Research Worker and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail- [e-mail];

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Mailing Address- C- 29, Swaraj Nagar, Panki, Kanpur- 208020, Uttar Pradesh, India

 

 

Research Worker and Mahatma Gandhi  

 

In Natal it is the practice to have thumb-impressions on promissory notes. Thumb-impressions are thus taken because they make it easy to identify a person. Impressions of two thumbs are taken, rather than of one, in order that, in case the impression of one of the thumbs is not clear, or is defaced, or has any other defect, the other impression can serve the purpose. Apart from these, no impressions of fingers are required for the purpose of identification. Digit-impressions are taken from criminals because the person who is a criminal wants to evade being identified. He always wants to remain unrecognized. A person who has been required to give impressions of all fingers and thumbs can be identified by means of these impressions even if he has not given his correct name. Research workers have prepared an index by means of which persons can be classified into different categories according to the impressions of their fingers and thumbs. Hence, it is possible to prepare an index with the help of impressions. Any person who has given his name as Ramji, which is not available on the records of the Government, can however be traced with the help of the index of impressions, if the impressions of his fingers and thumbs are available. In this way many crimes have been detected in India and elsewhere. This means that impressions of all fingers and thumbs are taken from criminals. 1 

Even modern research-workers admit that a man who is healthy, whose blood is not overheated and whose food is wholesome will not be affected by snake venom. On the other hand, if a man’s blood is overheated with intoxicants, spices, or hot foods, snake venom spreads through his body in no time and he succumbs to it quickly. All this has been experimentally established by medical experts. One of them has gone so far as to declare that the blood of a person who discards salt and lives exclusively on fruits becomes so pure that it is able to combat poison of any kind. It is not possible to confirm from experience how far this last statement is true. Moreover, having abstained from salt, etc., for a year or two, one is not justified in believing that the blood which had lost its quality through a life-time’s abuse had regained it because of wholesome living for a year or two. 2

I have been watching your experiment in diet. Give me detailed information from time to time. It will certainly benefit you if you eat only a small quantity of groundnuts. You may not even need them when you have milk and curds. There is certainly some truth in the advice which research-workers now give against eating many articles at a time. All the foods are not simultaneously digested in the same manner and to the same degree and, therefore, a mixture of too many of them disturbs the stomach. The description of compassion was very good indeed. You say that you have sent the printed copies of the discourses; that may also mean that they are being dispatched now. I have not received them. 3 God alone knows what kind of education was prevalent in ancient times. Research workers on the subject may be able to tell us something, but only something, about it. But all of us have some experience of modern education in this country. It has no relation with our everyday life. Thus it leaves us almost utterly ignorant about our own body. Our knowledge of our own village and our fields shares a similar fate. We are taught, on the other hand, much about things that have no bearing on our daily life. I do not mean to say that such knowledge is of no use. But everything has its own place. We must first know enough of our own body, our own house, our village and its surroundings, the crops that grow there and its history before going on to anything else. General knowledge broad-based on this primary knowledge alone can enrich life. 4 

By material resources I suppose you mean finance. Let me then say that your question is addressed to person who does not swear by material resources. ‘Material resources’ is after all a comparative term. For instance, I do not go without food and clothing. In my own way I have tried—more than perhaps any other man to increase the level of material resources of the average man in India. But it is my firm conviction that Visva-Bharati will fail to attract the right type of talent and scholarship if it relies on the strength of the material resources or material attractions that it can offer. Its attraction must be moral or ethical, or else it will become just one out of the many educational institutions in India. That was not what Gurudev lived and died for. I do not mean that creature comforts should not be provided to the staff and workers who work here. There are ample material comforts in evidence here already. If I stayed here longer and had my way they might be considerably reduced. As Visva- Bharati progresses and more and more gifts and donations begin to pour in, in due course it will be able to provide more attractions to scholars and research workers, if it wants to. But if I were asked for advice I would say: ‘Do not yield to this temptation.’ Visva-Bharati must take its stand on the advancement or moral worth. If it does not stand for that, it is worth nothing. 5

In regard to this letter I have two kinds of difficulties. One is whether it is possible to sell hand-made articles as cheaply as machine made ones. The second is that out of the articles that have been enumerated in the scheme, there is hardly any except khadi which can become universal. They will not, in a large measure, be consumed locally and so will have to be sold in the cities. This is as it should be. The villagers should develop such a high degree of skill that articles prepared by them will command a ready market outside. When our villages are fully developed there will be no dearth in them of men with a high degree of skill and artistic talent. There will be village poets, village artists, village architects, linguists and research workers. In short, there will be nothing in life worth having which will not be had in the villages. Today the villages are barren and desolate and are like dung-heaps. Tomorrow they will be like beautiful gardens and it would be difficult to deceive the people there. 6

 

References:

 

1. Indian Opinion, 28-12-190
2. Indian Opinion, 9-8-1913
3. Letter to Narandas Gandhi, December 4/9, 1930
4. Key to Health, December 18, 19424  
5. Visva-Bharati News, Vol. XIV, No. 9
6. Harijan, 10-11-1946