The Aryan Path September 1938

In the Chapter " Condition of England " after a pungent description of Parliament as a costly toy of the nation with very unpleasant characteristics and of the newspapers more original in 1908 than to-day the evils are ascribed not to the faults of the people but to modern civilisation. [...] In this book Gandhi speaks of the evils of the Indian civilisation—of child marriage and child widows of prostitution of the sacrifice of sheep and goats in the name of religion. [...] But does not the very achievement of the spiritual insight sufficient to resist the intrduction of the Machine necessarily also imply the achievement of the spiritual power the self-discipline to use the Machine beneficently ? In other words if Satyagraha is a real condition permeating and inspiring a community must not that comunity obviously possess the widom and self-control to us [...] Only when those convinced of the efficacy of the Law of Love occupy the places of the legislator and the administrator will the leaven of Hind Swaraj do its beneficent work for this ancient land. [...] It is to its progress that selfishness and materialism the greatest curses of the nations are due ; and the latter will most surely lead to the annihilation of art and of the appreciation of the truly harmonious and beautiful.