Chapter 52 Chapter 25 In India

The train stopped at Allahaba for forty-five minutes on its way to Bombay.I decided to use this time to take a walk around the city.I also get some medicine from the pharmacy.The pharmacist was half asleep, and he dispensed the medicine so slowly that the train was leaving just as I was returning to the station.The station master kindly delayed my driving time for one minute, but he didn't see me coming back, so he had to ask someone to take my luggage off the train carefully. I took a room at the Kearney Hotel, and decided to do a little work on the spot.I have heard much about the Herald, a paper in Allahabad, which I know to be opposed to the wishes of the Indians.I remember that the editor-in-chief at the time was Mr. Gisney Jr.I wanted to get all the help I could, so I wrote a note to Mr. Gisney, telling him how I had missed the train, and asking him to make an appointment to talk so I could leave next day.He immediately agreed, and to my great delight he listened patiently to my advice.He promised to report anything I wrote in his paper, but stated that he could not agree to support all demands of the Indians, since he must understand and give due weight to the views of the colonists.

"That will suffice," said I, "as long as you promise to study the subject and discuss it in your paper. All I ask and hope for is the bare justice we deserve." I spent the rest of the day looking at the majestic confluence of the three rivers and planning the work that lay ahead of me. This unexpected conversation with the chief writer of the Herald laid the groundwork for the series of events which culminated in my execution in Natal. I did not stop in Bombay, but went straight back to Rajkot to prepare a pamphlet on the situation in South Africa.It took almost a month for this pamphlet to go from writing to publishing.The booklet had a green cover and became known as The Green Book.I have purposefully painted a picture of the repressed condition of Indians in South Africa in this little book.The language I have used is much gentler than the two aforementioned pamphlets, because I know that the facts of rumors from afar are often stronger than the truth.

A total of 10,000 copies of this pamphlet were printed and distributed to Indian newspapers and leading figures in various fields. The Herald was the first to publish an editorial on the pamphlet, a summary of which was sent to the UK by Reuters, and then to Natal by the Lunzi Headquarters.The telegram, which was printed in no more than three lines, was only a brief exaggeration of what I had described as what happened to the Indians at Natal, and was not my own words.The effect this had on Natal we shall see later.At the same time, every reputable newspaper had a lot to say on the subject.

It was no small matter to send out these pamphlets.It would also be expensive to hire someone to pack it, but I came up with an easier way.I gathered all the local children and asked them to volunteer for two or three hours every morning when they were not going to school.This they voluntarily accepted.I promised to give them my collection of stamps as a reward.They quickly completed the task. This was my first experience recruiting children as volunteers, and two of them have become my colleagues today. At this time, an infectious disease broke out in Mumbai, which made the people in the vicinity panic, and everyone worried that Rajkot would not be spared.I thought I would be of some help in the health department, so I signed up for the government.My application was accepted and I was assigned to work on the committee responsible for this issue.I put a lot of emphasis on the cleanliness of the toilets, and the committee decided to check every street toilet.Poor people did not refuse us to inspect the toilets, and they also followed our suggestions to improve their cleaning and sanitation work.

However, when we went to check out the finer homes, some refused to even let us in, let alone accept suggestions for improvement.Our common experience is that the toilets of rich people are dirtier than those of poor people. Their toilets are dark, smelly, dirty, and full of maggots.The improvement suggestions we put forward are very simple: use buckets to hold the excrement, so as not to spread it all over the place, remove the wall of the toilet, so that there is enough light and air in the toilet, and it is also easy for the cleaners to remove it.Innumerable objections have been raised by the gentlemen to this latter suggestion, and many have not been carried out at all.

The committee will also have to go and inspect areas where no contact is possible.Only one person on the committee was willing to go and see it with me.It is somewhat absurd to the rest of the population to visit such people's places, let alone check their toilets. But to me, going to these places is a happy accident.This is the first time in my life to this kind of area.The men and women there were amazed to see us coming.I asked them to show us their toilets. "Our toilet!" they exclaimed in amazement. "We all defecate in the open. Toilets, only you big men have that."

"So you wouldn't mind if we went to see your house?" I asked. "You're very welcome, sir. You can look around in our house. We don't really live in houses. They're caves." I went inside and was delighted to find that the inside was as clean as the outside.The passages were well swept, the floors were handsomely smeared with cow dung, and the few pots and pans had been scoured to glisten.There is no need to worry about infectious diseases in such areas. In the residential area of ​​the upper class, we saw a toilet, I can't help but write a few more words here.Every room has a small ditch, water and urine go into the small ditch, and the whole house smells bad.But one of the houses has a sleeping room with an upper floor, and the small ditch in the room is used for toileting and defecating.This ditch has a pipe leading directly downstairs.The smell in the room is unbearable; how the people who live in it can sleep is left to the reader to think.

The committee also inspected the Haveli temple of the Vaishnas.The monk in charge of this haveli temple was friendly with my family, so he agreed to let us check it out at will and let us suggest any improvements.There was one part of the Haveli temple that he himself had never been to.This is where people used to throw in mess and dinner plate leaves over the walls, where crows and eagles roosted.The toilets in the temple are, of course, very dirty.How much our advice was adopted by the monk is unknown, since I did not live long in Rajkot. I was saddened to see a place of worship so bad.A place that is considered sacred and people expect special attention in terms of cleanliness and hygiene.As far as I know, even at that time, many classic authors attached great importance to inner and outer cleanliness.