For Global Peace with Social Justice in a Sustainable Environment

Western Civilization and Mahatma Gandhi

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Gandhian Scholar

Gandhi Research Foundation, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. - 09404955338, 09415777229

E-mail-dr.yadav.yogendra@gandhifoundation.net; dr.yogendragandhi@gmail.com

Western Civilization and Mahatma Gandhi

Western culture began in Ancient Greece. There and in the Roman civilization it developed until the start of the middle Ages when it largely vanished from Europe. During the middle Ages, Western culture resided, instead, in the Arab/Persian world to a modest degree. Mahatma Gandhi knew western culture very well because he had taken his education in London. He had a many English friends. He compared always between western civilization and Indian civilization. By his experience he suggested his associates and Indian people follow always Indian culture. Mahatma Gandhi described, “While the mission schools of other denominations very often enable the Natives to contract all the terrible vices of the Western civilization, and very rarely produce any moral effect on them, the Natives of the Trappist mission are patterns of simplicity, virtue and gentleness. It was a treat to see those saluting passers-by in a humble yet dignified manner.”1

Then the rediscovery of Western culture in Europe in the Late Middle Ages prompted the Renaissance. Western culture’s continuing development then led to the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, the American Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and to what is considered today as modern civilization. Mahatma Gandhi described, “No one with a sense of justice will fail to endorse Mr. Kallenbach letter on the subject of Indians. Will the Transvaal go to pieces if a few Indians quietly live and trade in it? It does not behoove us to treat as criminals the descendants of a people enlightened long before western civilization blossomed forth.”2 Mahatma Gandhi described, “I dismiss with utter contempt the allegation that any threat was held out to the deceased member of my community. But what is the moral of this, to us, tremendous tragedy? I must call a spade a spade. This is not an occasion when I can possibly use soft words: and I do deliberately charge the Transvaal Government with the murder of an innocent man, and this only because he was an Asiatic. The Asiatic Act has placed us in a difficult situation. It has now exacted blood. Will the humanity of the whites of the Transvaal tolerate an Act which has necessitated the tragedy I have described? Or will the public still continue to believe that the Asiatic Act is all for the best, that it is necessary for the protection of the white men of the Transvaal, and that, therefore, if the Asiatics, stupidly in their opinion, take to heart the insult that is offered by the Act, it is not their concern? Such is not the lesson that we would learn from Western civilization.”3

Better than others. They do so because they view a culture’s level of development as a product of race. As a result, they view any claim of cultural superiority as a claim of racial superiority and, accordingly, condemn the idea of cultural superiority as racist. However, as we have seen, a culture’s level of development is not a product of race. Mahatma Gandhi described, “We, on our part, ought to resist the fascination that western civilization has for us in view of these features that we observe. At the same time we should remember that eastern peoples have not been free from comparable cruelty. In fact, we find in the East examples of greater cruelty than in the West. The only lesson to be learnt is that East and West are no more than names. Human beings are the same everywhere.1 He who wants to will conduct himself with decency. There is no person to whom the moral life is a special mission. Everything depends on the individual himself. One can pursue the principles of morality at any place, in any environment or condition of life.”4

Mahatma Gandhi described, “But from the present civilization, or, rather, from western civilization, there flow two propositions which have almost become maxims to live by I call them fallacious maxims. They are might is right and survival of the fittest. Those who have propounded these two maxims have given a meaning to them. I am not going into the meaning that might be attached in our minds to them, but they have said undoubtedly, by saying “might is right”, that physical might is right, that physical strength is right and supreme. Some of them have also combined intellectual strength with physical strength, but I would replace both these with heart-strength, and I say that nobody with merely physical might and intellectual might can ever enjoy that strength that can proceed from the heart. It never can be that mere intellectual or mere physical strength can ever supersede the heart-strength or, as Ruskin would say, social affections. A quickening and quickened soul responds only to the springs of the heart. That1 is the difference between western and eastern civilization? I know that I am treading on very dangerous and delicate ground. We had the distinction given to us by so great an authority as Lord Selborne only a short time ago, and I have very humbly and very respectfully to differ from His Excellency’s views. It appears that western civilization is destructive, eastern civilization is constructive. Western civilization is centrifugal, eastern civilization is centripetal. Western civilization, therefore, is naturally disruptive, whereas eastern civilization combines. I believe also that western civilization is without a goal, eastern civilization has always had the goal before it.

I do not mix up or confuse western civilization with Christian progress. I decline to believe that it is a symbol of Christian progress that we have covered a large part of the globe with the telegraph system, that we have got telephones and ocean greyhounds, and that we have trains running at a velocity of 50 or even 60 miles per hour. I refuse to believe that all this activity connotes Christian progress, but it does connote western civilization. I think western civilization also represents tremendous activity, eastern civilization represents contemplativeness, but it also sometimes represents lethargy. The people in India, the people in China I leave Japan for the time being having been sunk in their contemplative mood, have forgotten the essence of the thing, they have forgotten that, in transferring their activity from one sphere of life to another sphere of life, they had not to be idle, they had not to be lazy. The result is that immediately they find an obstacle in their way, they simply sit down. It is necessary that that civilization should come in contact with that of the West, it is necessary that that civilization should be quickened with the western spirit. Immediately that fact is accomplished, I have no doubt also that the eastern civilization will become predominant, because it has a goal. I think you will see easily that a civilization or a condition in which all the forces fly away from the centre must necessarily be without a goal, whereas those which converge to a point have always a goal. It is then necessary for these two civilizations to meet and we shall have a different force altogether, by no means a menacing force, by no means a force that disunites, but a force that unites. The two forces are undoubtedly opposing forces, but perhaps in the economy of nature both are necessary. Only we, as intelligent human beings with heart and soul, have to see what those forces are, and have to use them, not blindly but intelligently, not anyhow and haphazard, but with a goal in view. Immediately that is done, there is no difficulty whatsoever in the two civilizations meeting and meeting for a good purpose.”5

Civilizations do meet and even merge but never has such an impact been witnessed as the impact of the west on India. A Birdseye view of the Indian scenario would depict a miniature or a distorted West in India. Mahatma Gandhi described, “Let it be remembered that western civilization is only a hundred years old, or to be more precise, fifty. Within this short span the western people appear to have been reduced to a state of cultural anarchy. We pray that India may never be reduced to the same state as Europe. The western nations are impatient to fall upon one another, and are restrained only by the accumulation of armaments all round. When the situation flares up, we will witness a veritable hell let loose in Europe. All white nations look upon the black races as their legitimate prey. This is inevitable when money is the only thing that matters. Wherever they find any territory, they swoop down on it like crows upon carrion. There are reasons to suggest that this is the outcome of their large industrial undertakings.”6

Mahatma Gandhi described, “There has been quite a row in the House of Commons about the budget proposals recently introduced. The sessions continue right through the night, with the result that half the number of members stretches themselves out for a nap right in the midst of all, wake up when it is time for voting and resume the nap as soon as the voting is over. Such is the condition of the greatest Parliament in the world. How, in these circumstances, they attend to the nation’s business—readers may imagine for themselves. We find that most people are selfish. It will not be wrong to say that the sun of pure justice has set. Relatively, the British people behave somewhat better and that is why they outshine the other nations. However, it does not seem likely that Western civilization will survive much longer.”7

Mahatma Gandhi described, “If you now have planes flying in the air, take it that people will be done to death. Looking at this land, I at any rate have grown disillusioned with Western civilization. The people whom you meet on the way seem half-crazy. They spend their days in luxury or in making a bare living and retire at night thoroughly exhausted. In this state of affairs, I cannot understand when they can devote themselves to prayers. Suppose Dr. Cook has, in fact, been to the North Pole, what then? People will not, on that account, get the slightest relief from their sufferings. While Western civilization is still young, we find things have come to such a pass that, unless its whole machinery is thrown over-board, people will destroy themselves like so many moths. Even today we can see that there are more and more cases of suicide every day. There are reasons why it may be advisable for people to come to England on some business or for education, but, generally speaking, I am definitely of the view that it is altogether undesirable for anyone to come or live here. We shall consider this point at greater length some other time.”8

The impact has been so great and so deep that, wherever we go, and, as far as the eye can see, we notice only western modes and we are for a moment set to wonder if we are in India or in some western country. Mahatma Gandhi described, “While Western civilization is still young, we find things have come to such a pass that, unless its whole machinery is thrown over-board, people will destroy themselves like so many moths. Even today we can see that there are more and more cases of suicide every day. There are reasons why it may be advisable for people to come to England on some business or for education, but, generally speaking, I am definitely of the view that it is altogether undesirable for anyone to come or live here. We shall consider this point at greater length some other time.”9

Mahatma Gandhi described, “He had the spirit of patriotism in him from childhood. He was born in 1841. From the earliest time that he began to understand things, he had thoughts of working for Japan’s uplift. He braved many hardships in pursuit of his idea. In the war against Russia, he displayed great courage. He was thus an expert in war; also in mathematics, education, administration, in short, in everything. He must, there-fore, be admitted to be a brave man. In subjugating Korea, he used his courage to a wrong end. But those who fall under the spell of the Western civilization cannot help doing so. If Japan is to rule, defend and expand herself through force, she has no option but to conquer the neighbouring lands. The conclusion to be drawn from this is that those who have the real welfare of the people at heart must lead them only along the path of Satyagraha.”10

Mahatma Gandhi described, “The tendency of the Indian civilization is to elevate the moral being that of the Western civilization is to propagate immorality. The latter is godless; the former is based on a belief in God. So understanding and so believing, it behoves every lover of India to cling to the old Indian civilization even as a child clings to the mother’s breast.”11 Mahatma Gandhi described, “This civilization is unquestionably the best, but it is to be observed that all civilizations have been on their trial. That civilization which is permanent outlives it. Because the sons of India were found wanting, its civilization has been placed in jeopardy. But its strength is to be seen in its ability to survive the shock. Moreover, the whole of India is not touched. Those alone who have been affected by Western civilization have become enslaved. We measure the universe by our own miserable foot-rule. When we are slaves, we think that the whole universe is enslaved. Because we are in an abject condition, we think that the whole of India is in that condition. As a matter of fact, it is not so, yet it is as well to impute our slavery to the whole of India. But if we bear in mind the above fact, we can see that if we become free, India is free.”12

Mahatma Gandhi described, “We saw in Hind Swaraj that it is not so much from British rule that we have to save ourselves as from Western civilization. Clearly, if Englishmen settle down in India as Indians, they will cease to be foreigners. If they cannot bring themselves to do so, it will be our duty to create conditions in which it will be impossible for them to stay on. The writings of Englishmen themselves often tell us how wicked Western civilization is. There was a storm of protest in England against the alleged high-handedness of the Spanish authorities when Ferrer was put to death. The letter in the Daily News of October 22 which the famous author, Mr. G. K. Chesterton, wrote, pointing out that this was sheer hypocrisy on their part, will bear summarizing even today. Mr. Chesterton says: We have been hysterically protesting against what Spain has done, but that is so much hypocrisy and nothing else. It is out of our pride that we take up such an attitude. In fact, we are just as bad as Spain, in certain respects much worse. We have no political executions in England because we have no political rebellions in our country and not because we are a religious people. Wherever we do have rebellions, there we do have executions, much more mean, reckless and savage than the execution of Ferrer. The hanging of the Fenians at Manchester has been admitted by all lawyers to have been in contempt of logic and law. The killing of Scheepers in South Africa is a thing of which even the Imperialists are now ashamed. A few harmless peasants at Denshawai1 objected to the looting of their property; they were tortured and hanged. When our rulers react with such brutality and baseness to small and ineffectual local risings, how would they behave if confronted with a rising in London itself similar to the one in Spain? We are at peace, not because we do not exploit religion but because we have sunk silently under the domination of our rulers.2 If we have no rebellions, we are guilty of crimes worse than the death of Ferrer.3 A private soldier the other day committed4 suicide in order to avoid a flogging. This suicide is more hideous than the execution of Ferrer under the pressure of strong emotions in a time of excitement. Yet the incident attracted no attention in England, because we are the one people in Europe who are successfully oppressed. In view of such shortcomings in the civilization of this people which dazzles us so much, we had better consider whether we should tolerate it in India or banish it while we have still time to do so. It is a civilization which grinds down the masses and in which a few men capture power in the name of the people and abuse it. The people are deceived because it is under cover of their name that these men act.”13

Mahatma Gandhi described, “On reflection, we cannot help feeling that Western civilization is as cruel as, perhaps more cruel than, the terrible expression on the face of the man in the cartoon. The sight which fills one with the utmost indignation is that of the cross in the midst of weapons dripping with blood. Here the hypocrisy of the new civilization reaches its climax. In former times, too, there used to be bloody wars, but they were free from the hypocrisy of modern civilization.”14 Mahatma Gandhi described, “Self-interest will make them fight among themselves; too even today they are fighting. That is a characteristic aspect of Western civilization. If we imitate the Western people, we may succeed for a time in mixing with them but subsequently we would also be blinded by selfishness and fight with them and fight among ourselves, too.”15

“This glamorous show is the product of Western civilization. We can deem ourselves successful if we are not led away by it. I do not mean to say that Chhaganlal has succumbed to the temptation. He is, however, greatly affected by it and anyone would be so affected at first sight.”16

Mahatma Gandhi described, “He believes that as blotting-paper absorbs the superfluous ink, even so we take in only the superfluities that are the evils of Western civilization. That, indeed, we must admit, is our condition to some extent. Thinking about the causes of this condition, I have come to the conclusion that the chief fault lies in education being imparted to us through the medium of English. It takes about twelve years to get the matriculation certificate. We acquire precious little of knowledge over this long period. Our main effort is not directed towards integrating any such knowledge with our work and putting it to practical use, but towards gaining, somehow, command of the English language.”17

Mahatma Gandhi described, “My familiarity with the minor amenities of western civilization has taught me to respect my national costume, and it may interest Mr. Irwin to know that the dress I wear in Champaran is the dress I have always worn in India except that for a very short period in India I fell an easy prey in common with the rest of my countrymen to the wearing of semi-European dress in the courts and elsewhere outside Kathiawar. I appeared before the Kathiawar Courts now 21 years ago in precisely the dress I wear in Champaran.”18 Mahatma Gandhi described, “In English there is a saying, Might is Right. Then there is the doctrine of the survival of the fittest. Both these ideas are contradictory to the above principle. Neither is wholly true. If ill-will were the chief motive-force, the world would have been destroyed long ago; and neither would I have had the opportunity to write this article nor would the hopes of the readers be fulfilled. We are alive solely because of love. We are all ourselves the proof of this. Deluded by modern western civilization, we have forgotten our ancient civilization and worship the might of arms.”19

Impact of cultures is felt elsewhere also and this is bound to be, when two people or two societies or two countries meet but, neither leaves its own system wholesale as in India. This is a unique feature in India only, where the culture of the west has penetrated so deep and far and wide that, the original Indian culture has got lost somewhere. Mahatma Gandhi described, “Macaulay wanted us to become propagandists of Western civilization among our masses. His idea was that English education would help us to develop strength of character and then some of us would disseminate new ideas among the people. It would be irrelevant here to consider whether or not those ideas were good enough to be spread among the people. We have only to consider the question of the medium of instruction. We saw in English education an opportunity to earn money and, therefore, gave importance to the use of English. Some learned patriotism from it. Thus the original idea became secondary and we suffered much harm from the use of English which extended beyond Macaulay’s original intention.”20

Mahatma Gandhi described, “I have certainly not come to feel that we shall have to introduce Western civilization. Nor do I suppose that we shall have to take to drinking and meat-eating. To be sure, I have felt, in all seriousness, that Swaminaryana1 and Vallabhacharya have robbed us of our manliness. They made the people incapable of self-defense. It was all to the good, of course, that people gave up drinking, smoking, etc; this, however, is not an end in itself, it is only a means. If a smoker happens to be a man of character, his company is worth cultivating. If, on the contrary, a man who has never smoked in his life is an adulterer, he can be of little service.”21

Mahatma Gandhi described, “The situation which now faces the western nations was inevitable; for western civilization, based on the basic principle of brute force as a guiding motive, could have ultimately led only to mutual destruction. But in India against all odds, the high principles of our hoary civilization have still a strong hold on the masses; and if the rapidly widespread growth of Bolshevism which is attacking one nation after another in Europe was to be successfully arrested in India, and even any possibility of its finding a congenial soil safeguarded against, it was necessary that the people of India should be reminded of the legacy of their civilization and culture, which is comprised in the one word satyagraha the highest mantra one can know of.”22

Mahatma Gandhi described, “The temptation of Western civilization, without its hard discipline which the nations of the west undergo, has made us almost incapable of suffering the physical discomfort entailed by even simple imprisonment. But Pir Mahboob Shah’s surrender need not dishearten us. When a number of horses are carrying a burden and one becomes fatigued or otherwise incapacitated, the rest if they are spirited animals take up their companion’s burden, put forth greater effort and pull up the load.”23 Mahatma Gandhi described, “It has tolerance and respect for other faiths. That is why you see me engaged in defending Islam with the same energy and passion with which I would defend my faith. Defending Islam is a great happiness to me since I feel that in the process I am acquiring fitness to defend my religion. The European Powers, which rely on brute force, pose a threat to Hinduism as much as they do to Islam. Today, it is Islam’s turn, tomorrow it may be that of Hinduism. I think the threat to Hinduism has been there, a very subtle threat, ever since British power was established in this land. I have seen that Western influences have shaken the very foundations of our thinking. Western civilization is the work of Satan. For many years now, we have been under a strange spell.”24

Mahatma Gandhi described, “Nevertheless, I had even then called on people to turn their back on Western civilization. It was in 1908 that I clearly saw that imitating it would be the ruin of India. I first shared my views with a British peer3 and, the same year (1908) on my return to South Africa from England I published them in the columns of Indian Opinion and later brought them out in book form under the title Hind Swaraj. May I request Shri Narasinhrao to read it in the original or in translation? These pages will give him a clear insight into many of my present activities. But, by rejection of Western civilization I never meant, nor do I mean even today, shunning everything English or hating the British. I revere the Bible. Christ’s Sermon on the Mount fills me with bliss even today. Its sweet verses have even today the power to quench my agony of soul. I can still read with love some of the writings of Carlyle and Ruskin. Even now, the tunes and the verses of many English hymns are like Amrit to me. Even so, I think that we would be well-advised to reject Western civilization, that it is our dharma to do so. By Western civilization I mean the ideals which people in the West have embraced in modern times and the pursuits based on these ideals. The supremacy of brute force, worshipping money as God, spending most of one’s time in seeking worldly happiness, breath-taking risks in pursuit of worldly enjoyments of all kinds, the expenditure of limitless mental energy on efforts to multiply the power of machinery, the expenditure of crores on the invention of means of destruction, the moral righteousness which looks down upon people outside Europe, this civilization, in my view, deserves to be altogether rejected.”25

Mahatma Gandhi described, “We have followed Western civilization only in its excesses. We would have done better to imbibe its beauty. This kind of ribbon is used only be women. If you do not know when to use a thing, why do you use it at all? You thought that, along with flowers, a ribbon would add to the beauty; this shows that, in India, our ways of doing things are a curious mixture. The Congress has been showing how we can get out of these. There is no propriety and no thoughtfulness in what you do.”26 To find western impact on India we do not have to go far to seek. Each and every home, each and every sphere of life has been completely influenced by the west that it is difficult to recognize what is Indian in India. Our food, and food habits, our dresses, our dances, our songs, our music, our life style are the entire western pattern. Mahatma Gandhi described, “We discovered differences in our estimate of Western civilization. He frankly differed from me in my extreme views on non-violence. But these differences mattered neither to him nor to me. Nothing could put us asunder. It were blasphemous to conjecture what would have happened if he were alive today. I know that I would have been working under him. I have made this confession because the anonymous letter hurt me when it accused me of imposture about my political discipleship. Had I been remiss in my acknowledgment to him who is now dumb? I thought I must declare my faithfulness to Gokhale, especially when I seemed to be living in a camp which the Indian world calls opposite.”27

However, the sad part of this system is that, the schools that lay more stress on Hindi, or use the Hindi Medium of instruction, are known to be second rate schools. Thus, we have not only adopted the British ways but we also appreciate them only. Mahatma Gandhi described, “I admit that Western civilization has had a very undesirable effect on them but not, relatively, more than on the Hindus and Muslims. However, because of their small number and because of the fact that they are concentrated in Bombay, the changes that they have adopted are more apparent, whereas Hindus and Muslims who, for all practical purposes, have become Englishmen do not send out prominently before us as such persons are scattered all over the country. The truth of this statement will be fully realized by any Indian going to England. I saw little difference between Parsis, Muslims and Hindus there. All seemed perfectly anglicized.”28

Mahatma Gandhi described, “So far as the Western civilization is concerned, it is possible to find terrible passages from Hindu scriptures holding up the modern system to ridicule and contempt. My booklet, from which passages referring to Western civilization have been quoted, has been placed in the hands of children with impunity.”29 Mahatma Gandhi described, “But the presentation of these addresses gave me an opportunity of paying a tribute to a Western effort in the midst of my opposition to Western civilization in general. The one thing which we can and must learn from the West is the science of municipal sanitation. By instinct and habit we are used to village life, where the need for corporate sanitation is not much felt. But as the Western civilization is materialistic and therefore tends towards the development of the cities to the neglect of villages, the people of the West have evolved a science of corporate sanitation and hygiene from which we have much to learn. Our narrow and tortuous lanes, our congested ill-ventilated houses, our criminal neglect of sources of drinking water require remedying.”30

Mahatma Gandhi described, “I feel that in the matter of outward sanitation we have to learn a great deal from the West. It has been my painful duty often to speak against the Western civilization and the methods of the West. I, therefore, whenever I get an opportunity, never miss the opportunity of saying what we can legitimately and usefully learn from the West; and I think that for the methods of sanitation in the large cities that we have in India we cannot do better than go to the West for the lessons. I wish I could drive the truth home to you that scavenging is an occupation which is a noble occupation although it may not give as much renown and that notoriety which services in other departments of life bring to us.”31

Mahatma Gandhi described, “Do not for one moment consider that I condemn all that is Western. For the time being I am dealing with the predominant character of modern civilization, do not call it Western civilization, and the predominant character of modern civilization is the exploitation of the weaker races of the earth. The predominant character of modern civilization is to dethrone God and enthrone Materialism.”32 Mahatma Gandhi described, “South Africa is a representative of Western civilization while India is the centre of Oriental culture. Thinkers of the present generation hold that these two civilizations cannot go together. If nations representing these rival cultures meet even in small groups, the result will only be an explosion. The West is opposed to simplicity, while Orientals consider that virtue to be of primary importance. How can these opposite views be reconciled? It is not the business of statesmen, practical men as they are, to adjudicate upon their relative merits. Western civilization may or may not be good, but Westerners wish to stick to it. They have made tireless endeavours to save that civilization.”33

Mahatma Gandhi described, “So far as I am aware, no Eastern thinker fears that if Western nations came in free contact with Orientals, Oriental culture would be swept away like sand by the onrushing tide of Western civilization. So far as I have a grasp of Eastern thought, it seems to me that Oriental civilization not only does not fear but would positively welcome free contact with Western civilization. If contrary instances can be met with in the East, they do not affect the principle I have laid down, for a number of illustrations can be cited in its support. However that may be, Western thinkers claim that the foundation of Western civilization is the predominance of might over right. Therefore it is that the protagonists of that civilization devote most of their time to the conservation of brute force. These thinkers likewise assert that the nations which do not increase their material wants are doomed to destruction. It is in pursuance of these principles that Western nations have settled in South Africa and subdued the numerically overwhelmingly superior races of South Africa.”34

If we do this we can have the best of all - and that is what on intelligent person or community should be doing - alas India has not done it and got lost in the labyrinth of western notions at the cost of all that was ours. Mahatma Gandhi described, “The only remaining factors are trade and colour. Thousands of Europeans have admitted in their writings that trade by Indians hits petty British traders hard, and that the dislike of the brown races has at present become part and parcel of the mentality of Europeans. Even in the United States of America, where the principle of statutory equality has been established, a man like Booker T. Washington1 who has received the best Western education, is a Christian of high character and has fully assimilated Western civilization, was not considered fit for admission to the court of President Roosevelt and probably would not be so considered even today! The Negroes of the United States have accepted Western civilization. They have embraced Christianity. But the black pigment of their skin constitutes their crime, and if in the Northern States they are socially despised, they are lynched in the Southern States on the slightest suspicion of wrongdoing.”35

One often wonders whether where we live is India, or a colony of the west? The influence is also changing our education system. In schools, the language most prominent is English and not Hindi. The medium of instruction is also English, so far so good. Mahatma Gandhi described, “I do not think that everything Western is to be rejected. I have condemned the Western civilization in no measured terms. I still do so, but it does not mean that everything Western should be rejected. I have learnt a great deal from the West and I am grateful to it. I should think myself unfortunate if contact with and the literature of the West had no influence on me. But I do not think I owe my opinion about the dogs to my Western education or Western influence.”36

The height of it all is seen when see that, a person who can communicate in English is known to be smarter than a person who cannot. This volume of change is not understandable. Mahatma Gandhi described, “My resistance to Western civilization is really a resistance to its indiscriminate and thoughtless imitation based on the assumption that Asiatics are fit only to copy everything that comes from the West. I do believe that if India has patience enough to go through the fire of suffering and to resist any unlawful encroachment upon its own civilization which, imperfect though it undoubtedly is, has hitherto stood the ravages of time, she can make a lasting contribution to the peace and solid progress of the world.”37 Mahatma Gandhi described, “In spite of your belief in the greatness of Western civilization and in spite of your pride in all your achievements, I plead with you for humility, and ask you to leave some little room for doubt, in which, as Tennyson sang, there was more truth, though by ‘doubt’ he no doubt meant a different thing. Let us each one live our life, and if ours is the right life, where is the cause for hurry? It will react of itself.”38

It implies that, not only have we taken to western styles, we also admire only them who follow the western styles, in comparison to those who follow the Indian styles. Mahatma Gandhi described, “We incline towards the English language and Western civilization rather than towards our mother tongue and our own culture. We cannot show much of service or simplicity, aware as we are of the poverty of our country. We know that it is good for the country that we should use khadi and swadeshi articles; but we regret that we were unmoved even when the heart-rending cry of the flood-stricken fell on our ears. And this indifference is the cause of the absence of our response to the general distress surrounding us. Our association has been doing some work during the last four years. But there is not much in it of which we can make any boast.”39

In my view, it is good to learn whatever is good anywhere, but, to learn a thing just because it is of the west only depicts a crumbled and shattered state of the Indian mind. We must learn to sort out and learn what is good elsewhere and maintain what is good in us. Mahatma Gandhi described, “But whether good or bad, why must India become industrial in the Western sense? The Western civilization is urban. Small countries like England or Italy may afford to urbanize their systems. A big country like America with a very sparse population, perhaps, cannot do otherwise. But one would think that a big country, with a teeming population, with an ancient rural tradition which has hitherto answered its purpose, need not, must not, copy the Western model. What is good for one nation situated in one condition is not necessarily good enough for another differently situated. One man’s food is often another man’s poison.”40

This much influence is not only unwarranted but also shameful. It has often been seen that countries do adopt methods of other countries but in doing so, they maintain their own identity. The loss of the identity is only found in India. Mahatma Gandhi described, “Their civilization or rather the Western civilization does not recognize distinctions in the manner decayed Hinduism does. We could have profited by this excellence of theirs without having the infliction of their rule. My indictment is not against the English as men, it is against Englishmen as the ruling caste. As men they are as good as we. In some respects they are better; in some others they may be worse. But as rulers they are highly undesirable. As rulers they can do, have done, no good to any of us. They have pandered to, and accentuated, our vices. And as we have developed the inferiority complex, their contact demoralizes us.”41

To a great extent the influence of the British can be well understood as, we have remained slaves to them for two centuries. This much may be excused, but to revolt if anything Indian or anything indigenous is being introduced cannot be forgiven at all. Mahatma Gandhi described, “But the fear at the back of the Indian’s mind is lest he should be swamped by the onrush of Western civilization. In this problem I invite the help of all Englishmen who, if they choose to stay here, must live in conformity with our way of life and as the servants of our country. The same cause has been at the root of the clash between the Chinese and the Europeans and the Chinese and the Americans. I want our English friends to understand what I am saying. The whole trouble arises out of the Englishman’s insistence on living according to his Western way of life and according to Western standards.”42

This indicates a full and complete degeneration of Indian culture and its total merger with the culture of the west. Mahatma Gandhi described, “Western civilization is material, frankly material. It measures progress by the progress of matter railways, conquest of disease, conquest of the air. These are the triumphs of civilization according to Western measure. No one says, ‘Now the people are more truthful or more humble.’ I judge it by my own test and I use the word ‘Satanic’ in describing it. You set such store by the temporal, external things. The essential of Eastern civilization is that it is spiritual, immaterial. The fruits of Western civilization the East may approach with avidity but with a sense of guilt.”43

This only points to the ugly fact that, we have got independence from the British only physically and politically but, mentally and culturally the onslaught on India has been complete. We, even to-day, remain culturally and mentally bonded to the west. Whenever anything Indian is talked about there is an attitude of derision for it, even in the highest echelons of society. Mahatma Gandhi described, “There must be a return to simplicity and proper proportions. The flesh has taken precedence over the spirit. The machine age is ruining Western civilization. Over-production and lack of means of proper distribution may finally spell the doom of capitalistic society. The only solution I see is a return to hand industry and the emancipation of the individual from factory slavery.”44

Mahatma Gandhi described, “I know what is taking place there because in a way I belong to South Africa, having passed 20 years of the best part of my life there. It was there that Satyagraha was born. The West is passing through a purgatory today. The vanquished lie prostrate at the feet of the victors. But those who have won the war have found that they are no more victors than those who have lost it. Yet it is not in the World War II that the Western civilization will have met its grave. It is being dug in South Africa. The white civilization in South Africa looks black in contrast with the coloured or the Asiatic civilization which is comparatively white. If our people remain steadfast and non-violent till the end, I have not a shadow of doubt that their heroic struggle will drive the last nail into the coffin of Western civilization which is being found out in its true colours in South Africa.”45

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