14-9-!47
OUR DEGRADATION
Gandhiji said that he went to two Muslim refugees'
camps in Idgah and opposite. No Muslim bore an angry
look. They seemed to be poor. There was a very old man
who was mere skin and bone. Every rib was to be seen.
He was stabbed in several places. By his side was a woman
squally injured. Though not so old, she was in a dilapi-
dated condition. He hung his head in shame when he
saw them. For him all men and women were the same,
no matter what religion they professed.
SANITATION OF REFUGEE GAMPS
Then he observed the insanitation of the camps.
They were filthy beyond description. In the Idgah the
tank was dry. He did not inquire where the refugees
:ould get their water from. The inmates performed
natural functions anyhow. If he was the camp comman-
dant and the military and the police were under him,
tie would take up the shovel and the pickaxe himself
ind ask the help of the military and the police to do
ikewise and then ask the refugees to follow suit so that
the camps would be in a perfectly sanitary condition.
^s it was, the ground itself was a rubbish heap on which
no human being should be asked to live before it was
thoroughly cleaned out. It required no money, it required
a, little forethought and the possession of a sanitary sense
which would refuse to tolerate insanitation. The Hindu
:amps were no better on this score. Insanitation was a
lational defect or better still, a vice of which as a free
iation, the sooner they got rid, the better it was for them.
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