Mother India
(A Reply
from a French Savant of the last century, to the
American
‘shilling-shocker’ of to-day)
G. Venkatachalam
There is a
suggestive law of nature which the ancient Hindus have embedded in their
philosophy, and which is of universal application, and that is, that the
intrinsic merit or quality of a person or thing, seen or judged, is not objective
but subjective. In other
words, the value of an object is not in the object itself but is in the mind of
the observer. A noble mind sees
greatness everywhere; a vulgar mind,
vulgarity, even as the mind of the poet sees everything poetically. To appreciate a good or a beautiful thing,
there must be corresponding quality of goodness or beauty in the mind of the
observer, or as Emerson put it: “You
may search for beauty the world over, but you will never find it unless you
have it within you.” An artist responds
to beauty without, because he has the seed of beauty within. “Action and Reaction are equal and
opposite,” is a fundamental law of nature, applicable not only to the physical
things but to moral and spiritual realms as well. There is a well known couplet in English verse which expresses
this idea:
“Two men
looked through the bars,
One saw the
earth, the other stars.”
This truth is
exemplified in that much advertised book of Miss Mayo, who, in attempting to
condemn a very ancient and complex civilisation like that of the Hindus, has
not only condemned herself but most lamentably betrayed her own mentality. Her book has been sufficiently criticised
from deserving quarters; but I wish to record here the verdict of an erudite
scholar, an eminent savant and a most learned Orientalist of France, who
visited India in early years of the nineteenth century, lived among the people
as one with them for over twenty years, learnt their languages, and recorded
his experiences in twenty-one volumes, as against the slanderous statements of
an American woman, who sat herself down to write a book on India, after a few
months’ ‘cold season tour’ in this country, exposing the evils of a race and
culture as old as hills and as varied and complex as humanity itself. The
patient, diligent and impartial scholar has given his judgement, as also the
hasty, irresponsible, ‘Drain-Inspector’ her report. The French scholar has found wisdom everywhere; the American
spinster, sex-complexes. They, acting in accordance with a natural law,
responded to the best within them.
There is an old saying in India, which says: “One must study to know,
know to understand, understand to judge.” I give below a summary of the French
savant’s twenty years’ experience in this country; and though he is often
severe as to Indian degradation and still severe to those who were cause of
it-the Brahmins - his rebuke is proportionate to the intensity of his
appreciation of her past grandeur. “To
study India” he says, “is to study humanity” How true! And yet would Miss Mayo
dispose of India in a single book, as a nation of imbeciles, sex-maniacs, and a
source of social danger to the world.
Listen to what the learned scholar, Louis Jacolliot says:
“India, 6000
years ago, brilliant, civilised, overflowing with population, impressed upon
Egypt, Persia, Arabia, Judea, Greece and Rome, a stamp as ineffaceable, as
profound as those of Greece and Rome on modern Europe.”
He catalogues
briefly, as under, India’s achievements in arts, sciences and philosophy. It is a strange coincidence that he
repeatedly calls this ancient land, with utmost devotion and reverence, as
‘Mother India,’ a title purloined and abused by Miss Mayo.
Astronomy: The ancient Hindus fixed the
calendar, invented the zodiac, calculated the precision if the equinoxes,
discovered the general laws of the movements, observed and predicted the
eclipses.
Mathematics: They invented the decimal system,
algebra, the differential, integral and infinitesimal calculi. They also
discovered geometry and trigonometry, and in these two sciences they proved
theorems which were only discovered in Europe as late as the 17th
century. It was the Hindus in fact who
first deduced the superficial measure of a triangle from the calculation of its
three sides, and calculated the relation of the circumference to the diameter. Furthermore, we must restore to them the
square of the hypotenuse and the table so improperly called pythogorean, which
we find engraved on the ‘Gouprams’ of their temples.
Physics: They established the principle which is still our own
to-day that the universe is a harmonious whole, subject to laws of observation and
experiment. They discovered
hydrostatics; and the famous proposition that every body plunged in water loses
of its own weight a weight equal to the volume which it displaces, is only the
loan made by Hindus to the famous Greek architect Archimedes. The Hindu physicists calculated the velocity
of light, and fixed in a positive manner the laws which it follows in its
reflection. And finally, it is beyond doubt, from the calculation of surya
siddhanta, that they knew and calculated the force of steam.
Chemistry:
They knew the
composition of water, and formulated for gases the famous law, which we know
only from yesterday, that the volumes of gas are in inverse ratio to the
pressures that they support. They knew
how to prepare sulphuric, nitric and muriatic acids; oxides of copper, iron,
lead, tin and zinc; the sulphates of iron, copper, mercury, antimony and
arsenic ; the sulphates of zinc and iron; the carbonates of lead and soda;
nitrate of sliver; and powder.
Medicine: Their knowledge was truly astonishing. In Charaka and Susrutta, (the
two Princes of Hindu Medicine,) is laid down the system which Hippocrates appropriated
later. Susrutta notably
enunciates the principles of preventive or hygiene, which he places much above
curative medicine. The Arab physicians
constantly referred to the Hindu physicians for many medicinal discoveries.
Grammar: They formed the most marvellous
language in the world-the Sanskrit-which gave birth to the greater part of the
idioms of the Orient and of Indo-European countries.
Poetry: They have treated all the styles, and
shown themselves supreme masters in it.
Their descriptive poetry has never been equalled. Their fables have been copied by all modern
and ancient peoples.
Music: They invented the gamut with its
difference of tones and half-tones, and perfected melodic forms.
Architecture: They seem to have exhausted all
that the genius of man is capable of conceiving. Domes, inexpressibly bold; tapering cupolas, with marbly lace;
Gothic towers; Greek hemicycles, polychrome style-all kinds and epochs are
there.
Philosophy: They were the greatest
philosophical speculators of the ancient world. The founders of metaphysical philosophy and of positive
philosophy, as represented by the Vedantic and Sankhya schools respectively.
Religion: The world’s three greatest
religions took their birth there; and most of the world’s saints and singers
are to be met in India.
Morality: They have a code of ethics
unsurpassed in the world; and the average Hindu is more moral than the average
European.
Sociology: The Hindus perfected a social
system, based on an ideal of communalism.
It kept the race pure and unsullied throughout the ages. It has become rigid and narrow, owing to other
circumstances. It has the seed of the
future social polity of the world.
That is the
‘Mother India’ of the ages; the cradle-land of religions and the nursery of
races. Her greatness cannot easily be
fathomed. He who wants pearls must dive
deep down below; the scum ever floats on the surface. India’s present-day social evils are the results of her extreme
poverty due to exploitation and alien domination. Poverty is the disease of the soul, as dirt is the disease of the
body. Quacks, like Miss Mayo, see
merely the symptoms; the cause lies hidden in India’s political slavery. Restore her to her rightful freedom and she
will rise her full stature and reveal her hidden glory. ‘Mother India’ of Miss Mayo is not a
challenge to India’s fitness for self-rule, but a condemnation of the present
rule and a plea for India’s right to be mistress in her own household and to
set her home in order by clearing away the cobwebs of disease, despair,
poverty, cowardice, slave –mentality, sex-perversions and other social evils
with one sweep of the magical brush of Freedom.
Unfortunately
even after independence we find corruption! - Editor