Page:Mahatma Gandhi, his life, writings and speeches.djvu/124

 was to defraud the unsophisticated; such people in the olden days when pilgrimages meant long and wearisome walking through jungles, crossing rivers, and encountering many dangers, had not the stamina to reach the goal. Pilgrimages in those days could only be undertaken by the cream of society, but they came to know each other; the aim of the holy places was to make India holy. Plague and famine, which existed in pre-British days were local then; to-day, locomotion had caused them to spread. To avoid the calamity which intense materialism must bring, Mr. Gandhi urged that India should go back to her former holiness, which is not yet lost. The contact with the West has awakened her from the lethargy into which she had sunk; the new spirit, if properly directed, would bring blessings to both nations and to the world. If India adopted Western modern civilisation as Japan had done, there must be perpetual conflict and gasping between Briton and Indian. If, on the other hand, India's ancient civilisation can withstand this latest assault, as it has withstood so many before, and be, as of old, the religious teacher, the spiritual guide, then there would be no