Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/60

 The poor there, as everywhere, are the greatest sufferers. It is they who spend what little they earn in buying alcohol instead of buying food and other necessities. It is that wretched poor man who has to starve his family, who has to break the sacred trust of looking after his children, if any, in order to drink himself into misery and premature death. Here be it said to the credit of Mr. Caine, the ex-Member for Barrow, that he, undaunted, is still carrying on his admirable crusade against the spread of the evil, but what can the energy of one man, however powerful, do against the inaction of an apathetic and dormant Government?

The Vegetarian, 21-2-1891

3. William Sproston Caine (1842-1903); four times member of British Parliament; serve on the Indian Parliamentary sub-committee of the British Committee of the Congress; Supported self-government for India. Was kneely interested in South Indian's cause.

Indian Vegetarians IV
After having known who are vegetarians in India, and what they generally eat, the reader will be able to judge from the following facts how hollow and baseless are the arguments advanced by some people regarding the weak constitutions of the vegetarian Hindus. One thing often said about the Indian vegetarians is that they are physically very feeble, and that, therefore, vegetarianism is not compatible with bodily strength. Now, if it can be proved that generally in India the vegetarians are as strong as, if not stronger than, the Indian meat-eaters, and for that matter even Englishmen, and moreover, that where weakness exists it can be ascribed to many other reasons than that of non-flesh diet, the whole structure on which the above argument is based falls to the ground. It must at the outset be admitted that the Hindus as a rule are notoriously weak; but an unbiased person--a meat-eater--who knows India and her people even superficially will tell you that there are many other causes incessantly at work to account for the proverbial1 weakness. One of the most important reasons, if not the most important one, is the wretched custom of infant marriages and its attendant evils. Generally, children when they reach the great age of nine are burdened with the fetters of married life. In many cases they are married at a still younger age