India of My Dreams

36. Village Diet

37. The Village Worker
38. All-around Village Service
39. A Call to Youth
40. The Nations Health, Hygiene and Diet
41. Drink and Drugs
42. Urban Sanitation
43. Evil Wrought by the Foreign Medium
44. My Own Experience
45. Indias Cultural Heritage
46. The New Education
47. Basic Education
48. Higher Education
49. Ashram Ideal of Education
50. National Language and Script
51. Provincial Languages
52. Hindi in the South
53. A Code for Students
54. Regeneration of Indian Women
55. Womens Education
56. Birth-Control
57. Sex Education
58. Children
59. Communal Unity
60. Varnashrama Dharma
61. The Curse of Untouchability
62. Religious Tolerance in India
63. Proselytization
64. Problems of Administration
65. Reorganization of Provinces
66. The Problem of Minorities
67. An India Governor
68. The Press
69. Peace Brigades
70. Indian Nation Congress
71. India, Pakistan and Kashmir
72. Foreign Settlements in India
73. India and World Peace
74. The message of the East
75. Obiter Dicta
Glossary
Sources

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India of My Dreams

TO THE READER
I would like to say to the diligent reader of my writings and to others who are interested
in them that I am not at all concerned with appearing to be consistent. In my search after
Truth I have discarded many ideas and learnt many new things. Old as I am in age, I have
no feeling that I have ceased to grow inwardly or that my growth will stop at the
dissolution of the flesh. What I am concerned with is my readiness to obey the call of
Truth, my God, from moment to moment, and, therefore, when anybody finds any
inconsistency between any two writings of mine, if he has still faith in my sanity, he
would do well to choose the later of the two on the same subject.
Harijan, 29-4-33, p. 2

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M.K.GANDHI

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Chapter 01
INDIA OF MY DREAMS
verything in India attracts me. It has everything that a human being with the highest
possible aspirations can want.
Young India, 21-2-29

India is essentially karmabhumi (land of duty) in contradistinction to bhogabhumi (land

of enjoyment).
Young India, 5-2-25

India is one of the few nations on the earth which have retained some of their ancient
institutions although they have been overlaid with superstition and error. But she has
hitherto shown an inherent capacity for purging herself of error and superstition. My
faith in her ability to solve the economic problems that face her millions has never
been so it is today.
Young India, 6-8-25

I feel that Indias mission is different from that of others. India it fitted for the
religious supremacy of the world. There is no parallel in the world for the process of
purification that this country has voluntarily undergone. India is less in need of steel
weapons, it has fought with divine weapons, it can still do so. Other nations have been
votaries of brute force. The terrible war going on in Europe furnishes a forcible
illustration of the truth. India can win all by soul force. History supplies numerous
instances to prove that brute force is as nothing before soul force. Poets have sung
about it and seers have described their experiences.
Speeches and Writings of Mahatma Gandhi, p. 405

If India takes up the doctrine of the sword, she may gain momentary victory. Then
India will cease to be the pride of my heart. I am wedded to India because I owe my all
to her. I believe absolutely that she has a mission for all the world. She is not to copy

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India of My Dreams

Europe blindly. Indias acceptance of the sword will be the hour of my trial. I hope I
shall not be fund wanting. My religion has no geographical limits. If I have a living faith
in it, it will transcend my love for India herself. My life dedicated to service of India
through the religion of non-violence.
Young India, 11-8-20

If India makes violence her creed, and I have survived, I would not care to live in India.
She will cease to evoke any pride in me. My patriotism is subservient to my religion. I
cling to India like a child to its mothers breast, because I feel that she gives me the
spiritual nourishment I need. She has the environment that responds to my highest
aspirations. When that faith is gone, I shall feel like an orphan without hope of ever
finding a guardian.
Young India, 6-4-21

I would like to see India free and strong so that she may offer herself a willing and
pure sacrifice for the betterment of the world. Indias freedom must revolutionize the
worlds outlook upon peace and war. Her importance affects of mind.
Young India, 17-9-25

I am humble enough to admit that there is much that we can profitably assimilate from
the West. Wisdom is no monopoly of one continent or one race. My resistance to
Western civilization is really a resistance to its indiscriminate and thoughtless imitation
based on the assumption that Asiatics are fit only to copy every thing that comes from
the West.I do believe that if India has patience enough to go through the fire of
suffering and to resist any unlawful encroachment upon her own civilization which,
imperfect though it undoubtedly is, has hitherto stood the ravages of time, she can
make a lasting contribution to the peace and solid progress of the world.
Young India, 11-8-27

Indias destiny lies not along the bloody way of the West, of which she shows signs of
tiredness, but along the bloodless way of peace that comes from a simple and godly

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India of My Dreams

life. India is in danger of losing her soul. She cannot lose it and live. She must not,
therefore, lazily and helplessly say, I cannot escape the onrush from the West. She
must be strong enough to resist it for her own sake and that of the world.
Young India, 7-10-26

European civilization is no doubt suited for the Europeans but it will mean ruin for
India, if we endeavour to copy it. This is not to say that we may not adopt and
assimilate whatever may be good and capable of assimilation by us as it does not also
mean that even the Europeans will not have to part with whatever evil might have
crept into it. The incessant search for material comforts and their multiplication is
such an evil, and I make bold to say that the Europeans themselves will have to
remodel their outlook, if they are not to perish under the weight of the comforts to
which they are becoming slaves. It may be that my reading is wrong, but I know that
for India to run after the Golden Fleece is to court certain death. Let us engrave in our
hearts the motto of a Western philosopher, plain living and high thinking. Today it is
certain that the millions cannot have high living and we the few who profess to do the
thinking for the masses run the risk, in a vain search after high living, of missing high
thinking.
Young India, 30-4-31

I shall strive for a constitution, which will release India from all thralldom and
patronage, and give her, if need be, the right to sin, I shall work for an India, in which
the poorest shall it is their country in whose making they have an effective voice; an
India in which there shall be no high class and low class of people; an India in which all
communities shall live in perfect harmony. There can be no room in such an India for
the curse of untouchability or the curse of the intoxicating drinks and drugs. Women
will enjoy the same rights as men. Since we shall not be at peace with all the rest of
the world, exploiting, nor being exploited, we should have the smallest army
imaginable, all interests not in conflict with the interests of the dumb millions will be
scrupulously respected, whether foreign or indigenous. Personally, I hate distinction
between foreign and indigenous. This is the India of my dreams.I shall be satisfied
with nothing less.

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Young India, 10-9-31

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