Page:Indian Home Rule by Mohandas K. Gandhi.djvu/52

44 hurt—it even produces a seductive colour about a patient’s face, so as to induce the belief that all is well. Civilization is such a disease, and we have to be very wary.


 * Very well, then, I shall hear you on the railways.


 * It must be manifest to you that, but for the railways, the English could not have such a hold on India as they have. The railways, too, have spread the bubonic plague. Without them, masses could not move from place to place. They are the carriers of plague germs. Formerly we had natural segregation. Railways have also increased the frequency of famines, because, owing to facility of means of locomotion, people sell out their grain, and it is sent to the dearest markets. People become careless, and so the pressure of famine increases. They accentuate the evil nature of man. Bad men fulfil their evil designs with greater rapidity. The holy places of India have become unholy. Formerly people went to these places with very great difficulty. Generally, therefore, only the real devotees visited such places. Now-a-days, rogues visit them in order to practise their roguery.


 * You have given ana [sic] one-sided account. Good men can visit these places as well as bad men. Why do they not take the fullest advantage of the railways?