Mahatma Gandhi Was a Vegetarian

It goes without saying that the great twentieth - century apostle of nonviolence Mohandas Gandhi Was a Vegetarian. His parents, being devout Hindus, never gave him meat, fish, or eggs.

Under British rule, however, there was a great attack on the age - old principles of Indian culture. Under such pressures, many Indians began to adopt the meat - eating habits of the west.

Even Gandhi fell victim to the advice of some school friends, who urged him to eat meat because it would increase his strength and courage. But he later resumed a Vegetarian Diet and wrote, " 

It is necessary to correct the error that vegetarianism has made us weak in mind, or passive or inert in action. I do not regard flesh - food as necessary at any stage." he wrote five books on vegetarianism.

His own daily diet included wheat sprouts, almond paste, greens, lemons, and honey. He founded Tolstoy Farm, a community based on vegetarian principles. In his Moral Basis of Vegetarianism Gandhi wrote," I hold flesh - food to be unsuited to our species. we err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it." He felt that ethical principles are a stronger support for lifelong commitment to a vegetarian diet than reasons of health.

" I do feel," he stated, "that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants."