I wrote in India under siege-IV as to how Lord Macaulay devised a plan to make Indians look down upon themselves in order to make colonization total and complete.What strikes us with astonishing clarity is the change in the mindset of the foreigners about how they viewed India and its history over a span of just one century.
In the year 1882 Max Muller,the celebrated historian observed,
"It is surely extremely strange that whenever, either in Greek,or in Chinese,or in Persian,or in Arab writings,we meet with any attempts at describing the distinguishing features in the national character of the Indians,regard for truth and justice should always be mentioned first."
The first British travelers,settlers and rulers were all astonished at the scale and grandeur of the Indian civilization.Thomas Munro wrote,
"If a good system of agriculture,unrivalled manufacturing skill,a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to convinience or luxury;schools established in every village for teaching,reading,writing,and in arithmetic;the general practice of hospitality and charity among each other;and above all,a treatment of the female sex full of confidence,respect and delicacy,if all these are among the signs which denote a civilized people,then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe;and if civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India,I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo".
A pity England was hardly interested in trading in civilization.
The German historian Friedrich Schlegal described Sanskrit as the original language of the world and declared in 1803,
"Everything without exception is of Indian origin......Whether directly or indirectly,all nations are originally nothing but Indian colonies....the oriental anquity could,if we consented to deepen it, bring us back more safely towards the divine."
However,this generous estimate of Indian civilization and its contribution to the West started changing at the turn of the nineteenth century.The British had established their supremacy,over most of India and the colonial masters could now concentrate on draining the wealth of India.
This is what Michael Danino writes in his best seller,"The invasion that never was",
"While most of eighteenth century European travellers to india described her as "flourishing",less than a century later,she had sunk into the depths of dismal misery."
One British historian noted in 1901,
"Time was,not more distant than a century ago,when Bengal was much more wealthy than was Britain".another even asserted that Britain's Industrial revolution could not have taken place without the influx of money that followed the conquest of Bengal.
The Britishers' unlike the Portuguese or the earlier muslim invaders,were anxious to clothe their greed in more lofty ideals: the white man's burden of civilizing(and naturally Christianizing) less enlightened races;the "divinely ordained mission" of bringing to India the glory of Europe's commercialization and industrial civilization,and so forth.articles,pamphlets,speeches,volumes poured forth year after year in praise of the "tremendous task of rescuing India" from the darkness into which she had fallen.It was Britain's historic duty to spread the highest kind of civilization."
Understandably,the recognition of India's far more ancient and refined civilization made such noble motives untenable.Thus began a systematic campaign to disparage not only this civilization,culture and society,but the very roots of Hinduism..................................
Deliberate attempts were made to portray India as a land of superstitions,ignorance and never-ending problems.This was done to justify for themselves the legitimacy of the conquest of India.and the first step in the direction was to erase the earlier perceptions about India's glorious past.
This is what Richard Temple said in 1883,in a speech intended to generate donations for missions:
"India is a country,which of all others,we are bound to enlighten with the eternal truth.....But what is most important to you friends of missions,is this-there is a large population of aborgines a people who are outside caste....If they are attached,as they rapidly may be,to Christianity,they will form a nucleus round which British power and influence may gather.Remember too,that hinduism,although it is dying,yet has force........and such tribes,if not converted to Christianity,may be perverted to Hinduism....You may be confident that the missions in inida are doing a work which strengthens the imperial foundations of British power......I say,of all the departments I have ever administered,I never saw one more efficient than the missions department."
The Hindus themselves were in a tizzy as they were under the imperial rule and had no clue about their future.centuries of slavery had more or less snuffed out the bravery in them.They started to believe that the British alone could develop India.
This is what James Mill,wrote in his book,"The history of India":
".The Hindu,like a eunuch,excels in all the qualities of a slave."
That book was published in 1817.You are reading this in 2012.much water has flown down the drain......
But are we any different today,more than 60 years after we obtained Independence?
Am afraid we are not.Of course,we do mint our own coins,have a flag of our own,and elect our people to parliament.But,is our mind free from slavery?Do we have the tenacity to look at foreigners in the eye?Are we today proud of our unbroken civilization,that has seen so much,been put to test so many times,yet reared itself again like a phoenix?
All a child learns today is to look down upon India and her religion.The Macaulayan education system takes care of that.Parents today want their children to be "modern".In their dictionary,westernized and modern mean the same.
Our government seems convinced that India,which constitutes (1/6)th of the world's population,can be developed from outside.So,it has allowed FDI in multi-brand retail.The educated Indian takes pride in using English.The unlettered Indian looks at English in disgust.Either way,they look at English as a status symbol,not as a language.This is the extent to which imperialism has sunk into our flesh,into our DNA and mixed with our genes.Even our names are westernized when they appear online("Ams" for ambarish,"Ham" for Hamsalekha and so on).Independence for the nation must translate into freedom for the people.has it happened in India???
How i wish i could get "yes" for an answer....................
On the contrary,we seem to be all too eager to snuff out the very idea of India.Our government itself does it all the time.I fail to understand how we can do all this,and yet claim to be independent.Youngsters have actually started considering India as just yet another piece of land in which states are administered by a union for the purpose of administrative convenience.It is scary to think of what the future will be like for India,if the present trend continues.........
I would like to end this post with these soul stirring words of Swami Vivekananda,
"Shall India die?Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct,all moral perfection will be extinct,all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct,all ideality will be extinct;and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities with money as its priest;fraud,force and competition its ceremonies;and the human soul its sacrifice.Such a thing can never be..............Will she die?This old mother of all that is noble or moral or spiritual,the land which the sages trod,the land in which Godlike men still breathe and live?I will borrow the Anthenian sage and follow you,my brother,through the cities and villages,plains and forests,of this broad world-show me such men in other lands if you can."
May God lead this nation from darkness to light;from the bad to the virtuous;from ignorance to knowledge;and from the cusp of death to the glory of life.
May peace prevail.......................
P.S:With this post,the series India under siege comes to an end.I would like to thank my readers for their comments,emails and support.Criticisms and suggestions are always welcome.......
In the year 1882 Max Muller,the celebrated historian observed,
"It is surely extremely strange that whenever, either in Greek,or in Chinese,or in Persian,or in Arab writings,we meet with any attempts at describing the distinguishing features in the national character of the Indians,regard for truth and justice should always be mentioned first."
The first British travelers,settlers and rulers were all astonished at the scale and grandeur of the Indian civilization.Thomas Munro wrote,
"If a good system of agriculture,unrivalled manufacturing skill,a capacity to produce whatever can contribute to convinience or luxury;schools established in every village for teaching,reading,writing,and in arithmetic;the general practice of hospitality and charity among each other;and above all,a treatment of the female sex full of confidence,respect and delicacy,if all these are among the signs which denote a civilized people,then the Hindus are not inferior to the nations of Europe;and if civilization is to become an article of trade between England and India,I am convinced that England will gain by the import cargo".
A pity England was hardly interested in trading in civilization.
The German historian Friedrich Schlegal described Sanskrit as the original language of the world and declared in 1803,
"Everything without exception is of Indian origin......Whether directly or indirectly,all nations are originally nothing but Indian colonies....the oriental anquity could,if we consented to deepen it, bring us back more safely towards the divine."
However,this generous estimate of Indian civilization and its contribution to the West started changing at the turn of the nineteenth century.The British had established their supremacy,over most of India and the colonial masters could now concentrate on draining the wealth of India.
This is what Michael Danino writes in his best seller,"The invasion that never was",
"While most of eighteenth century European travellers to india described her as "flourishing",less than a century later,she had sunk into the depths of dismal misery."
One British historian noted in 1901,
"Time was,not more distant than a century ago,when Bengal was much more wealthy than was Britain".another even asserted that Britain's Industrial revolution could not have taken place without the influx of money that followed the conquest of Bengal.
The Britishers' unlike the Portuguese or the earlier muslim invaders,were anxious to clothe their greed in more lofty ideals: the white man's burden of civilizing(and naturally Christianizing) less enlightened races;the "divinely ordained mission" of bringing to India the glory of Europe's commercialization and industrial civilization,and so forth.articles,pamphlets,speeches,volumes poured forth year after year in praise of the "tremendous task of rescuing India" from the darkness into which she had fallen.It was Britain's historic duty to spread the highest kind of civilization."
Understandably,the recognition of India's far more ancient and refined civilization made such noble motives untenable.Thus began a systematic campaign to disparage not only this civilization,culture and society,but the very roots of Hinduism..................................
Deliberate attempts were made to portray India as a land of superstitions,ignorance and never-ending problems.This was done to justify for themselves the legitimacy of the conquest of India.and the first step in the direction was to erase the earlier perceptions about India's glorious past.
This is what Richard Temple said in 1883,in a speech intended to generate donations for missions:
"India is a country,which of all others,we are bound to enlighten with the eternal truth.....But what is most important to you friends of missions,is this-there is a large population of aborgines a people who are outside caste....If they are attached,as they rapidly may be,to Christianity,they will form a nucleus round which British power and influence may gather.Remember too,that hinduism,although it is dying,yet has force........and such tribes,if not converted to Christianity,may be perverted to Hinduism....You may be confident that the missions in inida are doing a work which strengthens the imperial foundations of British power......I say,of all the departments I have ever administered,I never saw one more efficient than the missions department."
The Hindus themselves were in a tizzy as they were under the imperial rule and had no clue about their future.centuries of slavery had more or less snuffed out the bravery in them.They started to believe that the British alone could develop India.
This is what James Mill,wrote in his book,"The history of India":
".The Hindu,like a eunuch,excels in all the qualities of a slave."
That book was published in 1817.You are reading this in 2012.much water has flown down the drain......
But are we any different today,more than 60 years after we obtained Independence?
Am afraid we are not.Of course,we do mint our own coins,have a flag of our own,and elect our people to parliament.But,is our mind free from slavery?Do we have the tenacity to look at foreigners in the eye?Are we today proud of our unbroken civilization,that has seen so much,been put to test so many times,yet reared itself again like a phoenix?
All a child learns today is to look down upon India and her religion.The Macaulayan education system takes care of that.Parents today want their children to be "modern".In their dictionary,westernized and modern mean the same.
Our government seems convinced that India,which constitutes (1/6)th of the world's population,can be developed from outside.So,it has allowed FDI in multi-brand retail.The educated Indian takes pride in using English.The unlettered Indian looks at English in disgust.Either way,they look at English as a status symbol,not as a language.This is the extent to which imperialism has sunk into our flesh,into our DNA and mixed with our genes.Even our names are westernized when they appear online("Ams" for ambarish,"Ham" for Hamsalekha and so on).Independence for the nation must translate into freedom for the people.has it happened in India???
How i wish i could get "yes" for an answer....................
On the contrary,we seem to be all too eager to snuff out the very idea of India.Our government itself does it all the time.I fail to understand how we can do all this,and yet claim to be independent.Youngsters have actually started considering India as just yet another piece of land in which states are administered by a union for the purpose of administrative convenience.It is scary to think of what the future will be like for India,if the present trend continues.........
I would like to end this post with these soul stirring words of Swami Vivekananda,
"Shall India die?Then from the world all spirituality will be extinct,all moral perfection will be extinct,all sweet-souled sympathy for religion will be extinct,all ideality will be extinct;and in its place will reign the duality of lust and luxury as the male and female deities with money as its priest;fraud,force and competition its ceremonies;and the human soul its sacrifice.Such a thing can never be..............Will she die?This old mother of all that is noble or moral or spiritual,the land which the sages trod,the land in which Godlike men still breathe and live?I will borrow the Anthenian sage and follow you,my brother,through the cities and villages,plains and forests,of this broad world-show me such men in other lands if you can."
May God lead this nation from darkness to light;from the bad to the virtuous;from ignorance to knowledge;and from the cusp of death to the glory of life.
May peace prevail.......................
P.S:With this post,the series India under siege comes to an end.I would like to thank my readers for their comments,emails and support.Criticisms and suggestions are always welcome.......
