Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/104

 is a judge of the High Courtat Allahabad, whose co-religionists the Indian traders as a rule are; and an Indian is a member of the British Parliament. Moreover, the British Government in many respects follow in the footsteps of Akbar the Great, who ruled and lived in the 16th century. He was an Indian. The present land system is a copy of the policy of Todurmull, the great financier and an Indian, with but few modifications. If all this is the outcome, not of civilization, but of semi-barbarity, I have yet to learn what civilization means. If, in the face of all the above facts, you can foment dissensions, and set the European section of the community to work against the Indian section, you are great.

I am, etc.,

M. K. Gandhi

The Natal Advertiser, 3-10-1893

The reference is to John the Baptist.

Work for Vegetarianism (30-9-1893)
Mr. M. K. Gandhi, in a private letter from Pretoria, writes:

There is a very fine opportunity in South Africa for a vegetarian gardener. Cultivation is very much neglected though the soil is very fruitful. I am glad to say I have been able to induce my landlady, who is an English woman, to become a vegetarian, and bring up her children on a vegetarian diet, but I am afraid she will slide down. Proper vegetables cannot be had here. Such as can be had are very dear. Fruit, too, is very dear; so is also milk. It therefore becomes very difficult to give her a sufficient variety. She would certainly leave it off if she finds it more expensive. I was very much interested in Mr. Hills's article on vital food.

1 I intend giving it another trial very soon. You will recollect that I did

The theory of vital food was originally propagated by Mr. A. F. Hills, Chairman of the Vegetarian Society, at its first quarterly meeting on February 4, 1889. In The First Diet of Paradise, he expounded, at some length, a somewhat remarkable theory of vitality, energy, rays of the sun, etc., which were to be found in the following foods: fruit, grain, nuts and pulse, all raw. Vide also "An Experiment in Vital Food", 24-3-1894.