12-23-2005, 03:57 PM
Talking about the split in Indian society, of the westernized elite (what Ramana garu calls DIE) and the aam-aadmi, Dharampal quotes Nehru..
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the next 30 years, the Indian elite seemed to have surrendered to the West, completely. This is how one of them, an up and coming leader of the Indian National Congress, Jawaharlal Nehru saw it in 1928. In a letter to Mahatma Gandhi he wrote:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->You have stated it somewhere that India has nothing to learn from the West and that she had reached a pinnacle of wisdom in the past. I certainly disagree with this viewpoint...I think that western or rather industrial civilization is bound to conqu-er India, may be with many changes and adaptations, but none the less, in the main, based on industrialism. You have criticised strongly the many obvious defects of industrialism and hardly paid any attention to its merits. Everybody knows these defects and the utopias and social theories are meant to remove them. It is the opinion of most thinkers in the West that these defects are not due to industrialism as such but to the capitalist system which is based on exploitation of others.41<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
17 years later, in 1945, he seemed even more convinced of his views and said:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I do not understand why a village should necessarily embody truth and non-violence. A village, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally and no progress can be made from a backward environment. Narrow-minded people are much more likely to be untruthful and violent.42<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Given such loss of self-image and identity, accompanied by the increasing alienation of the elite from the people and the reali-ty of India, the split in Indian society became even deeper and wider.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the next 30 years, the Indian elite seemed to have surrendered to the West, completely. This is how one of them, an up and coming leader of the Indian National Congress, Jawaharlal Nehru saw it in 1928. In a letter to Mahatma Gandhi he wrote:
<!--QuoteBegin--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->You have stated it somewhere that India has nothing to learn from the West and that she had reached a pinnacle of wisdom in the past. I certainly disagree with this viewpoint...I think that western or rather industrial civilization is bound to conqu-er India, may be with many changes and adaptations, but none the less, in the main, based on industrialism. You have criticised strongly the many obvious defects of industrialism and hardly paid any attention to its merits. Everybody knows these defects and the utopias and social theories are meant to remove them. It is the opinion of most thinkers in the West that these defects are not due to industrialism as such but to the capitalist system which is based on exploitation of others.41<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
17 years later, in 1945, he seemed even more convinced of his views and said:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->I do not understand why a village should necessarily embody truth and non-violence. A village, normally speaking, is backward intellectually and culturally and no progress can be made from a backward environment. Narrow-minded people are much more likely to be untruthful and violent.42<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Given such loss of self-image and identity, accompanied by the increasing alienation of the elite from the people and the reali-ty of India, the split in Indian society became even deeper and wider.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->