The Health of Education Indians - 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

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The Health of Education Indians - Mahatma Gandhi 

 

When we compare educated persons in India with those in other countries, we are sadly disappointed. The formation of a new Liberal Ministry in England is now under consideration. The ages of the leaders of this group are very significant for us. Mr. Bryce and Mr. John Morley are 67 years old, Lord Bracey and Sir Henry Campbell- Bannerman are 69, Earl Spencer is 70, and the Duke of Devonshire is 72 and Sir Henry Fowler, 75. Even Sir Charles Dike, whose inclusion in the Ministry is not very probable, is 60, and Lord Roseberry, 57. Some at any rate of these gentlemen are bound to be in the new Ministry. Now, if we look round among Indians in any walk of life, we are unlikely to come by many elderly persons who can boast of sound health and vigour. One might attribute it to the Indian climate, but this can be valid only up to a point. Our men of earlier generations enjoyed long life, full of health and vigour. They were so tall and well built that our contemporaries look diminutive beside them. If the Indian climate of old was so healthy and bracing, it cannot be that it does not now favour a good physique. The real reason is that we are unmindful of the maxims of good health. This attitude of negligence, which begins at school or college, continues into maturity. We remain engrossed in our work, in earning money and in improving our lot. We then hardly stop to realize that it is only natural for the body to wear down under severe strain. Most educated Indians do not have the habit of regular physical exercise. They seem quite innocent of the fact that the mind needs rest and recreation as well. One might find stray clubs and societies [among Indians,] but very few participate in their affairs actively. Some of them, who have little to do at home, prefer low types of pleasure to a chat or a game or two of billiards. Again, unlike Europeans who have an intelligent appreciation of the importance of health and happiness, they do not go to parties, balls, plays nor have they other pastimes. Their lives are dull and monotonous, if we leave out of account the variety of business that demands their attention. Such ways spell the ruin of a whole people; but, unfortunately, no one can as yet foresee their deleterious consequences. Not yet conscious of any ill-health they free from disease. And because they can do their work, digest their food and do not feel any manifest ailment, they consider themselves healthy. All of a sudden, this sense of well-being ceases; they find themselves in the grip of some serious disease, and they despair. We must learn from the example of those who have earlier fallen a prey to this habit, and beware. But then we are too slow and careless to profit by such examples. That is why we do not find among educated Indians persons of ripe old age. This defect is by no means peculiar to any individual or family, rather the entire Indian nation suffers from it. A countrywide effort is most essential in order to save Indian youth from being blighted prematurely.

 

Reference:

Indian Opinion, 11-3-1905