Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the centenary edition
- Acknowledgements
- Editor's introduction to the centenary edition
- Editor's introduction to the 1997 edition
- A note on the history of the text
- Principal events in Gandhi's life
- Biographical synopses
- Guide to further reading
- Glossary and abbreviations
- HIND SWARAJ
- Contents
- Preface to the English translation
- Foreword
- I The Congress and its officials
- II The Partition of Bengal
- III Discontent and unrest
- IV What is Swaraj?
- V The condition of England
- VI Civilisation
- VII Why was India lost?
- VIII The condition of India
- IX The condition of India (cont.): railways
- X The condition of India (cont.): the Hindus and the Mahomedans
- XI The condition of India (cont.): lawyers
- XII The condition of India (cont.): doctors
- XIII What is true civilisation?
- XIV How can India become free?
- XV Italy and India
- XVI Brute force
- XVII Passive resistance
- XVIII Education
- XIX Machinery
- XX Conclusion
- I APPENDICES
- SUPPLEMENTARY WRITINGS
- Bibliography
- Index
XII - The condition of India (cont.): doctors
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 October 2014
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface to the centenary edition
- Acknowledgements
- Editor's introduction to the centenary edition
- Editor's introduction to the 1997 edition
- A note on the history of the text
- Principal events in Gandhi's life
- Biographical synopses
- Guide to further reading
- Glossary and abbreviations
- HIND SWARAJ
- Contents
- Preface to the English translation
- Foreword
- I The Congress and its officials
- II The Partition of Bengal
- III Discontent and unrest
- IV What is Swaraj?
- V The condition of England
- VI Civilisation
- VII Why was India lost?
- VIII The condition of India
- IX The condition of India (cont.): railways
- X The condition of India (cont.): the Hindus and the Mahomedans
- XI The condition of India (cont.): lawyers
- XII The condition of India (cont.): doctors
- XIII What is true civilisation?
- XIV How can India become free?
- XV Italy and India
- XVI Brute force
- XVII Passive resistance
- XVIII Education
- XIX Machinery
- XX Conclusion
- I APPENDICES
- SUPPLEMENTARY WRITINGS
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
reader: I now understand the lawyers; the good they may have done is accidental. I feel that the profession is certainly hateful. You, however, drag in the doctors also, how is that?
editor: The views I submit to you are those I have adopted. They are not original. Western writers have used stronger terms regarding both lawyers and doctors. One writer has likened the whole modern system to the Upas tree. Its branches are represented by parasitical professions, including those of law and medicine, and over the trunk has been raised the axe of true religion. Immorality is the root of the tree. So you will see that the views do not come right out of my mind, but they represent the combined experiences of many. I was at one time a great lover of the medical profession. It was my intention to become a doctor for the sake of the country. I no longer hold that opinion. I now understand why the medicine men (the vaids) among us have not occupied a very honourable status.
The English have certainly effectively used the medical profession for holding us. English physicians are known to have used the profession with several Asiatic potentates for political gain.
Doctors have almost unhinged us. Sometimes I think that quacks are better than highly qualified doctors. Let us consider: the business of a doctor is to take care of the body, or, properly speaking, not even that.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Gandhi: 'Hind Swaraj' and Other Writings , pp. 60 - 63Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009