________________
2 22
THE JAINA GAZETTE
71
Countries.
Per 1.000. 1. Christiania
54 2. New York 3. London
80 4. Hamburg
95 5. Berlin
135 6. Bombay (1924)
634 There are diseases like Malaria, Tuberculosis, etc., which are increasing the mortality rate in India. For instance, Malaria alone is killing 13 lacs (1 million and 300 thousand) of Indians every year.
Besides these, deaths from famine and starvation must be taken into account. The reader will be struck dumb to read the famine mortality figures and see the charts given by William Digby up to 1900 in his ironically named book, “Prosperous British India " and further up to 1916 in “ England's Debt to India " by Lala Lajpat Rai.
Add to this the all-round dependence of the Indian people and their helpless position.
We will then get a net result of the moral, mental and material degradation. It is ruination of the Indian nation.
Can India be called a happy, contented and prosperous land then ?
India which was once one of the most fertile countries in the world, rich in flora and fauna, plants and flowers, cereals and cotton, mines and minerals, men and mind, today looks like a dreary land.
By reason of its human and natural resources India ought to be one of the richest, the prettiest and the healthiest countries in the world.
Yet, she is one of the poorest, most miserable and most unhappy countries of the world.
India' today looks like a grave-yard! What shall her sons and daughters do to make her a garden again?
..-Volunteer for May, 1927.
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
