Mahatma Gandhi And Vegetarianism

There is a big chance you have heard of Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi. Many people recognize Gandhi for his peaceful efforts in the Indian revolution. He fought for civil rights and freedom for Indian citizens from British rule. He was also, and still is, known as one of the greatest thinkers of his time, thus the nick-name Mahatma or, “great soul”. He was known for his peaceful civil disobedience and Ahisma, or nonviolence, including toward animals.

Gandhi was born in Porbandar India on October 02, 1869. He was assassinated on January 30th, 1948 in Delhi India (cite biography). He came from a Hindu family with a very religiously devout mother who would later influence Gandhi on his religious views and practices. Gandhi wished to live a normal life, despite being viewed as one of India’s greatest men.

The decision that will be analyzed is Gandhi’s decision to become a vegetarian. For Gandhi food was not something that took away hunger, he believed that it shaped the human consciousness (cite life positive article). Gandhi was a Hindu, a religion that practices vegetarianism, although he was not a vegetarian for his whole life. He ate meat as a young boy in belief that the power from the British came from their meat-eating diet (Cite BBC article here). He soon after returned to vegetarianism because he felt ashamed from deceiving his strict vegetarian family. At the age of thirteen Gandhi decided to become a strict vegetarian for his whole life. There is no specific date for this decision, but he does speak about his dietary decisions in his book written in 1949, Diet and Diet Reform.

Gandhi also had many other views on the human diet. As part of his belief in Ahimsa, he chose to be a vegetarian but Gandhi also had an interest in ...

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... and its correlation with food. He helped inspire medical professionals to reevaluate studies on diet.

Gandhi’s decision to become a vegetarian also brought awareness to his non-violent views. Gandhi preached about non-violence in all aspects of life, especially food. He believed that animals should be treated as moral beings and not as just an item. He also thought that a man becomes what he eats, and the grosser the food, the grosser the body (cite his book here).

Gandhi’s diet was filled with a variety vegetables, fruits, nuts and grains and goats milk. His diet included minimal sugars and whole grains. His diet is now the basis of the ideal diet pattern being promoted today. To me, there are more pros than cons of going vegetarian as meat has been linked to causing cancer and various other diseases, so I believe it is a good decision (cite wise geek article).