Page:The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi, vol. 1.djvu/74

 one. So its products are numerous and varied. Though the foundation of the British rule in India dates from the year 1746 A.D., and though India was known to the English much earlier than 1746, it is a pity that so little should be known of the foods of India in England. We have not to go very far to seek the cause. Almost all Englishmen who go to India keep up their own way of living. They not only insist on having the things they had in England, but will also have them cooked in the same way. It is not for me here to go into the why and wherefore of all these incidents. One would have thought that they would look into the habits of the people, if only out of curiosity, but they have done nothing of the kind, and hence we see the result of their stolid indifference in the loss to many Anglo-Indians of the finest opportunities of studying the food question. To return to the foods, there are many kinds of corn produced in India which are absolutely unknown here.

Wheat, however, is, of course, of the greatest importance there as here. Then there are bajara (which is called millet by the AngloIndians), joar, rice, etc. These are what I should call bread foods, because they are chiefly used for bread-making. Wheat, of course, in greatly used, but it being comparatively dear, bajara and joar take its place among the poor classes. This is very much so in the southern and the northern provinces. Speaking of the southern provinces, in his Indian History, Sir W. W. Hunter says: "The food of the common people consists chiefly of small grains, such as joar, bajara, ragi." Of the north, he says: "The two last (i.e., joar and bajara) form the food of the masses, rice being only grown on irrigated lands and consumed by the rich." It is not at all unusual to find persons who have not tasted joar. Joar being the diet of the poor, it is held in reverence, as it were. Instead of good-bye as the parting salute, the poor in India say 'joar', which, when extended and translated, would, I think, mean: "May you never be without 'joar'." The rice, too, is used for breadmaking, especially in Bengal. The Bengalees use rice more than wheat. In other parts, rice, as an