INDIA: Until Swaraj

INDIA

Last week Mohandas Gandhi faced a revolt against his one-man campaign against sex in marriage. One follower, puzzled by Gandhi's exhortations to newlywed disciples to vow "self-restraint until Swaraj [Indian self-rule]," called for an explanation. "To marry thus," he wrote, "is surely an inconsistency. He who wants to refrain has no need to marry. ... To me the vow appears ridiculous."

"Rightly speaking," Gandhi answered, "the true purpose of marriage should be and is intimate friendship and companionship between man and woman. ... I may say that my wife and I tasted the real bliss of married life when we renounced sexual contact and that in the heyday of youth. It was then that our companionship blossomed and both of us were enabled to render real service to India and to humanity in general."

Gandhi, who has described himself as "a lustful but faithful husband" until he vowed complete celibacy at the age of 37, requires all married couples visiting his "hermitage" to practice his preaching of Brahmacharya (sexual continence) as a preparation for public service. But few of India's 389 millions, who produce approximately 18 million babies a year, have embraced his kind of marriage as a permanent thing.