World of Philosophy

Author(s): Christopher Key Chapple, Intaj Malek, Dilip Charan, Sunanda Shastri, Prashant Dave
Publisher: Shanti Prakashan

Page 59

ance of a course of medicine must, therefore, result in loss of control over the mind.... Had the doctor not intervened, nature would have done its work, and I would have acquired mastery over myself, would have been freed from vice, and
would have become happy (HS 63). Though this approach seems to arrogate all illness to the mind without taking into account truly debilitating conditions beyond human control, Gandhi nonetheless offers insight and wisdom. The rise of diabetes worldwide is due in part to the increase of caloric intake. Many diseases, including those related to alcoholism and smoking, arise due to human behavior.
Gandhi, as a vegetarian, considered the life of animals to be sacred and advocated for the protection of animals. He was a vocal anti-vivisectionist. He wrote:
European doctors are the worst of all. For the sake of a mistaken care of the human body, they kill annually thousands of animals. They practise vivisection. No religion sanctifies this. All say that it is not necessary to take so many lives for the sake of our bodies. These doctors violate our religious instinct. Most of their medical preparations contain either animal fat or spirituous liquors; both of these are tabooed by Hindus and Mahomedans... The fact remains that the doctors induce us to indulge, and the result is that we have become deprived of self-control and have become effeminate....
To study European medicine is to deepen our slavery (64). Anticipating the rapaciousness of pharmaceutical companies, he also observed:
Doctors make a show of their knowledge, and charge exorbitant fees. Their preparations, which are intrinsically worth a few pennies, cost shillings. The populace in its credulity and in the hope of ridding itself of some disease, allows itself to be cheated (65)
As one reflects on the disproportionate compensation given to physicians, particularly in the United States, and the extreme expense of both medicine and insurance, Gandhi's homespun remarks continue to be poignant.
In his nineteen point call for action, he proclaimed that a doctor, in order to exert the strength needed for Swaraj, "...will give up medicine, and understand that, rather than mending bodies, he should mend souls" (117). He called all physicians to abjure vivisection: