The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism

by Mahatma Gandhi

Vegetarianism should have that moral basis — that a man is not born a carnivorous animal, but born to live on the fruits and herbs that the earth grows.

Genres: Philosophy, India, Nonfiction

33 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, commonly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was the preeminent leader of Indian nationalism in British-ruled India. Employing non-violent civil disobedience, Gandhi led India to independence and inspired movements for non-violence, civil rights and freedom across the world.

The son of a senior government official, Gandhi was born and raised in a Hindu Bania community in coastal Gujarat, and trained in law in London. Gandhi became famous by fighting for the civil rights of Muslim and Hindu Indians in South Africa, using new techniques of non-violent civil disobedience that he developed. Returning to India in 1915, he set about organizing peasants to protest excessive land-taxes. A lifelong opponent of "communalism" (i.e. basing politics on religion) he reached out widely to all religious groups. He became a leader of Muslims protesting the declining status of the Caliphate. Assuming leadership of the Indian National Congress in 1921, Gandhi led nationwide campaigns for easing poverty, expanding women's rights, building religious and ethnic amity, ending untouchability, increasing economic self-reliance, and above all for achieving Swaraj—the independence of India from British domination. His spiritual teacher was the Jain philosopher/poet Shrimad Rajchandra.

Reviews

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wouldn’t be my first choice for a vegetarian book.

For years, I have been a pescatarian, a vegetarian who also eats fish, so I came to this book for the confirmation bias.

Even in high school, I was a pescatarian because my father used to serve a dish that I lovingly call Turkey Brick. To get out of eating this delicacy, I gladly became a pescatarian.

When I ended up re-introducing meat while at university, I slowly descended into a depression. Did I just make that up?

Actually no.

In May 2022, a study came out linking high levels of proline with depression.

Come on, Lisa, I’m not a scientist. Yeah yeah. I’m getting there.

Proline is an amino acid (which is a building block of protein). The primary sources of proline come from animal products: meat, fish, and dairy. Eat large quantities of meat, fish, and dairy, and you can feel depressed.

By 2019, I was feeling extremely tired and having heart issues. The first thing that I tried was going back to being a pescatarian, and this did seem to help.

This book, A Moral Basis for Vegetarianism, is a short book, but it didn’t contain a lot. Most of it was about the vital importance of milk. However, emerging studies have shown a link between dairy consumption and prostate and breast cancer.

One study showed a 34% higher risk of developing prostate cancer when consuming 2.5 servings of dairy daily. Personally, I know of someone who said that he was drinking a gallon of milk a day, was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he stopped drinking milk completely, and his prostate cancer disappeared.

Another study showed a 50% percent increased risk of developing breast cancer with increased milk consumption.

Personally, I agree with many of Gandhi’s sentiments, but I thought that the arguments weren’t fully developed.

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[January · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gandhi has some incredible wisdom to share on quite a few things, but diet is not one of them.

I am two steps away from being a vegetarian, so lately I have been seeking out pro- and anti-vegetarian literature to help me decide. I picked this up expecting some intense discussion on animals and love and non-violence. I thought if anyone could convince me to be a vegetarian, it would be Gandhi.

I was wrong.

This was a collection of quotes, mostly from Gandhi's articles in Young India (also a letter and a speech), with a lot of "shoulds" and "should-nots" involving food. You should only eat 5 ingredients a day. You should not eat too much sugar. You should not eat milk (even though he gets very sick unless he drinks it). You should not eat chilies. You should not eat condiments. You should subsist on fruit and nuts. Surprisingly, very little was about WHY you shouldn't eat meat, just that you shouldn't.

With all the unsubstantiated claims and weird eating rules, it really doesn't read that different from an other modern fad diet book.

Some quotes I pulled:

Don't eat excessively if people are starving. "It may be said without any feat of exaggeration that to partake of
sweetmeats and other delicacies, in a country where the millions do not even get an
ordinary full meal, is equivalent to robbery."

Don't eat for pleasure. "Food should be taken as a matter of duty even as a medicine to sustain the body, never for the satisfaction of the palate."

[Vamsidhar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Instead of using the body as a temple we use it as a vehicle for indulgences and are not ashamed to run to medical men for help in our effort to increase them and abuse the earthly tabernacle

In recent times where vegan and plant-based diet becoming popular, this added many insights into existing ideas.
Gandhi who is known for his "Ahimsa" (Non-violence) way of life restrained from eating meat even against dairy products but numbed down on only milk.
One insight is it's not about eating meat, it's the act of killing animal raises issue of subtle violence that draws us away from being spiritual. Less compassionate.
Besides vegetarianism, it cites the vast importance of diet, eating in limits, intermittent fasting, eating for the body, not for the palate.
Overall a good one, Suited for the title it described moral view along with valid useful information

[Neer Varshney · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure about the relevance of this book to a modern day reader. To compensate, at least it is a very short read.

Most of it is Gandhi giving dietary advice; eat your cereals, fruits, and vegetables, drink your milk, avoid sugar, fried food, yada yada.

The rich eating sweets and delicacies fried in ghee in a country like India, according to the Mahatma, amounts to robbery where so many people struggle to get one simple meal a day.

Outside of the basics, most of Gandhi's advice is outdated and not to be followed in any literal sense. For what it is worth, he does point out the lack of research in his time, and hopes better for the future of dietetics.

But it is when Gandhi begins to talk about the basis of his Vegetarianism that things actually become interesting, and also, awkward.

"I hold flesh food to be unsuited to our species. We err in copying the lower animal world if we are superior to it. Experience teaches that animal food is unsuited to those who would curb their passions."

Make of it what you will. I read it as Gandhi saying that meat eating is for sex maniacs.

The most interesting aspect of this book though, I think, is Gandhi's experiment with veganism, and realizing the limitation of practicing non-violence in fulfilling his physical body's basic needs.

At one point in his life, he vowed away from all dairy products. But it made him too ill and he ultimately started taking goat's milk again [after being convinced by his wife Kasturba that he couldn't have been thinking of a "goat" but only cows and buffaloes when he took the original vow.].

But that is where Gandhi would draw the line. After all, the basis of his vegetarianism was moral, not physical.

"If anybody said that I should die if didn't take beef tea or mutton, even under medical advice, I would prefer death."

Imperfection is all around us, and Gandhi isn't the one to shy away from admitting it; perhaps, that is what makes him so saintly.

"I know that in the act of respiration I destroy innumerable germs floating in the air. But I do not stop breathing."

"All I claim for myself is that I am ceaselessly trying to understand the implications of great ideals like Ahimsa and to practice them in thought, word and deed and that not without a certain measure of success as I think."

[Thurm · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was an interesting perspective. Some of what he says is obviously a little outdated, but overall I think that Gandhi's tidbits of wisdom he works into his discussion of what constitutes a good diet are worth the 33 page read. I wouldn't call this a discourse on "The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism", as only one chapter is really directly about that, but rather his personal philosophy on what one should and should not eat, and how what we eat makes us who we are.

[Keith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written for residents of India. It was also written quite some time ago. Thus there are parts of it that are not applicable to us today.

I found his perspective interesting. He was interested in their welfare, in improving the diets of the people of his country.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's helpful to think about why you may be a vegetarian: political, spiritual, social, etc? Gandhi goes spritual and moral on us, no surprise.

[mikayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

more than anything, this was a list of what gandhi says vegetarians should and should not eat— so the title was a little misleading. he talked about how he hates milk, and if his body didn’t deteriorate without it, he would give it up- and recommends this to other vegetarians (his hatred for milk was emphasized a lot in these 36 pages)

[Ben Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting

Gandhi had quite a unique take on how to diet and the foods he seemed important for one’s health. His advice is pretty interesting and understandable. Even if you’re not a vegetarian or planning to be, I still recommend you read this book. It may give you a different perspective on how you view food.

[Missy Laws · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Wosdom for Good Health

I found this book interesting as well as informative. It gives insight to the use and misuse of foods. The personal experience of Gandhiji further solidifies the validity of clean and proper eating for both physical and spiritual wellbeing through the practice of vegetarianism.

[Charlie Doggett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple and to the Point

Easy to read in a few minutes with just the facts as Gandhi sees them. His approach is just as "medical" as it is "moral." And I don't think I realized his acceptance of milk, though he generally did not drink it, he admits that maybe most people need milk and cheeses in a veggie diet.

[Mallika Soni]

Spiritual and moral. I don't know how and why Gandhi subscribes to these two words in almost all of his writings!

[Guchu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little disappointed that it's more prescription on *what to eat than the morality suggested by the title. Interesting nevertheless.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gandhi, clearly a wise man, has wisdom - yes - but it stems from his Hindu tradition, and is rooted there. It is bound to the idea of non-violence toward animals in its core, but even here Gandhi is unable to set up a reasonable defense, rather he kind of admits that it is very difficult to draw a line between what is ok and what is not, even when eating vegetarian.

This is not a book written by Gandhi with the title in mind, but rather a collection of some of his writing on the topic - meaning it gets a bit unfocused but gives the gist of his view. He does not really give a moral basis for vegetarianism as much as he prompts you to find one.

Gandhi cannot say much about the health benefits as he admits that meat-eaters are healthy too - he instead goes in the direction of "spiritual" health, as if meat eaters are in lack of that. This is wrong too, although not in Hindu tradition - there basically all wise men are vegetarians, and thus show his point valid in that part of the world - although not by causation, it is the other way around. They are Hindus first, vegetarians second(nobody gets wise by becoming vegetarian), and even if Gandhi is careful to say that one should not put faith as the basis, he does exactly that. Maybe even worse, he uses his feeling as the basis at one point.

So Gandhi seems to fall on the premise that restraint is a virtue, and we should practice it in the sense of "satisfaction of the palate" - but why is this only about meat? We do this when we mix flour, water, salt, and yeast to make bread too, right? We eat fruits for this satisfaction, right? I have seen this argument from vegetarians before, and it baffles me how it can be a good one that is so widely used when Vegetarians seem to struggle so to satisfy their palate with their restriction in ingredients and always promoting "the best tasting vegetarian recipes of x" for others to understand that vegetarians too can satisfy the taste buds.

Eating is a lot about satisfaction of our palate, as well as satisfying our hunger. And thus, Gandhis arguments in these short texts seem to fall moot.

[Ile · Rating 3 out of 5]

Me prestaron una edición antigua, con encuadernación cosida, y no pude resistirme.

Interesante si podemos pensar en el tiempo y en el contexto en el que fue escrito. Los valores éticos morales se van desprendiendo en medio de muchas aseveraciones nutricionales que se hacen "poniendo las manos en el fuego" y que hoy son obsoletas. Como por ejemplo, aseverar que un oficinista no necesita comer legumbres, cuando hoy , la ciencia avala y recomienda, el consumo diario y sostenido de legumbres para toda la población, salvo expresa contraindicación medica. Vuelvo a repetir.. 196o, India pasando hambre.

Aun así, me gusto mucho esta lectura que catalogo como curiosidad histórica.

[Kasturi Dadhe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always have been a staunch believer of vegetarianism, lots of my beliefs were only further reinforced by this short book. I would've liked to read more of the philosopher's thoughts on the perspective of morality.

One doubt, however, remains with me is how do you justify vegetarianism to countries and folks where green produce is not easily grown and cultivated.