There can be two opinions about the necessity of birth-control. But the only method handed down from
ages past is self-control or Brahmacharya. It is an infallible sovereign
remedy doing good to those who practice it. And medical men will earn the
gratitude of mankind, if instead of devising artificial means of
birth-control they will find out the means of self-control.
Artificial methods are like putting a premium upon vice. They make man and women reckless. And
respectability that is being given to the methods must hasten the
dissolution of the restraints that public opinion puts upon one. Adoption of
artificial methods must result in imbecility and nervous prostration. The
remedy will be found to be worse than the disease.
It is wrong and immoral to seek to escape the consequence of one's acts. It is good for a person who
overeats to have an ache and a fast. It is bad for him to indulge his
appetite and then escape the consequence by taking tonics or other medicine.
It is still worse for a person to indulge in his acts. Nature is relentless
and will have full revenge for any such violation of her laws. Moral result
can only be produced by moral restraints. All other restraints defeat the
very purpose for which they are intended.
Young India, 12-3-'25
The practice of preventing progeny, by mean of artificial method is not a new thing. In the past such method were practiced secretly and they were crude. Modern Society has given
them a respectable place and made improvements. They have been given a
philanthropic parb. The advocates of contraceptives say that sexual desire
is a natural instinct- some call it a blessing. They therefore say that it
is were possible. Birth-control by means of self -restraint is, in their
opinion, difficult to practice. If a substitute for self-restraint is not
prescribed, the health of innumerable women is bound to suffer through
frequent pregnancies. They add that if births are not regulated, over-population will ensure; individual families will be pauperized and their children will be ill-fed, ill-clothed and ill-educated. Therefore, they
argue, it is the duty of scientists to devise harmless and effective method
of birth-control.
This argument has failed to convince me. The use of contraceptives is likely to produce evils if
which we have no conception. But the worst danger is that the use of
contraceptives bids fair to kill the desire for self-restraint. In my
opinion it is too heavy a price to pay for any possible immediate gain...
Self- deception is the greatest stumbling block. Instead of controlling
mind, the fountain of all animal desire, men and women involve themselves in
the vain endeavour to avoid the physical act. If there is a determination to
control the through and the action, victory is sure to follow. Man must
understand that a woman is his companion and helpmate in life and not a
means of satisfying his carnal desire. There must be a clear perception that
the purpose satisfaction of animal wants.
Key to health, pp. 52-54
I know what havoc secret vice has played among school boys girls. The Introduction of contraceptives
under the name of science and the imprimeture of known leaders of society
have intensified the complication and made the risk of reforms who work for
purity of social life, well-night impossible age studying in school and
colleges who study birth-control literature and magazines with avidity and
even possess contraceptives. It is impossible to confine their use to
married women. Marriage loses its sanctity when its purpose and highest use
is contemplating the natural result of such satisfaction.
I have no doubt that those learned men and women who are carrying on propaganda men and with missionary
zeal in favour of the use of contraceptives, are doing irreparable harm to
the use of contraceptives, are doing irreparable harm to the youth if the
country under the false belief that they will be saving there by, the poor
women who may be obliged to bear children against their will. Those who need
to limit their children will not be easily reached by them. Our poor women
have not the knowledge or the training that the women of the west have.
Surely the propaganda is not being carried on on behalf of the middle class
women, for they do not need the knowledge, at any rate so much as the poor
classes do.
The greatest harm, however, done by that propaganda lies in its rejection of the old ideas and
substitution on its place of one which, if carried out, must spell the moral
and physical extinction of the race. The horror with which ancient
literature has regarded the fruitless use of the vital fluid was not a
superstition born of ignorance. What shall we of a husbandman who will sow
the finest seed in his possession on stony ground or of the owner of a field
who will received, in his field rich with fine soil, good seed under
conditions that will make it seed that has the highest potency and women
with a field richer with seed that has the highest earth to be found any
where on his global. Surely it is criminal folly for man to allow his most
precious possession to run to waste. He upon the richest pearls in his
possession. And so is a woman guilty of criminal golly who will receive the
seed in her life-producing field with the deliberate intention of letting it
run to waste. Both he and she will be judged guilty of the misuse of the
talented gives to them and they will be disposed of what they have been
given. Sex urge is a fine and noble thing. There is nothing is ne ashamed of
it is a sin against god and humanity. Contraceptive of a kind there were
before and there will be hereafter; but the use of them was formerly
regarded as sinful. It was reserved for our generation to glorify vice by
calling it virtue. The greatest disserve protagonists of contraceptive are
rendering to the youth of India is to fill their minds with what appears to
me to be wrong ideology. Let the young men and women of India who hold
guard the treasure with which god has blessed them and use it, if they wish,
for the only purpose for which it is intended.
Harijan, 28-3-'36
I do not believe that woman is prey to sexual desire to the same extent as man. It is easier for
her than for man to exercise self- restraint. I hold that right education in
his country is to teach woman the art of saying no even to her husband, to
teach her that it is no part of her duty to become a mere tool or a doll in
her husband's hands. She has rights as well as duties.
... The first thing is to free her from mental slavery, to teach her sacredness of her body, and to
teach her dignity of national service and the service of humanity, it is not
fair to assume that Indian's woman are beyond redemption, and that they have
therefore to be simply taught the use of contraceptives for the sake of
preventing births and preserving such health as they may be in possession
of.
Let not sisters who are rightly indignant over the miseries of women who are called upon to bear
children, whether they will or no, be impatient. Not even the propaganda in
favor of contraceptives is going to promote the desired end overnight. Every
method is a matter of education. My plea is for the type.
Harijan, 2-5-'36
I consider it inhuman to impose sterilization law on the people. But in case of individual with chronic diseases, it is desirable to have them sterilized if they are agreeable to it. Sterilization is a sort of contraceptive and though I am against the use of contraceptive in case of women, I do not mind voluntary sterilization in case of man since he is the aggressor.
Amrita Bazar Patrika, 12-1-'35
If it is contended that birth-control is necessary for the nation because of over population, I dispute the proposition. It has never been proved. In my opinion, by a proper land-system, agricultural and a supplementary industry, this country is capable of supporting twice as many people as there are today.
Young India, 2-4-'25
This little globe of ours is not a toy of yesterday. It has not suffered from the weight of over-population through its age of countless millions. How can it be that the truth has suddenly dawned upon some people that it is in danger of perishing of shortage of food unless birth rate is checked through the use of contraceptives?
Harijan, 14-9-35
The bogey of increasing birth rate is not a new thing. It has been often trotted out. Increase in population in not and ought not to be regarded as a calamity to be avoided. Its regulation or restriction by artificial method is a calamity of the first grade the race, if it becomes universal, which, thank god, it is never likely to be. Pestilence, wars and famines are cursed antidotes against cursed lust which is responsible for unwanted children. If we could avoid this threefold curse we would avoid too the curse of unwanted children by the sovereign remedy if self-control... Let me say propagation of the race rabbit wise must undoubtedly be stopped; but not so as to bring greater evils in its train. It should be stopped by methods, it is all a matter of proper education which would embrace every department of life; and dealing with one curse will take in its orbit all the others. A way is not to be avoided because it is upward and therefore uphill. Man's upward progress necessarily necessarily means ever increasing difficulty, which is to be welcomed.
Harijan, 31-3-'46