E-Book - Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi – His Life & TimesWhen Hinduism forbids the taking of the life of any living being,' the letterfumed, 'when it declares it to be a sin, do you think it right to kill rabid dogsfor the reason that they would bite human beings and by biting other dogsmake them also rabid?'Gandhi published the letter in Young India under the caption 'Is This Humanity?'The letter and his reply filled the entire first page and half the second page.Yes, it was true. He had said, what else could be done?' and having thought itover, 'I ...feel that my reply was quite proper ...'Imperfect, erring mortals as we are,' he declared in explanation, 'there is nocourse open to us but the destruction of rabid dogs. At times we may be facedwith the unavoidable duty of killing a man who is found in the act of killingpeople.’The next issue of Young India gave its front page to the same question underthe same caption, 'Is This Humanity- The first article had brought a deluge of‘angry letters'. Worse, people came to Gandhi to insult him, 'At an hour', hewrote, 'when after a hard day's work I was about to retire to be ' three friendsinvaded me, infringed the religion of non violence in the name of humanity andengaged me m discussion on it.' Gandhi used the word 'friends' only becaus® heconsidered everybody a friend. One of the 'friends a Jain and he 'betrayedanger, bitterness and arrogance.Gandhi had grown up under the influence of the absolute non-violence ofJainism. 'Many take me to be a Jain,' Gandhi declared. But Mahavira, thefounder of Jainism, 'was an incarnation of compassion, of non-violence. How Iwish his votaries were votaries also of non-violence'.Gandhi stuck to his guns. 'The multiplication of dogs is', he wrote, 'unnecessary.A roving dog without an owner is a danger to society and a swarm of them is amenace to its very existence.' If people were really religious, dogs would haveowners. 'There is a regular science of dog-keeping in the West ... We shouldlearn it.'www.mkgandhi.org Page 268