Status Updates From The Soul of India

party politics have declined on the national level while becoming more active on the regional and state level, where they express themselves in the vernaculars. The preservation of India’s unity through the medium of the English language can only be maintained at the expense of representative political institutions at the centre

Marxism had failed to make a profound impact on the intelligentsia for basic reasons which are rooted in the psychology and philosophical dispositions of the Indians: dogmatism, to start with, has always repelled the Indians – whether Christian or Marxist–Leninist. Aware of the insubstantiality of all shapes and forms, of the relativity that attaches to all theories and doctrines and philosophic systems

a bird’s-eye view of the Anglo-Indian relationship before and after the turn of our century, the psychological evolution becomes plain: it was based on an instinctive feeling of the Indians that Britain’s great days were over. This psychological evolution that took place all over the Orient and affected, in fact, all the colonizing Westerners and the colonized Easterners, gave the final impetus to Indian nationalism

Their world-outlook, whatever it may be, is an all-inclusive one, a coherent picture of which no part is detachable without entailing the destruction of the rest. We tend to see science, philosophy, religion, ethics, literature and every other segment of human culture as separate, autonomous compartments independent of one another

Indians and Germans both developed a caste system, a rigid structure which classifies and also preserves the originalities and specific characters of hereditary functions and callings. Fettered externally, having mechanized the objective life, the inner personality is free to pursue its own subjective quest and attempt in utter freedom to realize its profound aspirations.

the status of 600-odd Indian states was frozen for almost a century. And so it was that Indian Maharajahs and Nawābs, Malay and Indonesian Sultāns, Indochinese kings and emperors, all continued in odd corners of the colonial world to perpetuate a style of life and preserve a social structure that were becoming increasingly incongruous, in fact soon quite incompatible, with the requirements of the dawning age

Because trade and commerce had been the original incentives of European imperialism, the subsequent political and administrative commitments devolved on Europeans more by accident than design. The easiest way out of such administrative burdens was to foster indirect rule as far as possible, and since there was no real desire to Westernize the colonized Asians, their traditional way of life was preserved

what struck the Asians was the European’s far greater persistence and determination, the continuity of his effort – the history-conscious European was sliding along the time dimension as if it were a concrete substance, working on the future as if it were clay in his hands. Long-term aims, teamwork, the systematic build-up of knowledge, the steady consolidation of positions once acquired

Hinduism, as a world-outlook, gradually acquired certain characteristics that were absent before the advent of the Muslim invaders: hypocrisy and self-pity. The best Hindus forsook a life of action and sought refuge in mysticism

the ethos of a subjugated Hindu nationalism took shape: Hindus, for the most part, led double lives more or less unconnected with one another. They were at the service of any non-Hindu who was powerful enough to compel them, but never granted him their emotional allegiance: they acted as they were expected to, but there was no emotional commitment behind their actions: this was a perverted interpretation of the Bhaga

generation after generation of Hindus wept as they heard the pitiful tale of the Muslim conquests – and then, drying their tears, for the most part went to work for their Muslim overlords.
From then on, Hindu civilization survived only at the cost of its pride.

Taken over politically and militarily by a completely alien civilization, the Hindus withdrew into a psychological ivory tower, leaving the substance of this world’s power and riches to the alien ‘impure’ barbarians

The only strong resistance that was offered to the invading Muslims came from the proud Rājputs – who were, in fact, the descendants of the invading Huns of earlier days. Soon enough, Hindu India knuckled under for good to the Muslims, though pockets of resistance remained – in the extreme south, in Orissa and parts of Gujarāt.

Chinese statesmanship and ethics were viewed as inseparable. Not so in India, where politics were viewed as a replica of the lawless world of the jungle. Indian political philosophy was never able to overcome the cynicism of Kauṭilya’s Arthasāstra

Since India never evolved a really efficient system for the recruitment of its officialdom comparable to China’s remarkable mandarin system, nor an equivalent ethical doctrine, the frequent collapses of bureaucratic machineries were largely responsible for the short duration of great empires

The state merely regulated the relations between these self-governing and autonomous groups. The traditional power of the caste structure was such that the Caesarian rulers were only the executive mouthpieces of the predominant caste

Having evolved in the caste system the strongest possible structure binding every individual hand and foot, from the cradle to the grave, India gave up the idea of a Universal State but preserved the reality of a Universal Society into which all men, whatever their characteristics, could fit – all except the despised mlechchas, the non-Indians, the ‘barbarians’.

Each caste was internally democratic, self-governing and obeying its own specific norm (svadharma). The very complexity, rigidity and democratic autonomy of Indian society organized along caste lines presented, in fact, an insuperable obstacle to absolute despotism. The Indians proved unwilling and unable to set up a Universal State; they proved inept in matters of political organization

Race castes are less mixed than the occupational ones, although some of them are in fact remnants of former defeated nations rather than tribes (the Newārs of Nepal, for instance).
There are also many sectarian castes organized along religious lines.

caste became the great social expression of Indian Civilization, a spontaneous organization of self-governing groups that took over most of the actual political functions assumed in other civilizations by centralized bureaucracies. Each group became a sort of small republic without any specific territory but tied to race, language, customs, occupation or religious rituals, in full co-operation with other castes

must be pointed out is that there were no castes in the Vedic Age, only social classes. Castes came much later, when Indian Civilization became ossified. As we shall see, the caste system was the only democratic solution in a Civilization that refused to blend widely different races into one homogeneous whole through intermarriage.

In Vedic times, as in all Heroic Ages, individualism was almost nonexistent. The collective, almost tribal feeling of participation mystique still predominated completely. This is why men at this stage of historical development create myths, projections of their own dream pictures into the outer world, interpretations of the objective universe in subjective terms

In China, godlike forces of nature were soon converted into ancestors in history, space transmuted into time. In India, the process was reversed; real ancestors of the past were transformed into timeless gods, myths dwelling side by side beyond time in an eternal present, hovering permanently above the tangible world

The rise of Indira Gandhi

I love this author!!! keep going . Germans and Indians are quite similar philosophically .