country, yet
deceiving and lying to one's father and mother is worse than not eating meat.
In their lifetime, therefore, meat-eating must be out of the question. When
they are no more and I have found my freedom, I will eat meat openly, but until
that moment arrives I will abstain from it." This decision I communicated
to my friend, and I have never since gone back to meat.
I was yet a stripling of eighteen
without any experience of the world.... I sailed at last from Bombay.... An
English passenger, taking kindly to me, drew me into conversation.... He
laughed at my insistence on abjuring meat, and said in a friendly way when we
were in the Red Sea: "It is all very well so far but you will have to
revise your decision in the Bay of Biscay. And it is so cold in England that
one cannot possibly live there without meat." "But I have heard that
people can live there without eating meat," I said. "Rest assured it
is a fib," said he. "No one, to my knowledge, lives there without
being a meat- eater.... You cannot live without meat." "I thank you
for your kind advice, but I have solemnly promised to my mother not to touch
meat, and therefore I cannot think of taking it. If it be found impossible to
get on without it, I will far rather go back to India than eat meat in order to
remain there."
I could not relish boiled
vegetables cooked without salt or condiments. The landlady was at a loss to
know what to prepare for me. We had oatmeal porridge for breakfast, which was
fairly filling, but I always starved at lunch and dinner. The friend
continually reasoned with me to eat meat, but I always pleaded my vow and then
remained silent. Both for luncheon and dinner we had spinach and bread and jam
too...there was no milk either for lunch or dinner.... One day the friend began
to read to me Bentham's Theory of Utility. I was at my wits' end. The language
was too difficult for me to understand. He began to expound it. I said:
"Pray excuse me. These abstruse things are beyond me. I admit it is
necessary to eat meat. But 1 cannot break my vow. I cannot argue about it.... A
vow is a vow. It cannot be broken." The friend looked at me in surprise.
He closed the book and said: "All right. I will not argue any more."
I launched out in search of a
vegetarian restaurant. The landlady had told me that there were such places in
the city. I would trot ten or twelve miles each day, go into a cheap restaurant
and eat my fill of bread, but would never be satisfied. During these wanderings
I once hit on a vegetarian restaurant in Farringdon Street. The sight of it
filled me with the same joy that a child feels on getting a thing after its own
heart. Before I entered I noticed books for sale exhibited under glass window
near the door. I saw among them Salt's Plea for Vegetarianism. This I purchased
for a shilling and went straight to the dining room. This was my first hearty
meal since my arrival in England. God had come to my aid. I read Salt's book
from cover to cover and was very much impressed by it. From the date of reading
this book, I may claim to have become a vegetarian by choice. I blessed the day
on which I had taken the vow before my mother. I had all along abstained from
meat in the interests of truth and of the vow I had taken, but had wished at
the same time that every Indian should be a meat-eater, and had looked forward
to being one myself freely and openly some day, and to enlisting others in the
cause. The choice was now made in favour of vegetarianism, the spread of which
henceforward became my mission.
My faith in vegetarianism grew on
me from day to day. Salt's book whetted my appetite for dietetic studies. I
went in for all books available on vegetarianism and read them. One of these,
Howard Williams' The Ethics of Diet, was a "biographical history of the
literature of humane dietetics from the earliest period to the present
day."... Dr. Anna Kingsford's The Perfect Way in Diet was also an
attractive book. Dr. Allinson's writings on health and hygiene were likewise
very helpful. He advocated a curative system based on regulation of the dietary
of patients. Himself a vegetarian, he prescribed for his patients also a
strictly vegetarian diet. The result of reading all this literature was that
dietetic experiments came to take an important place in my life. Health was the
principal consideration of these experiments to begin with. But later on
religion became the supreme motive.
Meanwhile my friend had not
ceased to worry about me.... When he came to know that I had begun to interest
myself in books on vegetarianism, he was afraid lest these studies should
muddle my head; that I should fritter my life away in experiments, forgetting
my own work, and become a crank. He therefore made one last effort to reform
me. He one day invited me to go to the theatre. Before the play we were to dine
together at the Holborn Restaurant, to me a palatial place and the first big
restaurant I had been to since leaving the Victoria Hotel.... The friend had
planned to take me to this restaurant evidently imagining that modesty would
forbid any questions. And it was a very big company of diners in the midst of
which my friend and I sat sharing a table between us. The first course was
soup. I wondered what it might be made of, but durst not ask the friend about
it. I therefore summoned the waiter. My friend saw the movement and sternly
asked across the table what was the matter. With considerable hesitation I told
him that I wanted to inquire if the soup was vegetable soup. "You are too
clumsy for decent society," he passionately exclaimed. "If you cannot
behave yourself, you had better go. Feed in some other restaurant and await me
outside." This delighted me. Out I went. There was a vegetarian restaurant
close by, but it was closed. So I went without food that night. I accompanied
my friend to the theatre, but he never said a word about the scene I had
created. On my part, of course, there was nothing to say.
There was a Vegetarian Society in
England with a weekly journal of its own (the London Vegetarian Society and its
paper The Vegetarian - R.W.). I subscribed to the weekly, joined the society
and very shortly found contact with those who were regarded as pillars of
vegetarianism, and began my own experiments in dietetics. I stopped taking the
sweets and condiments... I gave up tea and coffee as a rule, and substituted
cocoa... There were many minor experiments going on along with the main one; as
for example, giving up starch foods at one time, living on bread and fruit
alone at another, and once living on cheese, milk and eggs. This last experiment
is worth noting. It lasted not even a fortnight... I gave up eggs and the
experiment alike... This was a hardship inasmuch as inquiry showed that even in
vegetarian restaurants many courses used to contain eggs. Full of the
neophyte's zeal for vegetarianism, I decided to start a vegetarian club in my
locality, Bayswater. I invited Sir Edwin Arnold, who lived there, to be
Vice-President. Dr. Oldfield who was Editor of The Vegetarian became President.
I myself became the Secretary. The club went well for a while, but came to an
end in the course of a few months. For I left the locality...
On the eve of my departure for
home ... I invited my vegetarian friends to dinner in the Holborn Restaurant
referred to in these chapters. "A vegetarian dinner could be had," I
said to myself, "in vegetarian restaurants as a matter of course. But why
should it not be possible in a non-vegetarian restaurant too?" And I
arranged with the manager of the Holborn Restaurant to provide a strictly
vegetarian meal. The vegetarians hailed the new experiment with delight.[1]
The Moral Basis[2]
When I received the invitation to
be present at this meeting, I need not tell you how pleased I was, because it
revived old memories and recollections of pleasant friendships formed with
vegetarians. I feel especially honoured to find on my right Mr. Henry Salt. It
was Mr. Salt's book, A Plea for Vegetarianism, which showed me why, apart from
a hereditary habit, and apart from my adherence to a vow administered to me by
my mother, it was right to be a vegetarian. He showed me why it was a moral
duty incumbent on vegetarians not to live upon fellow-animals. It is,
therefore, a matter of additional pleasure to me that I find Mr. Salt in our
midst.
I do not propose to take up your
time by giving you my various experiences of vegetarianism, nor do I want to
tell you something of the great difficulty that faced me in London itself in
remaining staunch to vegetarianism, but I would like to share with you some of
the thoughts that have developed in me in connection with vegetarianism. Forty
years ago I used to mix freely with vegetarians. There was at that time hardly
a vegetarian restaurant in London that I had not visited. I made it a point,
out of curiosity, and to study the possibilities of vegetarianism and
vegetarian restaurants in London, to visit everyone of them. Naturally,
therefore, I came into close contact with many vegetarians. I found, at the
tables, that largely the conversation turned upon food and disease. I found
also that the vegetarians who were struggling to stick to their vegetarianism
were finding it difficult from the health point of view. I do not know whether,
nowadays, you have those debates, but I used at that time to attend debates
that were held between vegetarians and vegetarians, and between vegetarians and
non-vegetarians. I remember one such debate, between Dr. Densmore and the late
Dr. T.R. Allinson. Then vegetarians had a habit of talking of nothing but food
and nothing but disease. I feel that that is the worst way of going about the
business. I notice also that it is those persons who become vegetarians because
they are suffering from some disease or other - that is, from purely the health
point of view - it is those persons who largely fall back. I discovered that
for remaining staunch to vegetarianism a man requires a moral basis.
For me that was a great discovery
in my search after truth. At an early age, in the course of my experiments, I
found that a selfish basis would not serve the purpose of taking a man higher
and higher along the paths of evolution. What was required was an altruistic
purpose. I found also that health was by no means the monopoly of vegetarians.
I found many people having no bias one way or the other, and that
non-vegetarians were able to show, generally speaking, good health. I found
also that several vegetarians found it impossible to remain vegetarians because
they had made food a fetish and because they thought that by becoming
vegetarians they could eat as much lentils, haricot beans, and cheese as they
liked. Of course those people could not possibly keep their health. Observing
along these lines, I saw that man should eat sparingly and now and then fast.
No man or woman really ate sparingly or consumed just that quantity which the
body requires and no more. We easily fall a prey to the temptations of the
palate, and therefore when a thing tastes delicious we do not mind taking a
morsel or two more. But you cannot keep health under those circumstances.
Therefore I discovered that in order to keep health, no matter what you ate, it
was necessary to cut down the quantity of your food, and reduce the number of
meals. Become moderate; err on the side of less, rather than on the side of
more. When I invite friends to share their meals with me I never press them to
take anything except only what they require. On the contrary, I tell them not
to take a thing if they do not want it.
What I want to bring to your
notice is that vegetarians need to be tolerant if they want to convert others
to vegetarianism. Adopt a little humility. We should appeal to the moral sense
of the people who do not see eye to eye with us. If a vegetarian became ill,
and a doctor prescribed beef tea, then I would not call him a vegetarian. A
vegetarian is made of sterner stuff. Why? Because it is for the building of the
spirit and not of the body. Man is more than meat. It is the spirit in man for
which we are concerned. Therefore vegetarians should have that moral basis -
that a man was not born a carnivorous animal, but born to live on the fruits
and herbs that the earth grows. I know we must all err. I would give up milk if
I could, but I cannot. I have made that experiment times without number. I
could not, after a serious illness, regain my strength, unless I went back to
milk. That has been the tragedy of my life. But the basis of my vegetarianism
is not physical, but moral. If anybody said that I should die if I did not take
beef tea or mutton, even under medical advice, I would prefer death. That is
the basis of my vegetarianism. I would love to think that all of us who called
ourselves vegetarians should have that basis. There were thousands of
meat-eaters who did not stay meat-eaters. There must be a definite reason for
our making that change in our lives, for our adopting habits and customs
different from society, even though sometimes that change may offend those
nearest and dearest to us. Not for the world should you sacrifice a moral
principle. Therefore the only basis for having a vegetarian principle is, and
must be, a moral one. I am not to tell you, as I see and wonder about the
world, that vegetarians, on the whole, enjoy much better health than
meat-eaters. I belong to a country which is predominantly vegetarian by habit
or necessity. Therefore I cannot testify that that shows much greater endurance,
much greater courage, or much greater exemption from disease. Because it is a
peculiar, personal thing. It requires obedience, and scrupulous obedience, to
all the laws of hygiene.
Therefore, I think that what
vegetarians should do is not to emphasize the physical consequences of
vegetarianism, but to explore the moral consequences. While we have not yet
forgotten that we share many things in common with the beast, we do not
sufficiently realize there are certain things which differentiate us from the beast.
Of course, we have vegetarians in the cow and the bull - which are better
vegetarians than we are - but there is something much higher which calls us to
vegetarianism. Therefore, I thought that, during the few minutes which I give
myself the privilege of addressing you, I would just emphasize the moral basis
of vegetarianism. And I would say that I found from my own experience, and the
experience of thousands of friends and companions that they find satisfaction,
so far as vegetarianism is concerned, from the moral basis they have chosen for
sustaining vegetarianism.
In conclusion, I thank you all
for coming here and allowing me to see vegetarians face to face. I cannot say I
used to meet you forty or forty-two years ago. I suppose the faces of the London
Vegetarian Society have changed. There are very few members who, like Mr. Salt,
can claim association with the Society extending over forty years. Lastly, I
would like you, if you want to, to ask me any questions, for I am at your
disposal for a few minutes.
Mr. Gandhi was then asked to give
his reasons for limiting his daily diet to five articles only, and replied:
That has no connection with vegetarianism... There was another reason. I had
been a pampered child of nature. I had acquired then that notoriety that when I
was invited to friends, they placed before me ample dishes of food. I told them
I had come there to serve, and, personally, I should find myself dying by
inches if I allowed myself to be pampered like that. So, in limiting myself to
five ingredients of food, I served a double purpose. And I must finish all my
eating before sundown. I have been saved many pitfalls by that. There are many
discoveries about that in regard to health reasons. Dietists are saying we are
more and more tending towards simplifying diet, and that if one must live for
health, one must have one thing at a time and avoid harmful combinations. I
like the process of exclusion better than that of inclusion, because no two
doctors have the same opinion.
Then I think those restrictions
to five articles of food have helped me morally and materially - materially,
because in a poor country like India it is not always possible to procure
goat's milk, and it is a hard thing to produce fruit and grapes. Then, I go to
visit poor people, and if I expected hot-house grapes, they would banish me.
So, by restricting myself to five articles of food, it also serves the law of
economy.[3]
Control of Palate
Control of the palate is the
first essential in the observance of the vow. I saw that complete control of
the palate made the observance very easy and so I now pursued my dietetic
experiments not merely from the vegetarian's but also from the brahmachari's
point of view. I saw as the result of these experiments that the brahmachari's
food should be limited, simple, spiceless, and, if possible, uncooked.
Six years of experiment have
showed me that the brahmachari's ideal food is fresh fruits and nuts. The
immunity from passion that I enjoyed when I lived on this food was unknown to
me after I changed that diet. Brahmacharya needed no effort on my part when I
lived on fruits and nuts alone. It has been a matter of very great effort ever
since I began to take milk. How I had to go back to milk from a fruit diet will
be considered in its proper place. It is enough to observe here that I have not
the least doubt that milk diet makes the brahmacharya vow difficult to observe.
Let no one deduce from this that all brahmacharis must give up milk. The effect
on brahmacharya of different kinds of food can be determined only after
numerous experiments. I have yet to find a fruit substitute for milk which is
an equally good muscle-builder and easily digestible. The doctors, vaids and
hakims have alike failed to enlighten me. Therefore though I know milk to be
partly a stimulant, I cannot, for time being, advise anyone to give it up.[4]
Dietic Ahimsa
Dieteticians are of opinion that
the inclusion of a small quantity of raw vegetables like cucumber, vegetable
marrow, pumpkin, gourd, etc. in one's menu is more beneficial to health than
the eating of large quantities of the same cooked. But the digestions of most
people are very often so impaired through a surfeit of cooked fare that one
should not be surprised if at first they fail to do justice to raw greens,
though I can say from personal experience that no harmful effect need follow if
a tola or two of raw greens are taken with each meal provided one masticates
them thoroughly. It is a well established fact that one can derive a much
greater amount of nourishment from the same quantity of food if it is
masticated well. The habit of proper mastication of food inculcated by the use
of uncooked greens therefore, if it does nothing else, will at least enable one
to do with less quantity of food and thus not only make for economy in
consumption but also automatically reduce the dietetic himsa that one commits
to sustain life. Therefore whether regarded from the viewpoint of dietetics or
that of ahimsa the use of uncooked vegetables is not only free from all
objection but is to be highly recommended. Of course it goes without saying
that if the vegetables are to be eaten raw, extra care will have to be
exercised to see that it is not stale, over-ripe or rotten or otherwise dirty.[5]
Food Faddists
I have been known as a crank,
faddist, mad man. Evidently the reputation is well deserved. For wherever I go,
I draw to myself cranks, faddists and mad men. Andhra has its fair share of all
these. They often find their way to Sabarmati. No wonder then that I found
these specimens in abundance during my Andhra tour. But 1 propose to introduce
to the reader only one fellow crank who by his living faith in his mission
compelled my admiration and induced me to plunge into a dietetic experiment
which I had left unfinished at the age of 20 when I was a student in London.
This is Sundaram Gopalrao of Rajahmundry. The ground was prepared for him by a
survey superintendent whom I met at Vizagapatam and who told me he was
practically living on raw food. Gopalrao has a Nature Cure establishment in
Rajahmundry, to which he devotes the whole of his time. He said to me,
"The hip-baths and other kindred appliances are good so far as they go.
But even they are artificial. To be rid of diseases it is necessary to do away
with fire in the preparation of foods. We must take everything in its vital
state even as animals do."
"Would you advise me to
adopt entirely raw diet?" I asked.
"Certainly, why not? I have
cured cases of chronic dyspepsia in old men and women through a balanced diet
containing germinating seeds," was Gopalrao's reply.
"But surely there should be
a transition stage," I gently remonstrated.
"No such stage is
necessary," rejoined Gopalrao. "Uncooked food, including uncooked
starch and protein are any day more digestible than cooked. Try it and you will
feel all the better for it."
"Do you take the risk? If
the cremation ceremony takes place in Andhra, the people will cremate your body
with mine," I said.
"I take the risk," said
Gopalrao.
"Then send me your soaked
wheat. I commence from today," I said.
Poor Gopalrao sent the soaked
wheat. Kasturbai, not knowing that it could possibly be meant for me, gave it
to the volunteers who finished it. 'So I had to commence the experiment the
following day - 9th May. It is therefore now a month when I am writing these
notes.
I am none the worse for the
experiment. Though I have lost over five pounds in weight, my vitality is
unimpaired. During the last eight days the weight has shown a decided tendency
to increase.
Fellow faddists should know what
I am doing.
I take generally:
8 tolas of germinating wheat,
8 tolas of sweet almonds reduced
to a paste,
8 tolas of green leaves pounded,
6 sour lemons, and
2 ounces of honey.
Wheat is replaced twice or thrice
during the week by an equal quantity of germinating gram. And when gram is
taken in the place of wheat, coconut milk replaces almond paste. The food is
divided into two parts, the first meal is taken at 11 a.m. the second at 6.15
p.m. The only thing touched by fire is water. I take in the morning and once
more during the day boiling water, lemon and honey.
Both wheat and gram germinate in
36 hours. The grain is soaked in water for twenty-four hours. The water is then
strained. The grain is then left in a piece of wet Khadi overnight. You find it
sprouting in the morning ready for use. Those who have sound teeth need not
pound the grain at all. For coconut milk a quarter of the kernel is grated fine
and you squeeze the milk through piece of stout Khadi.
It is unnecessary to enter into
further details. What I have given is enough for diet reformers to help me with
their suggestions. I have lived for years on uncooked fruits and nuts but never
before beyond a fortnight on uncooked cereals and pulses. Let those therefore
who know anything of unfired food favour me with literature of their own
experiences.
I publish the facts of this
experiment because I attach the greatest importance to it. If it succeeds it
enables serious men and women to make revolutionary changes in their mode of
living. It frees women from a drudgery which brings no happiness but which
brings disease in its train. The ethical value of uncooked food is
incomparable. Economically this food has possibilities which no cooked food can
have. I therefore seek the sympathetic help of all medical men and laymen who
are interested in reformed dietetics.
Let no one blindly copy the
experiment. I have not Gopalrao's faith. I do not claim success for it yet. I
am moving cautiously. The facts are published so as to enable me to compare
notes with fellow food reformers.[6]
Unusual and unexpected interest
has been evoked by my experiment in unfired food. It has given rise to
interesting and instructive correspondence. I observe that there is quite a
number of men living on unfired food and many more who have at one time lived
on such food. My correspondents will excuse me for my not acknowledging all
such letters individually. But they may rest assured that I have taken in
whatever was new and acceptable in their suggestions. Several have asked me for
further information on the progress of my experiment.
The experiment still continues.
There have been moments when I have weakly doubted the wisdom of continuing it.
This was when extreme weakness had overtaken me during the Andhra tour. But my
faith in the correctness of the theory behind unfired food and my partiality
for it are so great that I would not easily give up the experiment. For it has
for me a value not merely sanitary but also economic and moral or spiritual. It
is of great importance to national workers who have to work in different parts
of the country often in trying circumstances. This food surmounts all the
difficulty arising from the different food of the different provinces. But of
this more if I can write of the experiment with fairly absolute confidence. At
the time of writing all I can say is that it seems to have done me no harm. Dr.
Ansari, who knows my body well, examined it carefully whilst I was in Delhi on
the 5th instant and was of opinion that he had never found me to be in better
health than now. My blood pressure (systolic) which after the breakdown at
Kolhapur had never been found to be below 155 was now registered at 118, pulse
pressure at 46. Though 118, he thought to be subnormal, it was no bad sign as I
had just risen from a slight attack of malaria and I was then living on juicy
fruits only.
My resolve to continue the
experiment has been considerably strengthened by reading Dr. Muthu's great work
on Tuberculosis and Colonel McCarrison's instructive and carefully written food
primer. The former contains an illuminating chapter on diet and the latter
which is dedicated to the children of India is popularly written and gives in a
very concise manner all the information on nutrition that a layman need
possess. It is a book which needs to be read with caution. It puts, naturally
for the author but unduly, according to my experiences, much emphasis on the
necessity of animal food such as meat or milk. The unlimited capacity of the
plant world to sustain man at his highest is a region yet unexplored by modern
medical science which through force of habit pins its faith on the shambles or
at least milk and its by-products. It is a duty which awaits discharge by
Indian medical men whose tradition is vegetarian. The fast developing
researches about vitamins and the possibility of getting the most important of
them directly from the sun bid fair to revolutionize many of the accepted
theories and beliefs propounded by the medical science about food. Be that as
it may, both these authors seem to me to agree that it is best to take all
foods in their natural state if we are to derive the highest benefit from them
and especially if we are not to destroy some of the important vitamins they
contain. They opine that fire destroys some of the vitamins and the most
essential salts and vitamins are removed when the covering of wheat is removed
for the attainment of extreme fineness or of rice for its polish.
The interest evinced in my
experiment in unfired food and the testimony received in support are truly
remarkable. Some correspondents even send their experiences for publication.
But I refrain. I have found among enthusiasts a tendency towards exaggeration.
They often build their conclusions on insufficient data or see a connection
between a result and their experiment not warranted by actuality. Whilst therefore
these experiences are very helpful to me, as I am able to check them by my own,
I am chary of sending them out as a guide to fellow seekers. I therefore
propose periodically to give the verified results of my own experiences and
observation coupled with the caution that even they are liable to variation. I
have found after prolonged experiment and observation that there is no fixed
dietetic rule for all constitutions. All that the wisest physicians claim for
their advice is that it is likely to benefit in a given case as in a majority
of cases they have found it to answer fairly well. In no branch of science is
the scientist so hampered in his research as in the medical. He dare not speak
with certainty of the effect of a single drug or food or of the reactions of
human bodies. It is and will always remain empirical. The popular saying that
one man's food may be another's poison is based on vast experience which finds
daily verification. Such being the case, the field for experiment on the part
of intelligent men and women is limitless. Laymen ought to acquire a workable
knowledge of the body which plays such an important part in the evolution of
the soul within. And yet about nothing are we so woefully negligent or ignorant
as in regard to our bodies. Instead of using the body as a temple of God we use
it as a vehicle for indulgences, and are not ashamed to run to medical men for
help in our effort to increase them and abuse the earthly tabernacle.
But now for nothing the results
to date:
There are now twenty-two in the
Mandir making the experiment with me. Most of them have given up milk.
They are now having bananas added
to their diet and the quantity of cocoanut taken has been increased.
It can be stated with tolerable
confidence that when milk is retained there is no danger of weakness or any
other untoward result.
There is no difficulty about
digesting uncooked sprouted grains and pulses and uncooked green vegetables.
Cases of constipation have in
most cases yielded to the elimination of grains and pulses and a liberal use of
coconut milk and green vegetables such as dudhi (marrow), pumpkin, cucumber,
etc., all taken with their skins well washed. Coconut milk is prepared by
grating an undried cocoanut fine and mixing it with its own or other clean
water and straining and pressing through a stout cloth. A whole cocoanut may be
thus taken without the slightest injury or discomfort.
In the majority of cases weight
has been lost, but the medical authorities who favour unfired food assert that
the loss of weight is a healthy reaction up to a point and is a sign of the
body throwing off poisonous matter.
The majority still experience
weakness but persist in their experiment, believing in the above mentioned
authorities that weakness is an intermediate stage in this experiment. There is
no doubt that the stomach which has undergone distention through overfeeding
with starchy and fatty foods feels an emptiness till it resumes its natural
size.
The experiment is not an easy
thing nor does it yield magical results. It requires patience, perseverance and
caution. Each one has to find his or her own balance of the different
ingredients.
Almost every one of us has
experienced a clearer brain power and refreshing calmness of spirit.
Many have found the experiment as
a decided help in allaying animal passion.
Too much stress cannot be laid on
the imperative necessity of thorough mastication. I observe that even many of
the careful inmates do not know the art of mastication and have therefore bad
teeth and spongy gums. A few days of hard and conscientious chewing of the
cocoanut and green vegetable has brought about wonderful results in this
direction.
Several physicians are taking an
interest in my experiment. They send me texts from Ayurvedic writings for or
against the articles I have been using. Two or three have sent me the identical
text against taking honey mixed with hot water and pronouncing dire results.
When I ask them whether they have verified the text from their own experience
they are silent. My own experience of taking honey mixed with hot water extends
to more than four years. I have experienced no ill effect whatsoever. Objection
has also been raised against the use of honey on humanitarian grounds. This
objection has, I admit, considerable force though the Western method of
gathering honey is cleaner and less open to objection. I fear that if I would
be strictly logical I should have to cut down many things I take or use. But
life is not governed by strict logic. It is an organic growth, seemingly
irregular growth, following its own law and logic. I began taking honey in
Yeravda jail under medical advice. I am not sure that its use is now necessary
for me. Western doctors bestow high praise upon it. Most of them who condemn
the use of sugar in unmeasured terms speak highly of honey which they say does
not irritate as refined sugar or even gur does. I do not want to weaken my
present experiment by abjuring honey just now. The humanitarian aspect will be
infinitely more served, if the unfired food experiment succeeds beyond doubt.
Another physician quotes a text
against the use of sprouted pulses but he too lacks actual experience for
supporting his text. And this has been my complaint against many Ayurvedic
physicians. I have no doubt that there is abundant ancient wisdom buried in the
Sanskrit medical works. Our physicians appear to be too lazy to unearth that
wisdom in the real sense of the term. They are satisfied with merely repeating
the printed formula. Even as a layman I know many virtues are claimed for
several Ayurvedic preparations. But where is their use, if they cannot be
demonstrated today? I plead for the sake of this ancient science for a spirit
of genuine search among our Ayurvedic physicians. I am as anxious as the
tallest among them can be to free ourselves from the tyranny of Western
medicines which are ruinously expensive and the preparation of which takes no
count of the higher humanities.[7]
Instead of hopeful progress I
have to report a tragedy this week. In spite of great carefulness in
experimentation along an unbeaten track, I have been laid low. A mild but
persistent attack of dysentery has sent me to bed and not only to cooked food
but also to goat's milk. Dr. Harilal Desai used all his skill and patience to
save me from having to go back to milk, which I had left last November in the
hope of not having to go back to it, but he saw that he could not reduce the
mucus and the traces of blood that persistently appeared in the bowels without
making me take curds. At the time of writing this therefore I have had two
portions of curds, with what effect I shall note at the foot of this article
which is being written on Sunday night.
It appears that I was not
digesting the raw foods I was taking, and what I had mistaken for good motions
were precursors of dysentery. The other conditions including vitality being
good, I had no cause to suspect any evil.
My companions too have one after
another fallen off, except four, of whom one has been on raw food for nearly a
year with great success as he thinks.
The companions have left off
because they were feeling weak and were losing weight week by week.
Thus Sjt. Gopalrao's claim that
unfired food is suitable for any stomach and can be taken with impunity by
young and old, sick and healthy is to say the least of it 'unproven'. This
apparent failure should serve as a warning to the zealots that they should move
most cautiously and be scrupulously exact in their statements and careful in
their deductions.
I call the failure apparent,
because I have the same faith in unfired food that I first had nearly forty
years ago. The failure is due to my gross ignorance of the practice of unfired
food and of right combinations. Some of its good results are really striking.
No one has suffered seriously. My dysentery has been painless. Every doctor who
has examined me has found me otherwise in better health than before. For my
companions I have been a blind guide leading the blind. I have sadly missed the
guidance of someone who has known the virtue of unfired food and who would have
the patience of a scientist.
But if I regain my health and
have a little leisure, I hope to revert to the experiment with better hope in
that I shall know what mistakes to avoid. As a searcher for Truth I deem it
necessary to find the perfect food for a man to keep body, mind and soul in a
sound condition. I believe that the search can only succeed with unfired food,
and that in the limitless vegetable kingdom there is an effective substitute
for milk, which, every medical man admits, has its drawbacks and which is
designed by nature not for man but for babies and young ones for lower animals.
I should count no cost too dear for making a search which in my opinion is so
necessary from more points of view than one. I therefore still seek information
and guidance from kindred spirits. To those, who are not in sympathy with this
phase of my life and who out of their love for me are anxious about me, I give
my assurance that I shall not embark upon any experiment that would endanger my
other activities. I am of opinion that though I have been making such
experiments since the age of 18, I have not often suffered from serious illness
and have been able to preserve tolerably good health. But I would also like
them to feel with me that so long as God wants me for any work on this earth,
He will preserve me from harm and prevent me from going too far.
Those who are making the
experiment must not give it up because of the temporary check I have received.
Let them learn from the causes of my failure.
1. If there is the slightest
danger of insufficient mastication, let the ingredients be finely pulverised
and dissolved in the mouth instead of being swallowed.
2. If there is an undissolved
residue in the mouth, it must be put out.
3. Grains and pulses should be
used sparingly.
4. Green vegetables should be
well washed and scrapped before being used and should also be used sparingly.
5. Fresh and dried fruits
(soaked) and nuts should be the staples at least in the beginning stages.
6. Milk should not be given up
till the unfired foods have been taken without any harm for a sufficiently long
period. All the literature I have read points to fruits and nuts with only a
small quantity of green vegetables as a perfect food.[8]
National Food
I believe that we should be able
to accommodate ourselves to the food eaten in the provinces other than our own.
I know that this is not so simple a question as it appears. I know southerners
who have made Herculean effort to take to Gujarati food and failed. Gujaratis
will not take to the southern mode of cooking. Bengal produces dainties which
the other provinces will not easily relish. If we would be national instead of
provincial, we would have to have an interchange of habits as to food, simplify
our tastes and produce healthy dishes all can take with impunity. This means a
careful study of the foods taken by different provinces, castes and
denominations. Unfortunately, or fortunately, there are not only different
combinations in different provinces, but there are different styles in the same
province, among the different communities. It is necessary, therefore, for
national workers to study the foods and the methods of preparing them in the
various provinces and discover common, simple and cheap dishes which all can
take without upsetting the digestive apparatus. In any case, it must be a
matter of shame for workers not to know the manners and customs of different
provinces and communities. In liberal households cooks ought to be able to cook
foods eaten in the various provinces. Why should not a Gujarati be able to
produce dishes which a Tamilian or an Andhra or a Bengali ordinarily eats? I
know that we cannot meet at the top. Nor is such a meeting necessary or
desirable. Rich people will have not only provincial combinations but
specialities designed for their own households. These cannot be universalized.
What can be and should be aimed at are common dishes for common people. This I
know is easily possible if we have the mind. But to make this possible,
volunteers will have to learn the art of cooking and for this purpose they will
have also to study the values of different foods and evolve common dishes
easily and cheaply prepared.[9]
Minimum Diet
What statistics I have received
go to show that all over India except in the Punjab, the articles of diet the
masses live on are deficient in nutritive value.
The most helpful pamphlet on the
minimum diet scale is the one prepared by Dr. H.V. Tilak, on behalf of the
Bombay Presidency Baby and Health Week Association (Delisle Road, Bombay-11).
It is called Balanced Diets. Its price is 4 annas. It has been translated in
Marathi and Gujarati. The diet recommended by the pamphlet, containing a
variety of whole grain (some of which is sprouted) including soya beans, dried
skim milk and vegetables, increases a white rat to 55 grammes in weight from 13
grammes when fed on a diet containing an excess of highly polished rice with
very little vegetables and milk. The diet scale recommended in the pamphlet has
been prepared after careful experimentation. It costs in Bombay Rs. 5/- per
month. I have my doubts about the possibility of introducing soya beans and
dried skim milk in the poor man's diet even in a place like Bombay. The
sprouting of pulses and malting of jowari recommended by Dr. Tilak is also very
difficult of enforcement in private households. It is almost impossible of
introduction in villages. Skim milk is unobtainable in the villages, and I know
that in hundreds of them not a drop of fresh milk or good ghee is to be had. I
mention these difficulties in order that taking Dr. Tilak's carefully prepared
scale as a basis, experts may work out a scale more suited to the villages in
their provinces and yet produce the results that Dr. Tilak's diet is claimed to
have achieved.[10]
Plea for more Fruit
Dr. Menkel, who is also a
dietetist, comments as follows in The Oriental Watchman on my note* in Harijan
of January 25th:
"First is the statement that
food taken in excess of actual requirement for repair and energy is as much
food actually wasted. Excess food is not only wasted food, but this excess also
places a tax on the organs of digestion, detoxication and elimination,
producing premature exhaustion with such developments as diabetes, nephritis
and auto-intoxication. Another economy recommendation is that half the quantity
of grain as wheat or rice will meet the food purposes when not taken in sloppy
form. Cooked or baked grains when taken as near dry as possible must then be
masticated and moistened with saliva to be swallowed. This results in better
digestion and therefore less food providing the needed energy. Mr. Gandhi
suggests that an ounce or two of raw salad vegetables is worth eight ounces of
cooked vegetables. This applies particularly to their vitamin and mineral
values. There is also something vital in raw fruit and vegetable which is
destroyed by cooking. For this reason it is desirable that some uncooked raw
fruit and vegetables be taken daily. India needs to make more extensive use of
such raw uncooked foods. The elimination of sweet dishes as advocated would
greatly relieve the stress upon the pancreas and liver imposed by the average
Indian diet, and thus reduce the incidence of diabetes. It is in regard to Mr.
Gandhi's statement about fruit that we do not find ourselves quite in
agreement. He writes: 'Fresh fruit is good to eat, but only a little is
necessary to give tone to the system.' While we can hobble along on low power
with little fruit in the diet, it is the contrary that is required. Because so
little fruit is available and consumed by the population, that there is so much
vitamin and mineral deficiency in India. Writing about fruits and berries in
his book Food, Sir Robert McCarrison states: They are among the best of all
foodstuffs and should form a considerable part of our daily diet. They contain
much mineral salts of the alkaline kind which keep the blood pure and prevent
it becoming acid and sour. Fruits are most useful in keeping the bowels healthy
and active.' (p.88). Man's physical structure indicates that he is intended to
be a frugivorous creature. His natural food, the food on which he can be at his
best, is fruit, nuts, milk and the more succulent vegetables. Cereals would be
better introduced as additional rather than as basic to the diet because of their
strongly acid-ash-forming tendency. On the other hand, as stated by Sir Robert
McCarrison, the fruits and vegetables are rich in the alkali minerals. The
importance of this difference will be recognized when it is recalled that most
of our ailments and all our pains, except those due to accident, are of acid
origin. Obviously there would be less pain, and more enjoyment of life, if we
kept more definitely on the alkaline side. This necessitates more fruit and
vegetables, with proportionately less of the acid-tending cereals. The normal
proportion is four parts of the alkaline - fruit and vegetables - to one of
acid, which includes all other foods. This would be the diet of health economy,
and should be made economically within the reach of all, in a well-organized
world. Under existing emergency Mr. Gandhi has advocated very rational and
possible food economy. His suggestions merit careful study and
application."
While I appreciate Dr. Menkel's
endorsement of my remarks, I like better his correction of my apparent
lukewarmness about fruit. No one perhaps, as far as I know, has eaten as much
fruit as I have, having lived for six years entirely on fruits and nuts and
always having had a liberal supply of fruit as part of my ordinary diet. But I
had in my mind, when writing, the special conditions of India. Its people
should have, by reason of its extent and variety of climate, a most liberal
supply of fruits, vegetables and milk. Yet it is the poorest country in this
respect. I therefore suggested what seemed to me to be feasible. But I heartily
endorse the proposition that for retaining health fresh fruit and fresh
vegetables should form the main part of our diet. It is for the medical
profession to study the peculiar condition of India and suggest the list of
vegetables and fruit which are or can be easily and cheaply grown in the
villages for local consumption. Wild berries, for instance, grow abundantly.
They may not be taken to the market for sale but can be used for the picking.
This is a vast field for research. It can bring neither money nor perhaps fame.
But it may earn the gratitude of dumb millions.[11]
[1] An
Autobiography
[2] [Address
to the London Vegetarian Society by Gandhiji on 20th November, 1931.]
[3] Harijan,
20-2-1949
[4] Young
India, 27-1-1927
[5] Young
India, 15-11-1928
[6] Young
India, 13-6-1929
[7] Young
India, 8-8-1929
[8] Young
India, 22-8-1929
[9] Harijan,
5-1-1934
[10] Harijan,
31-8-1935
[11] Sevagram,
28-2-1942 Harijan, 15-3-1942