Food for thought

The book explores Mahatma Gandhi’s obsession with diet and food and his experiments and innovations in them to improve health and nutrition.

T O add to the vast body of literature already existing on Mahatma Gandhi, a fresh series has appeared on the centenary of his first visit to Champaran, Bihar, in 1917. The earlier literature deals mostly with his contributions to India’s Independence through a non-violent struggle that inspired people across the globe.

However, this focus has meant that Gandhi’s extensive experiments in his personal life and his innovations in the socio-economic domains were ignored. All of them have deep implications for the development discourse, the role of science and technology in human progress, and for the environment. From this angle, the book under review, Gandhi’s Search for the Perfect Diet: Eating with the World in Mind by Nico Slate, is a welcome addition. It is a work that has insights from various disciplines, but I review it as a social historian of science.

Seven chapters

The book is divided into seven chapters: “Salt”; “Chocolate”, “Goat Meat and Peanut Milk”, “Raw, Whole, Real”, “Natural Medicine”, “Farming” and “Fasting”. The simple-sounding chapter titles are deceptive, however, as the chapters contain intricate details culled from diverse sources and analysed from various angles. The introduction sets the tone for the study, briefly sketching Gandhi’s approach to diet in terms of his sociopolitical and ethical grounding and goals. Through Gandhi’s diet preferences, Slate follows his evolution from a shy and reticent student in Britain to a public leader. Gradually, the author delves deeper into Gandhi’s passion for diet and food in general, a theme little examined in the past or, at least, never in the way Slate has done.

For Gandhi, diet was crucial in life in many ways: Personally, he was concerned about diet to keep himself healthy to serve humanity, and control over his palate was an exercise in control over his temptations and desires.

Beyond that, in Gandhi’s view, the correct diet was vital for national health, productive labour and national development. Many of the ideas and practices that defined his diet also “came to shape all facets of his politics: not just non-violence, but also tolerance, humility, and relentless experimentation” (page 6), the author underlines in the successive chapters.

The author starts with Gandhi’s views on salt, chocolate, sugar and sweets (Chapters 1 and 2) and then tackles Gandhi’s engagement with the issues of vegetarianism, and this mirrors his non-violent opposition to colonial rule. He associated himself with the vegetarian movement in Britain before he turned to South Africa and finally to India (Chapter 3).

“Raw, Whole, Real” looks at the problems of poverty and backwardness of the country and Gandhi’s concern for the diet and health of the poor. Raw food “would emancipate not only India’s poor but also its women. If cooking could be avoided, …women will be set free from the prison-house of the kitchen”, Gandhi believed (page 80).

As he pursued multiple goals—the unity of India, the end of poverty, and the liberation of women—he juggled multiple dietary plans to achieve them (page 80). While focussing on the various elements of a diet, he also tried to find substitutes for them from the wild, and after experimenting with many plants and tubers, he recommended some of them for public consumption, including luni (purslane), chakwat (white goosefoot), sarsau (mustard) and suva (dill) (pages 97-98).

The author looks at simple facts or episodes and unlocks deeper meanings in them though he occasionally fails to grasp their subtleties. Gandhi is shown to have imbibed ample influences from the vegetarian movement in Britain, but the impact of his indigenous culture, including Jain influences, is somewhat underestimated (though referred to on pages 26, 50-51). Maybe it is an error in understanding the background.

Nonetheless, Slate has presented an excellent history of Gandhi’s dietary evolution. The Mahatma is shown to perceive some kind of violence even in the pursuit of agriculture and consumption of fruits (pages 95-96). In that, he may be seen as one of the earliest exponents of what we call “deep environmentalism” today.

The chapter “Natural Medicine” talks about Gandhi’s perception of food as a preventive agent against illness. For this and to mitigate widespread starvation, he researched and experimented with numerous ingredients, developed new recipes and even offered them to celebrities such as the American activist Margret Sanger (pages 113-18).

Healing practices

He also scrutinised all forms of healing practices—Ayurveda, Unani, naturopathy and allopathy. He criticised the traditional schools for the tall claims they made without evidence. He opposed modern medicine but praised its practitioners for not shying away from learning from others and for owning up to their mistakes. By the mid 1930s, Gandhi was undergoing significant changes in his attitude towards Western medicine and modern science essentially because of their emphasis on evidence, data and experimentation (pages 111-12). While he learned from all traditions, he praised “evidence-based medicine” rooted in nature and diet (page 101).

Gandhi’s interest in food led him to look at farming and agriculture, where he was confronted with a variety of problems. Malnutrition and starvation introduced him to famine and unequal land distribution and, finally, to the role of colonialism in the matter. Gandhi had conjured up a romantic view of self-sustained village life. He tried to recreate it first in South Africa at his Tolstoy Farm and later at his ashrams in India. But his stint in rural India revealed the harsh realities—poverty, starvation, malnutrition and insanitary conditions.

Therefore, he stepped up his efforts to alleviate the situation. He prioritised innovation in diet. He experimented himself and consulted with experts in the field, such as Wallace Ruddell Aykroyd, director of nutrition research in India. When the All India Village Industries Association was founded in 1934 to promote rural uplift, Gandhi brought on its board the noted expert Robert McCarrison, Director of the Nutritional Research Laboratories, Coonoor (pages 90-91, 135-36). Thus, “Gandhi developed an ecological diet that respected the many connections between his food and his physical, social, and political environments. He refined nutrition in a way to build a more just world” (page 4).

Initially, Gandhi considered the measures the colonial authorities took during famines to be philanthropic. But once he realised the complexity of the problem, he traced the genesis of famine to colonialism. Thus, food became a tool of his opposition to the Raj. The starvation during the Bengal famine of 1943 laid bare the realities. Unequal land distribution was a major contributory factor but was tricky to deal with because many of the big landlords were members of the Congress. So, while Gandhi did not give up the issue altogether, he chose to appeal to the rich to address it on moral grounds; however, he himself stepped up initiatives on the issue in many ways. He had already been employing fasting as a method to achieve his political, social and ethical goals; over time, he used it also at the level of spirituality (Chapters 6 and 7.)

Slate concludes with an intricate discussion on Gandhi—the man and the Mahatma—torn between worldly desires and spirituality. The author inquires into Gandhi’s psyche and philosophy, illustrating his points with examples such as Gandhi’s love for mangoes and his fond relations with Sarla Devi Chaudhurani, a Bengali feminist who at the time was working for women’s empowerment.

A little baffled, Slate, a historian, calls on experts from other disciplines to resolve the puzzle that goes beyond both diet and science (pages 162-69).

Slate is no doubt impressed by the Mahatma, and the epilogue is in part a tribute. He happily notes that many key elements of Gandhi’s diet (raw, vegetarian and fasting) are undergoing a “renaissance” and there is a movement afoot “to link food to the social and economic empowerment of the poor and to the health of the planet”.

The book depicts Gandhi’s obsession with food—which resembles a phenomenon medically known as the eating disorder anorexia (page 8)—in numerous instances. But one must not forget that Gandhi was almost equally obsessed with everything he decided to work at, be it the freedom movement, the practice of ahimsa, sanitation, communalism or the charkha and khadi. He had the stamina and capacity to work on many things at the same time and still maintain his composure. His daily routine was packed with engagements, yet he never lost sight of his concerns relating to freedom for his countrymen and for humanity from subjugation, exploitation and poverty and the welfare of all species. This was apparent also from his diet. His constant interest in experimenting and innovations in diet as a means to good health were ultimately aimed at many of his life goals. He kept ethics and the socio-economic considerations of the country always at the forefront, Slate demonstrates.

There are many things one can learn from Gandhi’s experiments. The present-day agencies dedicated to food and nutrition in India may learn valuable lessons for research and food and agricultural practices. Gandhi’s approach in regards to calories, nutrition, suitability and economic viability for people employed in different sectors, particularly those involved in hard labour, deserves attention. Was Gandhi a faddist or futuristic? Most of his dietary fads have been favourably validated by science now. Additionally, his approach and preferences (as the one for raw food) are not only feasible for everyone but also reduce energy consumption and may increase economic productivity and reduce health care expenses.

Similar innovations by Gandhi may be adopted to develop healthy and affordable food for public food outlets in places such as railway stations, government canteens and university campuses.

The author’s use of the obscurest of sources is amazing. He elaborates on his theme with current information and perspectives (pages 50, 61, 98 and 117). Yet it is welcome as it helps the reader understand the issues properly. However, the repeated use of quotation marks reduces readability; plain text with occasional footnotes would have been better. The book is an excellent example of interdisciplinary and micro research. It is well produced, and its bibliography and notes will be helpful for further research.

The simplicity and novelty of “Recipes from Gandhi’s Diet” make one feel like joining the Mahatma at mealtime. The narrative is engaging, and the book is sure to be a trendsetter.

J.N. Sinha was an associate professor of history at the University of Delhi.