India was under British rule between the late 1700's until 1947. Integral to India's independence was Mohandas Gandhi and his idea of satyagraha or non-violent resistance and his idea of Swaraj or "home rule." His writings in the Hind Swaraj he explains his ideas about national independence, his idea of home rule, his attitudes toward the British and his views on modern civilization through dialogue between an editor and a reader. His chapter on civilization is very reminiscent of a William Blake or Wordsworth poem in that he is weary of modernization. It is in this respect that Gandhi was very much ahead of his time. Written in 1908, his chapters on civilization, transportation, and doctors ring true even today, 100 years after they were published.

In his chapter on civilization, he refers to a British literary work in which civilization was labeled a "disease" and he agrees with that assertion. He goes on to add that the advancements made in civilization are only to allow us to become more comfortable giving the examples of houses which become better build over time, animal skins giving way to varieties of different clothing, and spears giving way to handguns. Clearly, he is correct. Man has made homes out of stone and mortar to make them stronger and with thatched roofs to keep out the elements for his own comfort. Trousers make a man more comfortable by keeping him warm and keeping him in style while handguns make hunting that much easier than spears. Today, our homes are much larger than in 1908 while the world's population has also gained. It would seem normal for man to take up less room as the population increased but It is as if mans need for more room to be comfortable is in stark opposition to the world. Much like spears gave way to handguns, handguns have given way to automatic firearms, which most certainly are not used for hunting. Whenever the modern world is forced upon certain people, they are said to have become civilized and were formerly thought to be savage. After each of his points Gandhi says "this is considered civilization" and seems to repeat this phrase to point out how ridiculous it is to think of these things as civilized. It seems as if Gandhi would very much like a return to the state of nature.

He later, in the same chapter, goes on to attack labor. Formerly, people ploughed their land with their own manual labor, but in the modern world, they use steam engines and machines to plough more land, allowing one person to do the work of many thus allowing that person to acquire great wealth. Although in this civilization, people are no longer enslaved by others but by the desire to amass wealth and the desire to increase their own comfort. These machines not only allow a person to acquire more wealth and property then they need but they also produce pollution. Much like Blake could see how the factories of the industrial age were a disease Gandhi makes the same correlation here. In 2008, it's a widely believed fact that pollutants from industry burning oil and coal and using combustion continue to put toxins in the air that contribute to our declining health and global warming.

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Jesus loves little children all over the world. He hates mosquito's. He writes on his website about the Coleman Mosquito Deleto and the Coleman Mosquito Deleto 2500.