VII.-Uninterrupted Continuity of Indian Culture.

48. The Indus Valley Civilisation.-From the prehistoric civili- sation of the Indus Valley brought to light by the excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-daro to our own time it is a span in all pro- bability of nearly five to six thousand years'. Sir John Marshall tells us that these excavations provide us with evidence of the pre- sence in India of a highly developed culture that 'must have had a long antecedent history on the soil of India, taking us back to an age that can only be dimly surmised'. Professor Childe writes: 'India confronts Egypt and Babylonia by the third millennium; with a thoroughly individual and independent civilisation of her own; technically the peer of the rest. And plainly it is deeply rooted in the Indian soil. He continues it has endured; it already specifically Indian, and forms the basis of modern Indian culture' 2.

49. The Vedic Period-The Vedic period on a most cautious estimate covers the stretch between 1500 to 600 B.C. The Rg Veda is older than Homer or the Old Testament. The concluding parts of the Veda, the Upanisads which are the sources of the Vedanta, antedate the Orphic and the Eleusinian mysteries, Pythagoras and Plato. The first connections of things are understood by the seers of the Rg Veda. They believe in a truth, a law which governs our existence, which sustains the different levels of our being, an infinite reality, eknam sat, of which all the different deities are but forms.

In Mittani (Asia Minor) we have cuneiform inscriptions (fourte- enth century B.C.) mentioning the Vedic deities Indra Mitra, Varuna and Asvins. Xerxes is reported to have destroyed a temple at Media where people adored gods with Vedic names like Indra and Sarva. The kinship of the Vedic and the Avestan beliefs is now accepted, and the Iranians and Indians had lived together or in close proximity from remote antiquity. The truths suggested in the Vedas are developed in the Upanisads. They are the source of the various philosophies and religions which have developed in India. Their influence can be traced in the thought of Pythagoras and Plato. In the Upanisads we find formulated the distinction between Absolute spirit and personal God, between the ultimate truth of the eternal and the

1 Mohenjo-daro and the Indus Civilisation (1931) Volume I, p. 106.

2 New Light on the Most Ancient East (1934), p. 220. "About the Indus Valley of Mohenjodaro civilisation of around 3000 B.C.", A.L. Kroeber says, 'we cannot yet say whether its recently discovered remains represent a peak or a level, nor whether they characterise only the North West Frontier or a larger part of India'. 'Configurations of Culture Growth'. (1944), page 688.

relative truth of mortal existence. They trace the lines of the inward growth of man from the physical to the spiritual mode of existence. They give us techniques for spiritual realisation which are flexible and continuous and discourage claims for the monopoly of truth. On the principle of live and let live, they give full freedom to seekers to get to their goal in their own ways.

50. Buddhism-The sixth century B.C. is a period of great awa- kening the world over; Confucius in China, Pythagoras in Greece, and the Buddha in India belong to it. The Buddha's doctrine is a restatement of the truths of the Upanisads with a new emphasis. Asoka's missions spread Buddhism in East and West including Syria and Palestine.

51. Indian Influence Abroad-The spread of Buddhism in the centuries before the Christian era and in the early centuries of it in the East, in Tibet, Burma, Nepal, Cambodia, Annam, China, Japan,, without spilling a drop of blood is well-known. Its appeal to the modern mind is remarkable.

From the third century B.C. there were conquests of culture in the regions of Indo-China and Indonesia and familiar Indian names like Campa, Kambhoja, Amaravati, names which we find in the Buddhist texts, were given to the places in Indian colonies even as European names like Boston, Cambridge, Berlin are taken over by settlers in America from their European homelands. Brahmanical and Buddhist faiths prevailed in this Farther India and came to terms with each other as in India. Harsa, the last great ruler of Northern India (A.D. 606- 647) dedicated temples to Siva and the Buddha.

52. South Indian Teachers-About and after the eighth century the teachers of South India, Sankara, Ramanuja, Madhva, effected a cultural union between the North and the South, between the Aryan and the Dravidian, and laid the foundations of Indian national unity.

53. The Spread of Islam-When Islam spread in the land, theistic developments became more prominent in the doctrines of Ramananda, and Kabir, Ramdas, Dadu, Tukaram and Tulsidas, Nanak and Caitanya. Attempts at the reconciliation of the two faiths were made not only by the spiritual leaders but by the emperor Akbar. In the sufism of Islam, of which Chishti, Baba Farid and Jami are illustrious representatives, we have a close approximation to the Vedanta philosophy.

From very ancient times India had intimate relations with the Arabs , especially in commerce and trade, and there were land and sea routes established between the two countries. The Muslims were wel- comed in India by the Hindu rulers, who permitted them to build'

mosques and spread their teachings. Indian culture did not believe in compelling people to choose its way of life. It encouraged each group, that found its home in India live by its own conception of the good life. A number of communities of mixed descent came into existence. When later Muslim invaders from outside attacked India, Indian Muslims fought side by side with the Hindus and resisted them. When these invaders settled down in India, there were frequent feuds and instances are not wanting of Hindus fighting under Muslim leader- ship and Muslims fighting under Hindu leadership. The Muslims of India spoke the Indian languages, belonged to the same racial stock, adopted the occupational groupings and, within each class, the Hindus and the Muslims were often indistinguishable as they are today, in dress and manners, in ways of thought and behaviour. With the advent of the Moghuls, the imperial court became the meeting ground, of Hindu and Muslim scholars who made themselves familiar with each other's cultures. In the eleventh century, the great Muslim scholar, Alberuni, mastered the Sanskrit language and left us an impressive and critical account of the achievements of the Hindus in sciences and philosophy. India's spirit of comprehension and for bearance influenced the Moghuls and the cultural activities of India between the fourteenth and the nineteenth centuries illustrate Hindu-Muslim collaboration. In science and literature, music and architecture, in painting and dancing, there was a notable synthesis of' Hindu and Muslim ideas.

54. The Influence of Christianity Christianity flourished in South India from the beginning of the Christian era. The early Christians looked upon themselves as an integral part of the general Hindu community and to-day the younger sections of the converted Christians regard themselves as the inheritors of the great Indian culture. Attempts to reconcile the inherited spiritual tradition of India with the acquired Christian doctrine on the lines of the reconciliation effected by the great scholastic thinkers between the Aristotelian tradition and Christian dogma are being made by the more,enterprising of the Indian Christian leaders.

55. Chief Tenets of Indian Culture-During all the centuries the people of India have evolved a culture and preserved it in an uniter rusted continuity. Its ideals are recognised not so much as super- stitions but as living truths, capable of satisfying the spiritual needs of humanity. The figure of Siva, the great Yogi, has come down to us from nearly 3250 B.C. calling upon us to be kings not over others but over ourselves. Religion is not so much a revelation to be attained by faith as an effort to unveil the deepest layers of man's being and get into enduring contact with them. Belief and conduct, rites and ceremonies, authorities and dogma are subordinate to the

art of conscious self-discovery and contact with the divine. Their function is to aid the growth of spirit by supplying supports for a task that is strictly personal. He who has seen the real is lifted above all narrowness and is released from a multitude of opinions. The name by which we call God and the rites by which we approach him do not matter much. Toleration in the positive sense of an active appreciation of other faiths has been the characteristic of India's religious life. Toleration is the homage which the finite mind pays to the inexhaustibility of the Infinite.

The process of self-discovery is not the result of intellectual analysis but of the attainment of a human integrity reached by a com- plete mastery of self. This view is humanistic in a deep sense, for it tells us that there is something more in man than is apparent in his ordinary consciousnees, something which frames ideals and thoughts, a finer spiritual presence which makes him dissatisfied with mere earthly pursuits. This is our true being, which it is our business to discover and consciously become.

The soul that has found itself is no longer conscious of itself in its isolation.. It is conscious rather of the universal self of which all individuals, races and nations are specific, articulations. This secret solidarity of the human race cannot be abolished by the passing insanities of the world. Man belongs to the two orders of time and eternity. Life eternal consists in another kind of life in the midst of time. Human life is a rhythm with moments of contemplation and of action, of refreshment and restoration in the life of spirit, and of action with a sense of mission in the world. The test of authentic spiritual insight is an increased integration of the personal life, quickened sensibility, heightened power and universal love.

The greatness of a culture consists not in its permanence which is a relative term but in the qualities which it is able to contribute to human growth in the way which it is able to contribute to human growth in the way in which it is able to mould the hidden drama of history which is a perpetual struggle between the external environment and the inner values of man. Its vital character is tested by its capacity to evolve without surrendering its master plan, to adapt new material which enters into it, which, though not strictly conformable to its central pattern, is yet not in conflict with it.

VII.-History of India

56. Study of the Past-No nation is healthy that parts company with its traditions. Social development is an organic process. The continuing influence of the past on the present cannot be ignored.

Our art and literature, our law and history, belong to the main stream of our culture. Every Indian student should get to know the main outlines of the history of India, which is not a mere chronicle, of dates and defeats, of follies and failures. He should know the lives of the heroes who express the spirit of our civilisation, the seers of the Vedas, the Buddha and Samkara, Asoka and Akbar. A habitual vision of greatness is the way to cultural growth. Those who have not greatness in themselves-they are the vast majority-should five in the company of the great. Culture is an attitude of mind, an inclination of the spirit and those who yearn for it wish to have a vision of greatness, sit in the presence of nobility, see the highest reach and scope of the spirit of man.

57. The Epics-If Indian people, in spite of widespread illiteracy still retain certain traits of their culture, it is because their poetry and Folklore, their Ramayana and Mahabharata, their art and architecture folklore, their Ramayana and Mahabharata, their art and architecture lifted the veil from the hidden beauty of the world.

The epics are rooted in India's culture but are not in any way fettered by it. They deal with problems of ethics and politic's and are at the same time great literature. Their incidents and characters are known throughout India as also in Ceylon, South East Asia, Burma and Slam and the Indies. They are carved on the walls of Angkor and in the temples of Java and enacted in the shadow plays of Ball. They are not works of the past but through the translations in the several Indian languages are alive and active in the life of India. They are told in the homes, chanted in the temples and recited under the village tree. The grandmother tells them to the children, travelling minstrels present them in town and village, scholars interpret them, amateurs love to enact them. In these epics we see greatness in spiritual vision and moral teaching as well as in artistry of language and imaginative eloquence.

58. Appeal of the Epics to the Youth-As these stories come out of the youth of the world, they appeal to all youth. When they are read imaginatively, with an appreciation of the living movement that lies behind them, we feel the intangible quality of our culture which eludes definition and a comradeship is established between the past and the present. The epic literature is a part of the tradition of our race'.

1 Cf The words of Tagore: "To know my country, one has to travel to that age, when she realised her soul and thus teanscended her physical boundaries, when she revealed her being in a radiant magnaninmity which illumined the eastern horizon, making her recognised as their own by those in alien shores who were awakened into a surprise of life; and not now when she has withdrawn herself into a narrow barrier of obscurity, into a miserly pride of exclusiveness, into a poverty of mind that dumbly revolves around itself, in an unmeaning repetition of a past that has lost its light, and has no message for the pilgrims of the future".

If our children are taught their language by means of these stories, they will have pleasure as well as illumination. They will catch something of their perfect sense of form as well as moral in- spiration. There is a tendency to over-emphasise the significance of the rational argument. We cannot present ideals in abstract shape to the mass of mankind; only through concrete illustrations can the ordinary man apprehend them in any real sense. These epics speak to us of the rights of the weak, the lust for power and its nemesis, the problem of reconciliation and atonement for wrong-doing, the triumph of a great victory, the sufferings of the vanquished, the debasement of the victors. If we are to work for a society of human beings as high as human nature allows, we must start with a vision of great and good men. That should be the centre of all education.

Even in college classes a study of these epics, which are a part of our intellectual inheritance, will form what is now called edu- cation by great books. We cannot measure the effect on the young minds of these classics, their profound thought, their sublime poetry, something absorbed rather than understood. Their study will broaden the horizons of our students, stabilise their emotions and make them less susceptible to the appeals of those who would like to take advantage of the bewilderment of the average man the presence of violent changes he does not understand. when there is a great empty space in the souls of men, superstitions fill the void, Belief in absolute values seems to be a condition of life. One cannot too often recall the profound words of Pascal: "It is the nature of man to believe and to love; if he has not the right objects for his belief and love, he will attach himself to wrong ones." Great literature enriches the life of contemplation, provides enduring satisfactions and inclines us to the good life.

59. Living Cultures-Cultures are alive and healthy only when they are creative, only when they are responding to some new chal- lenge' physical, social or spiritual. When we rest on our oars we stagnate- The decadent periods of Indian culture were those when we idolised our past achievements and lost the spirit of adventure. When the sources of creativity dried up, culture became barren. Today we have to build a world of friendly, prosperous human beings. It can be done only by an extension of the spirit which has sustained Indian through all its vicissitudes. Sylvan Levi refers in vivid terms to the greatness of the Indian spirit in these words: "From Persia to the Chinese Sea, from the icy regions of Siberia to the islands of Java and Borneo, from Oceania to Socotra, India has propagated her beliefs, her tales and her civilisation. She has left indelible imprints on one-fourth of the human race in the course of a long succession of

centuries. She has the right to reclaim in universal history the rank that ignorance has refused her for a long time and to hold her place amongst the great nations summarising and symbolising the spirit of humanity".

IX.-Fraternity : International

60. World-mindedness and National Sentiments-Fraternity is to be reached at the national and the international levels.

A nation state is not the beginning and the end of political Organisation., though it is an essential feature of modern life. The nationalist tradition has been strong because the colour of life, the fertility of mind the originality in arts and adventures in ideas spring from the cultural individuality of peoples. It arises out of the, natural feeling to believe that our country has a beauty all its own and of which it is intensely proud. We love the, intimate familiar things of our own land its hills and rivers, its plains and cities, its art and architecture, its native speech and faith. These things evoke echoes of earliest childhood and give us a warm feeling which we cannot acquire anywhere else. These existed long before there was such a thing as loyalty to a political State and will survive after they have ceased to have any political meaning.

61. Cultural Co-operation-Great philosophical developments like great civilisations, seem often to come about through the clash of different cultures The setting for the development of a world culture through the cross-fertilisation of cultures is ready. The world has become, through the speed of transportation and communication and economic interdependence, a single body. We must secure recognition and acceptance of the oneness of the world in the thinking of the people. Growth in mutual understanding arises from the recognition that the different cultures are dialects of the one language of the spirit.

If the democratic spirit is deep and strong, it will express itself in every phase of living, personal and social, economic and political, international and inter-religious. If the essence of democracy is an active regard for the rights and freedom of others, it cannot stop Sort at national, racial or religious boundaries. It must develop intercultural undersanding and co-operation. A blind loyalty to one way of life is not a democratic attitude. It is unreasoning and self- righteous. If we accept the interdependence as well as the indi- viduality of all men, we must develop a sensitivity to the hope and fears. needs and emotions of human beings everywhere.

62. Provincialism-Our thinking still bears marks of provincialism. We still tend to see other peoples with suspicion and distrust of dismiss them as inferior and backward because they are different from ourselves. To regard one's own country as the Centre of the universe, to view all things solely in relationship to this fixed point is primitive and outmoded. The advice of Comenius given three centuries before the Second World War, in 1643, has not lost its force: "There is needed in this century", he said "an immediate remedy for- the frenzy which has seized many men and is driving them lit their madness to their mutual destruction. For we witness throughout the world disastrous and destructive flames of discords and war devastating kingdoms and peoples with such persistence that all men seem to have conspired for their mutual ruin which will end only with the destruction of themselves and the universe. Nothing is, therefore, more necessary for the stability of the world, if it is not to perish completely, than some universal rededication of minds. Universal harmony and peace must be secured for the whole human race. By peace and harmony, however, I mean not that external peace between rulers and peoples among themselves, but an internal peace of minds inspired by a system of ideas and feelings. If this could be attained the human race has a possession of great promise We must learn to admit the possible worth of human values and ways of living which we ourselves do not accept. To a narrowly provincial mind cultural differences are irritating but to a liberal sensitive mind they are greatly rewarding.

63. Larger Patriotism World Union is not a threat to the deep loyalty we feel for our own country. The wider patriotism does not supersede but embraces the narrower- patriotisms. To draw the various nations into a closer union, we need not sacrifice our national loyalties but acquire a new loyalty to the world community of which we are all members. Within a united world there will be room for a wide diversity. World union will mean not the impoverishment but the enrichment of the world.

64. UNESCO-The United Nations Educational Scientific. and Cultural Organisation states in its preamble the declaration that wars begin in. the minds of men and it is in the minds of men that the de- fences of peace must be constructed. However much the political and economic arrangements of governments may contribute to world-union, peace must be founded on the intellectual and moral solidarity of mankind. If nations are to survive in the world, where the spread of science and technology is acting as the solvent of