Under western eyes

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The Pioneer : February 05, 2003

 

Under western eyes

 

A country needs people who are proud of their own culture and

civilisation in order to move forward. That is what true nationalism -

as opposed to jingoism - is all about. It also requires an

intelligentsia which reflects this pride in its newspapers, books,

paintings, sculptures and sports. This is why the US is such a

powerful country today: Not only is an ordinary citizen proud to be

an American; not only is a poet proud to be an American; but a

sportsperson too is proud to represent his or her country and hence

does extremely well.

 

But for such overall excellence to be achieved, a country need

intellectuals in contact with their society, who know their roots,

who have been groomed in its intricacies, the subtleties and genius

of their own culture, while not being blind to its faults. For

intellectuals are those who shape the psyche of a nation.

 

In India, we generally find there exists a brilliant intelligentsia,

which is at par with most of the Western intelligentsia. Indian

intellectuals are fluent in English, write it even better, are

cognizant of Western literature; indeed, they can often quote Camus,

Sartre, Freud, and Jung; they know the latest trends in the West,

have read the latest books, and can converse on any subject on this

earth, be it ecology or fashion.

 

Unfortunately, not only are they totally ignorant of their own

culture, but they also look down upon it. Not only have they no idea

about the greatness of the Bhagavad Gita, of meditation, of Ayurveda,

or pranayama, but they use the best of their talents to run it down,

with wit, good English and a nasty and acerbic pen.

 

These intellectuals are all a product of a man called Macaulay, who,

more than 200 years ago, had the brilliant idea to fashion sahibs out

of brown-skin natives and make them not only more British than the

British, but also make them ashamed of their own culture,

spirituality and ethos. When they took over India, the British set

upon establishing an intermediary race of Indians, whom they could

entrust with their work at the middle level echelons and who could

one day be convenient instruments to rule by proxy, or semi-proxy.

The tool to shape these British clones was education.

 

In the words of Macaulay, the pope of British schooling in India: "We

must at present do our best to form a class, who may be interpreters

between us and the millions we govern, a class of persons Indians in

blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in

intellects." Macaulay had very little regard for Hindu culture and

education: "All the historical information which can be collected

from all the books which have been written in the Sanskrit language,

is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry

abridgement used at preparatory schools in England." Then: "Hindus

have a literature of small intrinsic value, hardly reconcilable with

morality, full of monstrous superstitions."

 

It seems today that India's Marxist intelligentsia could not agree

more with Macaulay, for his dream has come true: Today, the greatest

opponents of Indianised and spiritualised education are the

descendants of these brown sahibs; the "secular" politicians, the

journalists, the top bureaucrats, the whole westernised cream of

India. And what is even more paradoxical, most of them are Hindus!

 

It is they who, on getting independence, have denied India its true

identity and borrowed blindly from the British education system,

without trying to adapt it to the unique Indian mentality and

psychology; and it is they who are refusing to accept a change of

India's education system, which is totally West-oriented and is

churning out machines learning by rote boring statistics which are of

little use in life. And what India is getting from this education is

a youth which apes the West: They go to MacDonald's, thrive on MTV

culture, wear the latest Klein jeans and Lacoste T-Shirts, and in

general are useless, rich parasites, in a country which has so many

talented youngsters who live in poverty. They will grow up like

millions of other Western clones in the developing world, who wear a

tie, read The New York Times and perhaps swear by liberalism and

secularism to save their countries from doom. In time, the same youth

will reach elevated positions and write books and articles which make

fun of India; they will preside over human-right committees;

be "secular" high bureaucrats who take the wrong decisions and

generally do tremendous harm to India, because it has been programmed

in their genes to always run their own country down. In a gist, they

will be the ones always looking to the West for approval and forever

perceive India through the Western prism.

 

Dr Murli Manohar Joshi is absolutely right. Indian children should be

told about the immense human and spiritual values of their own

literature, like we in Europe are brought up on the values of the

Iliad and the Odyssey, or the great Greek tragedies. Therefore,

education in India has to be more Indianised - it is not a question

of being "nationalistic", or "saffron-oriented", as Indian Marxists

are fond of saying, but of knowing one's own culture, the Vedas, the

Bhagavad Gita, the Ramayana, which in fact, according to many Western

scholars, stand among the greatest literary works of all times.

 

At the same time, it is true, as Sri Aurobindo pointed out: "Though

we must save for India all that she has stored up of knowledge,

character and noble thoughts in her immemorial past, we must also

acquire for her the best knowledge that Europe can give her and

assimilate it to her own peculiar type of national temperament. We

must indeed introduce the best methods of teaching humanity has

developed, whether modern or ancient. And all these we must harmonise

into a system which will be impregnated with the spirit of self-

reliance, so as to build up men and not machines."

 

Unfortunately, at a time when the West, sick with antibiotics and a

blind medicine which kills more than it cures, is rediscovering the

virtues of Ayurveda, every third shop in India sells allopathic

prescriptions. When the West, sick with materialism is rediscovering

the virtues of swadeshi, Coca Cola, MacDonald, or Ford are given a

free hand in India. When the West, amidst violence, depression and

stress is rediscovering the virtues of spirituality and pranayama, it

is not even taught in Indian schools and universities. When the West

in mortal combat with a religion which says: "Unless you believe in

my God, I will kill you," is rediscovering the virtues of the Indian

dharma - the only living spirituality left in the world - it is made

fun of by India's own intelligentsia. If only they knew on what

treasure they are perpetually spitting!

 

Cry, O my beloved India! Look at what thy children are doing to

thee...