Page:Speeches And Writings MKGandhi.djvu/403

 Here Mr. Gandhi instanced two cases where the Social Service League had been of immense help to the Municipality in improving the sanitary condition of the town, by changing the habits of the people, which had become a part of their being. He observed that some officials might consider that they could force an unwil- ling people to do many things, but he held to that celebrated saying that it was far better that people should often remain drunkards than that they should become sober at the point of the sword.

Mr. Gandhi then recounted some of his experiences in a temple at Kasi (Benares) the wretched lanes sur- rounding it, the dirt to be witnessed near the sanctuary, the disorderly crowd and the avaricious priest. These evils in the temples, he said had to be removed by Social Service Leagues. For making it possible for students to fight these conditions, the educational system had to be revolutionised. Now-a-days they were going out of their schools as utter strangers to their ancestral tradi- tions and with fatigued brains, able to work no longer. They had to revolutionise that system.

Finally, he referred to the railway services and the conditions under which third class passengers tra- velled. To do social service among the passengers and instil better habits of sanitation among them, the social servants must not go to them in a foreign costume, speaking a foreign tongue. They might issue pamph- lets to them or give instructive lessons, and so on.

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