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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER'S DIARY
tion from a large bulk of trash they eat. Repudiation of the cult of vegetarianism is a condition for the physical improvement and intellectual awakening of the Indian masses. Let this insignificant member of a carnivorous spccics tell you : Eat more meat ; that is a high-road to the salvation of your precious souls. One lesson you shall lcarn froin the story of my life is that carnivorous animals are never quite domesticated ; that is, voluntary slavery, so highly praised as virtue in the herbivorous bovine species, is detestable to us. The dog seems to be an exception,--the perverse traitor to the carnivorous race. But I shall have something to say about the loyalty of the dog later on. That may throw some light on the paradoxical situation.
Let me revert to the main current of my story. The power of articulated speech separates man from the rest of the animal world. It makes possible the process of intellectual development of which man is so very proud. But there is another side of the picture. Prejudice and hypocrisy result from the power of speech, and they are effective checks upon real intellectual development.
Originally, language evolved as i he medium for expressing emotions, and later on, icleas. Eventually, the original relation was reversed: Language became a fetter upon the freedom of feelings and ideas. Human mind became conventionalised. It came to he dominated by terms. Nothing has been so harmful for the spiritual development of man
