{"id":3242,"date":"2013-07-13T01:46:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=3242"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:46:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:46:54","slug":"02-the-issue-is-india-civilised-vol-the-foundations-of-indian-culture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/02-other-editions\/the-foundations-of-indian-culture\/02-the-issue-is-india-civilised-vol-the-foundations-of-indian-culture","title":{"rendered":"-02_The Issue Is India Civilised.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n\n
\n

\nI<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nTHE ISSUE<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nIS INDIA
\nCIVILISED ?<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nCHAPTER I<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\nA Book under this rather startling title was published some
\nyears ago by Sir John Woodroffe, the well-known scholar
\nand writer on Tantric philosophy, in answer to an extravagant
\n<\/span>
\njeu d’esprit<\/i><\/span> by Mr. William Archer. That well-known dramatic
\ncritic leaving his safe natural sphere for fields in which his
\nchief claim to speak was a sublime and confident ignorance,
\nassailed the whole life and culture of India and even lumped
\ntogether all her greatest achievements, philosophy, religion,
\npoetry, painting, sculpture, Upanishads, Mahabharata,
\nRamayana, in one wholesale condemnation as a repulsive mass
\nof unspeakable barbarism. It was argued by many at the time
\nthat to reply to a critic of this kind was to break a butterfly,
\nor it might be in this instance a bumble-bee, upon the wheel.
\nBut Sir John Woodroffe insisted that even an attack of this
\nignorant kind ought not to be neglected; he took it as a particularly useful type in the general kind, first, because it raised
\nthe question from the rationalistic and not from the Christian
\nand missionary standpoint and, again, because it betrayed
\nthe grosser underlying motives of all such attacks. But his book
\nwas important, not so much as an answer to a particular critic,
\nbut because it raised with great point and power the whole
\nquestion of the survival of Indian civilisation and the inevitability of a war of cultures.<\/span><\/font>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nThe question whether there has been or is a civilisation
\nin India is not any longer debatable; for everyone whose
\nopinion counts recognises the presence of a distinct and a<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 3 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

great civilisation unique in its character. Sir John Woodroffe’s
\npurpose was to disclose the conflict of European and Asiatic
\nculture and, in greater prominence, the distinct meaning
\nand value of Indian civilisation, the peril it now runs and the
\ncalamity its destruction would be to the world. The author
\nheld its preservation to be of an immense importance to mankind and he believed it to be in great danger. In the stupendous rush of change which is coming on the human world as a
\nresult of the present tornado of upheaval, ancient India’s
\nculture, attacked by European modernism, overpowered in
\nthe material field, betrayed by the indifference of her children,
\nmay perish for ever along with the soul of the nation that
\nholds it in its keeping. The book was an urgent invitation
\nto us to appreciate better this sacred trust and the near peril
\nwhich besets it and to stand firm and faithful in the hour of
\nthe ordeal. It will be useful to state briefly its gist as an introduction to this all-important issue.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

A true happiness in this world is the right terrestrial aim of<\/font><\/p>\n

man, and true happiness lies in the finding and maintenance
\nof a natural harmony of spirit, mind and body. A culture is to
\nbe valued to the extent to which it has discovered the right
\nkey of this harmony and organised its expressive motives and
\nmovements. And a civilisation must be judged by the manner
\nin which all its principles, ideas, forms, ways of living work
\nto bring that harmony out, manage its rhythmic play and
\nsecure its continuance or the development of its motives. A
\ncivilisation in pursuit of this aim may be predominantly material
\nlike modern European culture, predominantly mental and
\nintellectual like the old Graeco-Raman or predominantly
\nspiritual like the still persistent culture of India. India’s central
\nconception is that of the Eternal, the Spirit here incased in
\nmatter, involved and immanent in it and evolving on the material plane by rebirth of the individual up the scale of being till
\nin mental man it enters the world of ideas and realm of conscious
\nmorality, dharma.<\/i> This achievement, this victory over unconscious <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 4 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n

matter develops its lines, enlarges its scope, elevates
\nits levels until the increasing manifestation of the sattwic or
\nspiritual portion of the vehicle of mind enables the individual
\nmental being in man to identify himself with the pure spiritual
\nconsciousness beyond Mind. India’s social system is built
\nupon this conception; her philosophy formulates it; her religion is an aspiration to the spiritual consciousness and its fruits;<\/font><\/p>\n

her art and literature have the same upward look; her whole
\ndharma or law of being is founded upon it. Progress she
\nadmits, but this spiritual progress, not the externally self-unfolding process of an always more and more prosperous and
\nefficient material civilisation. It is her founding of life upon
\nthis exalted conception and her urge towards the spiritual
\nand the eternal that constitute the distinct value of her civilisation. And it is her fidelity, with whatever human shortcomings,
\nto this highest ideal that has made her people a nation apart
\nin the human world.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But there are other cultures led by a different conception
\nand even an opposite motive. And by the law of struggle which
\nis the first law of existence in the material universe, varying
\ncultures are bound to come into conflict. A deep-seated urge
\nin Nature compels them to attempt to extend themselves
\nand to destroy, assimilate and replace all disparates or opposites.
\nConflict is not indeed the last and ideal stage; for that comes
\nwhen various cultures develop freely, without hatred, misunderstanding or aggression and even with an underlying
\nsense of unity, their separate special motives. But so long as
\nthe principle of struggle prevails, one must face the lesser law;<\/font><\/p>\n

it is fatal to disarm in the midmost of the battle. The culture
\nwhich gives up its living separateness, the civilisation which
\nneglects an active self-defence will be swallowed up and the
\nnation which lived by it will lose its soul and perish. Each nation
\nis a Shakti or power of the evolving spirit in humanity and lives
\nby the principle which it embodies. India is the Bharata Shakti,
\nthe living energy of a great spiritual conception, and fidelity<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 5 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nto it is the very principle of her existence. For by its virtue
\nalone she has been one of the immortal nations, this alone has
\nbeen the secret of her amazing persistence and perpetual force<\/font> <\/p>\n

of survival and revival.<\/font> <\/p>\n

<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The principle of struggle has assumed the large historical<\/font><\/p>\n

aspect of an agelong clash and pressure of conflict between
\nAsia and Europe. This clash, this mutual pressure has had
\nits material side, but has borne also its cultural and spiritual
\naspect. Both materially and spiritually Europe has thrown
\nherself repeatedly upon Asia, Asia too upon Europe, to conquer,
\nassimilate and dominate. There has been a constant alternation,
\na flowing backward and forward of these two seas of power.
\nAll Asia has always had the spiritual tendency in more or less
\nintensity, with more or less clearness; but in this essential
\nmatter India is the quintessence of the Asiatic way of being.
\nEurope too in mediaeval times had a culture in which by the
\ndominance of the Christian idea\u2014but Christianity was of Asiatic
\norigin\u2014the spiritual motive took the lead; then there was an
\nessential similarity as well as a certain difference. Still the
\ndifferentiation of cultural temperament has on the whole been
\nconstant. Since some centuries Europe has become material,
\npredatory, aggressive, and has lost the harmony of the inner
\nand outer man which is the true meaning of civilisation and the
\nefficient condition of a true progress. Material comfort, material
\nprogress, material efficiency have become the gods of her
\nworship. The modern European civilisation which has invaded
\n. Asia and which all violent attacks on Indian ideals represent,
\nis the effective form of this materialistic culture. India, true
\nto her spiritual motive, has never shared in the physical attacks
\nof Asia upon Europe; her method has always been an infiltration of the world with her ideas, such as we today see again
\nin progress. But she has now been physically occupied by Europe and this physical conquest must necessarily be associated
\nwith an attempt at cultural conquest; that invasion too has also
\nmade some progress. On the other hand English rule has<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 6 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

enabled India still to retain her identity and social type; it
\nhas awakened her to herself and has meanwhile, until she
\nbecame conscious of her strength, guarded her against the
\nflood which would otherwise have submerged and broken her
\ncivilisation.1<\/sup> It is for her now to recover herself, defend her
\ncultural existence against the alien penetration, preserve her
\ndistinct spirit, essential principle and characteristic forms
\nfor her own salvation and the total welfare of the human race.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

But many questions may arise,\u2014and principally whether
\nsuch a spirit of defence and attack is the right spirit, whether
\nunion, harmony, interchange are not our proper temperament
\nfor the coming human advance. Is not a unified world-culture
\nthe large way of the future ? Can either an exaggeratedly spiritual or an excessively temporal civilisation be the sound condition of human progress or human perfection ? A happy or
\njust reconciliation would seem to be a better key to a harmony
\nof Spirit, Mind and Body. And there is the question too
\nwhether the forms of Indian culture must be preserved intact
\nas well as the spirit. To these queries the reply of the author
\nis to be found in his law of graduality of the spiritual advance
\nof humanity, its need of advancing through three successive
\nstages.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The first stage is the period of conflict and competition
\nwhich has been ever dominant in the past and still overshadows
\nthe present of mankind. For even when the crudest forms of
\nmaterial conflict are mitigated, the conflict itself still survives and the cultural struggle comes into greater prominence.
\nThe second step brings the stage of concert. The third and last<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

1<\/sup> This contention cannot be accepted in an
\nunqualified sense. English rule has by its general principle of social and
\nreligious non-interference prevented any direct and violent touch, any
\ndeliberate and purposeful social pressure; but it has undermined and deprived of
\nliving strength all the pre-existing centres and instruments of Indian social life and by a sort
\nof unperceived rodent process left it only a rotting shell without expansive
\npower or any better defensive force than the force of inertia.<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Page \u2013 7<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

is marked by the spirit of sacrifice in which, because all is
\nknown as the one Self, each gives himself for the good of others.
\nThe second stage has hardly at all commenced for most, the third belongs to the indeterminate future. Individuals
\nhave reached the highest stage, the perfected Sannyasin,
\nthe liberated man, the soul that has become one with the
\nSpirit, knows all being as himself and for him all self-defence
\nand attack are needless. For strife does not belong to the
\nlaw of his seeing, sacrifice and self-giving are the whole principle of his action. But no people has reached that level,
\nand to ‘follow a law or principle involuntarily or ignorantly
\nor contrary to the truth of one’s consciousness is a falsehood
\nand a self-destruction. To allow oneself to be killed, like
\nthe lamb attacked by the wolf, brings no growth, farthers
\nno development, assures no spiritual merit. Concert or unity
\nmay come in good time, but it must be an underlying unity
\nwith a free differentiation, not a swallowing up of one by
\nanother or an incongruous and inharmonious mixture. Nor
\ncan it come before the world is ready for these greater things.
\nTo lay down one’s arms in a state of war is to invite destruction and it can serve no compensating spiritual purpose.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Spiritual and temporal have indeed to be perfectly harmonised, for the spirit works through mind and body. But
\nthe purely intellectual or heavily material culture of the kind
\nthat Europe now favours bears in its heart the seed of death; for the living aim of culture is the realisation on earth of
\nthe kingdom of heaven. India, though its urge is towards
\nthe Eternal, since that is always the highest, the entirely
\nreal, still contains in her own culture and her own philosophy
\na supreme reconciliation of the eternal and the temporal and
\nshe need not seek it from outside. On the same principle
\nthe form of the interdependence of mind, body and spirit
\nin a harmonious culture is important as well as the pure
\nspirit, for the form is the rhythm of the spirit. It follows that
\nto break up the form is to injure the spirit’s self-expression<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 8 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

or at least to put it into grave peril. Change of forms
\nthere may and will be, but the novel formation must be a
\nnew self-expression or self-creation developed from within,
\nit must be characteristic of the spirit and not servilely
\nborrowed from the embodiments of an alien nature.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Where then does India actually stand in this critical
\nhour of her necessity and how far can she be said to be still
\nfirmly seated on her eternal foundations ? Already she has
\nbeen largely affected by European culture and the peril is
\nfar from over; on the contrary it will be greater, more insistent, more imperatively violent in the immediate future.
\nAsia is re-arising; but that very fact will intensify and is
\nalready intensifying the attempt, natural and legitimate
\naccording to the law of competition, of European civilisation
\nto assimilate Asia. For if she is culturally transformed and
\nconquered, then when she again counts in the material order
\nof the world, it will not be with any menace of the invasion
\nof Europe by the Asiatic ideal. It is a cultural quarrel complicated with a political question. Asia must become culturally
\na province of Europe and form politically one part of a Europeanised if not a European concert, otherwise Europe may
\nbecome culturally a province of Asia, Asiaticised by the
\ndominant influence of wealthy, enormous, powerful Asiatic
\npeoples in the new world-system. The motive of Mr. Archer’s
\nattack is frankly a political motive. This is the burden of
\nall his song that the reconstruction of the world must take
\nplace in the forms and follow the canons of a rationalistic
\nand materialistic European civilisation. On his reasoning,
\nIndia, if she adheres to her own civilisation, if she cherishes
\nits spiritual motive, if she clings to its spiritual principle of
\nformation, will stand out as a living denial, a hedious "blot"
\nupon this fair, luminous, rationalistic world. Either she
\nmust Europeanise, rationalise, materialise her whole being
\nand deserve liberty by the change or else she must be kept
\nin subjection and administered by her cultural superiors : her<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 9 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

people of three hundred million religious savages must be
\nheld down firmly, taught and civilised by her noble and enlightened Christian-atheistic European warders and tutors.
\nA grotesque statement in form, but in substance it has in it
\nthe root of the matter. As against the attack\u2014not universal,
\nfor understanding and appreciation of Indian culture are now
\nmore common than before,\u2014India is indeed awaking and
\ndefending herself, but not sufficiently and not with the wholeheartedness, the clear sight and the firm resolution which
\ncan alone save her from the peril. Today it is close; let her
\nchoose,\u2014for the choice is imperatively before her, to live or
\nto perish.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

The warning cannot be neglected, recent utterances of
\nEuropean publicists and statesmen, recent books and writings
\nagainst India and the joyful and enthusiastic welcome they
\nhave received from the public of occidental countries, point to
\nthe reality of the danger. It arises indeed as a necessity from
\nthe present political situation and cultural trend of humanity
\nat this moment of enormous decisive change. It is not
\nnecessary to follow the writer in all the viewpoints expressed
\nin his book. I cannot myself accept in full his eulogy of the
\nmediaeval civilisation of Europe. Its interest, the beauty of
\nits artistic motives, its deep and sincere spiritual urgings are
\nmarred for me by its large strain of ignorance and obscurantism,
\nits cruel intolerance, its revolting early-Teutonic hardness,
\nbrutality, ferocity and coarseness. He seems to me to hit
\na little too hard at the later European culture. This predominantly economic type of civilisation has been ugly enough
\nin its strain of utilitarian materialism, which we shall err
\ngrossly if we imitate, still it has been uplifted by some nobler
\nideals that have done much for the race. But even these are
\ncrude and imperfect in their form and need to be spiritualised
\nin their meaning before they can be wholly admitted by the
\nmind of India. I think too that the author has a little underrated the force of the Indian revival. I do not mean its outward<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 10 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n

realised strength, for that is very deficient, but the inevitability of its drive, its spiritual and potential force. And
\nhe has made a little too much of the servile type of Indian
\nwho is capable of mouthing the portentously obsequious
\nimagination that "European institutions are the standard by
\nwhich the aspirations of India are set." That, except for the
\nrapidly dwindling class to which this spokesman belongs, has
\nits truth now only in a single field, the political,\u2014a very
\nimportant exception, I admit, and one which opens the door
\nto a peril of stupendous proportions. But even there a deep
\nchange of spirit is foreshadowed although it has not yet taken
\ndefinite form and has now to meet a fresh invasion of furious
\nEuropeanism inspired by the militant crudeness of proletarian Russia. Again he does not attach a sufficient importance
\nto the increasing infiltration of India’s spiritual thought into
\nEurope and America, which is her characteristic retort to
\nthe European invasion. It is from this point of view that the
\nwhole question takes on a different aspect.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Sir John Woodroffe invites us to a vigorous self-defence
\nBut defence by itself in the modern struggle can only end in
\ndefeat, and if battle there must be, the only sound strategy
\nis a vigorous aggression based on a strong, living and mobile
\ndefence, for by that aggressive force alone can the defence
\nitself be effective. Why are a certain class of Indians still hypnotised in all fields by European culture and why are we
\nall still hypnotised by it in the field of politics ? Because they
\nconstantly saw all the power, creation, activity on the side
\nof Europe, all the immobility or weakness of a static inefficient defence on the side of India. But wherever the Indian
\nspirit has been able to react, to attack with energy and to
\ncreate with \u00e9clat,<\/i> the European glamour has begun immediately to lose its hypnotic power. No one now feels the
\nweight of the religious assault from Europe which was very
\npowerful at the outset, because the creative activities of the
\nHindu revival have made Indian religion a living and evolving,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 11 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\na secure, triumphant and self-assertive power. But the seal
\nwas put to this work by two events, the Theosophical movement and the appearance of Swami Vivekananda at Chicago.
\nFor these two things showed the spiritual ideas for which
\nIndia stands, no longer on the defence but aggressive and
\ninvading the materialised mentality of the Occident. All
\nIndia had been vulgarised and anglicised in its aesthetic
\nnotions by English education and influence, until the brilliant
\nand sudden dawn of the Bengal school of art cast its rays so
\nfar as to be seen in Tokio, London and Paris. That significant cultural event has already effected an aesthetic revolution in the country, not yet by any means complete, but
\nirresistible and sure of the future. The same phenomenon
\nextends to other fields. Even in the province of politics that
\nwas the internal sense of the policy of the so-called extremist
\nparty in the Swadeshi movement, for it was a movement
\nwhich attempted to override the previous apparent impossibility of political creation by the Indian spirit upon other
\nthan imitative European lines. If it failed for the time being,
\nnot by any falsity in its inspiration, but by the strength of a
\nhostile pressure and the weakness still left by a past decadence,
\nif its incipient creations were broken or left languishing and
\ndeprived of their original significance, yet it will remain as a
\nfinger-post on the roads. The attempt is bound to be renewed as soon as a wider gate is opened under more favourable
\nconditions. Till that attempt comes and succeeds, a serious
\ndanger besets the soul of India; for a political Europeanisation would be followed by a social turn of the same kind and
\nbring a cultural and spiritual death in its train. Aggression
\nmust be successful and creative if the defence is to be effective.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

This great question must be given its larger world-wide
\nimport if we are to see it in its true lines. The principle of
\nstruggle, conflict and competition still governs and for some
\ntime will still govern international relations, for even if war is
\nabolished in the near future by some as yet improbable good<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 12 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n
\nfortune of the race, conflict will take other forms. At the same
\ntime a certain growing mutual closeness of the life of humanity is the most prominent phenomenon of the day. The War has
\nbrought it into violent relief, but the after-war is bringing
\nout all its implications as well as the mass of its difficulties.
\nThis is as yet no real concert, still less the beginning of a true
\nunity, but only a compelling physical oneness forced on us by
\nscientific inventions and modern circumstances. But this
\nphysical oneness must necessarily bring its mental, cultural
\nand psychological results. At first it will probably accentuate
\nrather than diminish conflict in many directions, enhance political and economic struggles of many kinds and hasten too a
\ncultural struggle. There it may bring about in the end a
\nswallowing unification and a destruction of all other civilisations by one aggressive European type. Whether that type
\nwill be bourgeois economical or labour materialistic or a rationalistic intellectualism cannot easily be foreseen, but at
\npresent in one form or another this is the actuality that is
\nmost in the front. On the other hand, it may lead to a free
\nconcert with some underlying oneness. But the ideal of the
\nentire separateness of the peoples each developing its sharply
\nseparatist culture with an alien exclusion law for other leading
\nideas and cultural forms, although it has been for some time
\nabroad and was growing in vigour, is not likely to prevail. For
\nthat to happen the whole aim of unification preparing in
\nNature must fall to pieces, an improbable but not quite impossible catastrophe. Europe dominates the world and it is natural
\nto forecast a westernised world with such petty differences as
\nmight be permissible in a European unity given up to the
\nrigorous scientific pursuit of the development and organisation
\nof material life. Across this possibility falls the shadow of India.<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Sir John Woodroffe quotes the dictum of Professor
\nLowes Dickinson that the opposition is not so much between
\nAsia and Europe as between India and the rest of the world.
\nThere is a truth behind that dictum; but the cultural opposition<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 13 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n

of Europe and Asia remains an unabolished factor. Spirituality is not the monopoly of India; however it may hide
\nsubmerged in intellectualism or hid in other concealing veils,
\nit is a necessary part of human nature. But the difference
\nis between spirituality made the leading motive and the determining power of both the inner and the outer life and spirituality
\nsuppressed, allowed only under disguises or brought in as a
\nminor power, its reign denied or put off in favour of the intellect
\nor of a dominant materialistic vitalism. The former way was
\nthe type of the ancient wisdom at one time universal in all
\ncivilised countries \u2014 literally, from China to Peru. But all
\nother nations have fallen away from it and diminished its large
\npervasiveness or fallen away from it altogether as in Europe.
\nOr they are now, as in Asia, in danger of abandoning it for the
\ninvading economic, commercial, industrial, intellectually utilitarian modern type. India alone, with whatever fall or decline
\nof light and vigour, has remained faithful to the heart of the
\nspiritual motive. India alone is still obstinately recalcitrant;<\/font><\/p>\n

for Turkey and China and Japan, say her critics, have outgrown that foolishness, by which it is meant that they have
\nboth grown rationalistic and materialistic. India alone as a
\nnation, whatever individuals or a small class may have done,
\nhas till now refused to give up her worshipped Godhead or
\nbow her knee to the strong reigning idols of rationalism, commercialism and economism, the successful iron gods of the
\nWest. Affected she has been, but not yet overcome. Her surface mind rather than her deeper intelligence has been obliged
\nto admit many Western ideas,\u2014liberty, equality, democracy
\nand others,\u2014and to reconcile them with her Vedantic Truth; but she has not been altogether at ease with them in the Western
\nform and she seeks about already in her thought to give to
\nthem an Indian which cannot fail to be a spiritualised turn.
\nThe first passion to imitate English ideas and culture has passed; but another more dangerous has recently taken its place, the
\npassion to imitate Continental European culture at large<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage \u2013 14 <\/font>
\n<\/span> <\/p>\n

\n

\n

<\/p>\n

and in particular the crude and vehement turn of revolutionary
\nRussia. On the other hand one sees a growing revival of the
\nancient Hindu religion and the immense sweep of a spiritual
\nawakening and its significant movements. And out of this
\nambiguous situation there can be only one out of two issues.
\nEither India will be rationalised and industrialised out of all
\nrecognition and she will be no longer India or else she will
\nbe the leader in a new world-phase, aid by her example and
\ncultural infiltration the new tendencies of the West and spiritualise the human race. That is the one radical and poignant
\nquestion at issue. Will the spiritual motive which India
\nrepresents prevail on Europe and create there new forms congenial to the West, or will European rationalism and commercialism put an end for ever to the Indian type of culture ?<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

<\/p>\n

Not then, whether India is civilised is the query that should
\nbe put, but whether the motive which has shaped her civilisation or the old-European intellectual or the new-European
\nmaterialistic motive is to lead human culture. Is the harmony
\nof the spirit, mind and body to found itself on the gross law of
\nour physical nature rationalised only or touched at the most
\nby an ineffective spiritual glimmer, or is the dominant power
\nof spirit to take the lead and force the lesser powers of the
\nintellect, mind and body to a more exalted effort after a highest
\nharmony, a victorious ever-developing equipoise ? India must
\ndefend herself by reshaping her cultural forms to express more
\npowerfully, intimately and perfectly her ancient ideal. Her
\naggression must lead the waves of the light thus liberated in
\ntriumphant self-expanding rounds all over the world which it
\nonce possessed or at least enlightened in far-off ages. An
\nappearance of conflict must be admitted for a time, for as
\nlong as the attack of an opposite culture continues. But since
\nit will be in effect an assistance to all the best that is
\nemerging from the advanced thought of the Occident, it will
\nculminate in the beginning of a concert on a higher plane and
\na preparation of oneness,<\/font><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage \u2013 <\/font>15<\/font><\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I   THE ISSUE   IS INDIA CIVILISED ?   CHAPTER I   A Book under this rather startling title was published some years ago…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-foundations-of-indian-culture","wpcat-66-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3242\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}