 | HINDU MUSLIM UNITY Swaraj in one year |  |
HINDU MUSLIM UNITY
Mr. Gandhi, in opening the Tibbi College
at Delhi on Feb. 13, said:—
Hakimji and Friends,—It was not without
reluctance that I agreed to perform the
ceremony of declaring this great institution
formally open. I know that had it not been
for the unfortunate estrangement created
between the Government and ourselves his
Excellency the present Viceroy would have
been requested to open an institution whose
foundation-stone was laid by his predecessor.
You will naturally appreciate my embarrassment
in finding myself a substitute for so
exalted a personage as the Viceroy. The second
reason for my reluctance is still more personal.
I hold strange views on medicine and hospital
and have scrupulously avoided any special
contact with such institutions. But my
reluctance was overborne by my regard for our
worthy Hakimji. I must frankly confess that
have undertaken to perform the ceremony for
political motives. I regard the Hakimji as an
embodiment of Hindu Muslim unity, without
institution, too, as a symbol of that unity. It,
therefore, gives me pleasure to be associated
with to-day's ceremony.
You must have listened to the report
just read with interest and profit. It is
a record of substantial progress and strenuous
labour. It shows what one man's energy
devoted with single-mindedness can do. May
God grant long life to the Hakimji and
enable him to complete the programme
sketched by him. I hope that the monied
men of the country will lighten his labours
by sending him unsolicited donations.
You will note that, besides declaring this
institution open, I am to unveil the portraits
of Lord and Lady Hardinge. It will give me
particular pleasurs to be privileged to perform
that function, giving us, as it does, an opportunity
of showing that in the battle of non-cooperation
we are not actuated by an antiBritish
spirit and that our national ideal
includes the treasuring of the memory of good
deeds done by anybody, be he English or
Indian.
In order to avoid any misinterpretation
of my views on medicine, I would crave your
exposition of them. I have said in a booklet[1]
much criticised at the present moment that
the present practice of medicine is the concentrated
essence of Black Magic. I believe
that a multiplicity of hospitals is no test of
civilization. It is rather a symptom of decay,
even as a multiplicity of Pinjrapoles is a
symptom of the indifference to the welfare of
their cattle by the people in whose midst they
are brought into being. I hope, therefore, that
this college will be concerned chiefly with the
prevention of diseases rather than their cure.
The science of sanitation is infinitely more
ennobling, though more difficult of execution,
than the science of healing. I regard the
present system as Black Magic, because it
tempts people to put an undue importance on
the body and practically ignores the spirit
within. I would urge the students and professors
of the college to investigate the laws
governing the health of the spirit, and they
will find that they will yield startling results
even with reference to the cure of the body.
The present science of medicine is divorced
from religion. A man who attends to his
spirit need never get ill. A clean spirit must
build a clean body. I am convinced that the
main rules of religious conduct conserve both
the spirit and the body. Let me hope and
pray that this college will witness a definite
attempt on the part of the physicians to bring
about a reunion between the body and the
soul. Modern medical science, having ignored
the condition of the permanent element in
the human system in diagnosing diseases, has
ignored the limitations that should naturally
exist regarding the field of its activity. In
trying to cure a body of its disease, it has
totally disregarded the claims of the subhuman
creation. Man, instead of being the
lord and, therefore, the protector of the lower
animal kingdom, has become its tyrant, and
the science of medicine has been probably his
chief instrument for tyranny. Vivisection, in
my opinion, is the blackest of all the blackest
crimes that man is at present committing
against God and his fair creation. We should
be able to refuse to live if the price of living be
the torture of sentient being. It ill becomes us
to invoke the blessings in our daily prayers of
God, the compassionate, if we in turn will not
fellow-creatures. Would to God that this
college, founded by one of the best of Indian
physicians, will bear in mind the limitations
that God, in my humble opinion, has set upon,
our activity.
Having said this much, I would like to
pay my humble tribute to the spirit of research
that fires the modern scientist. My quarrel is
not against that spirit. My complaint is
against the direction that the spirit has taken.
It has chiefly concerned itself with the
exploration of the laws and methods conducing
to the merely material advancement
of its clientele. But I have nothing but
praise for the zeal, the industry and the
sacrifice that have animated the modern
scientists in their pursuit after truth. I regret
to have to record my opinion based on considerable
experience that our Hakims and Vaids do
not exhibit that spirit in any mentionable
degree. They follow without question formulas.
They carry on little investigation. The
condition of indigenous medicine is truly
deplorable. Not having kept abreast of modern
research, their profession has fallen largely into
disrepute. I am hoping that this college will
Ayurvedic and Unani medical science to its
pristine glory. I am glad, therefore, that this
institution has its western wing. Is it too
much to hope that a union of the three systems
will result in a harmonious blending and in
purging each of special defects?
Lastly, I shall hope this college will set
its face absolutely against all quackery, western
or eastern, refuse to recognise any but sterling
worth, and that it will inculcate among the
students the belief that the profession of medicine
is not intended for earning fat fees but for
alleviating pain and suffering. With the
prayer that God may bless the labours of its
founder and organizers, I formally declare the
Tibbi College open.
| HINDU MUSLIM UNITY Swaraj in one year | |