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FRAGMENTS OF A PRISONER S DIARY
gating young men and women for their moral lapse in sexual matters, and upholding before then the virtue of celibacy, I humbly request you to be kind and compassionate to the youth anu not to judge thein by your puritanical standard of morality. Every act, when it is performed with mutual consent and inutual love, is moral, whether it is performed within marriage or without. 1 would here ask you not to forget your own youth when judging the presení day youth. You were an Ovcrsexcd individual, given to excessiva indul. gence, which seems to have created in you a sort of disgust towards sexual acts, and hence your asceticism. Compared to you, I think, many young men of to-day arc better in this respect.”
The above extracts from a letter were published in the “Harijan”. The name of the writer was not given out, but the letter was characterised as "typical”. Presumably, many such had been received. However, it is a severe criticism of Gandhi's moral doctrines. But in his answer, he avoids the concrete issues raised about his attitude on fundamental social questions, and gives a dissertation on metaphysical ethics. He writes : "Ethics and religion are convertible terms. A moral life without reference to religion is like a house based upon sand. Morality includes truth, ahimsa and continence. Non-violence and continence are derivable from truth, which for me is God. Without continence, a man or woman is un
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