Introduction
The essay ‘Heritage of India is written by the famous historian, Indologist and author, Arthur Llewellyn Basham. His most famous work is ‘The Wonder That Was India’: A Survey of the Culture of the Indian Sub-Continent Before the Coming of the Muslims, is a book on Indian history first published in 1954. This essay ‘The Heritage of India’ is part of this book. The writer has praised assimilation feature of the Hindu Culture. He thinks Hindu culture will flourish in future too with assimilation of the features of Western culture.
Main Ideas
- Different methods of national service – The writer states different methods of national service through examples of various renowned pre-independence personalities. He says Raja Ram Mohan Roy did this service through social reforms while Swami Vivekanand has more nationalist fervour in his social service. He considered social service as the highest service of the motherland. At the other hand, Mahatma Gandhi linked the social service with religious duty as he considered the downtrodden or lower class people as ‘Daridranarayan’ i.e. god in the form of Misérables.
- Gandhiji was influenced by western culture – A.L. Basham says that it is a misconception in both Indian and European scholars that Gandhiji was inspired and influenced by ancient Indian thoughts. Although he respects them but he was much influenced by the Western thoughts. His love for underdogs and disbelief in caste system was no where near to Hindu tradition. It was the 19th century European liberalism which inspired him. His policy of pacifism and non-violence was influenced by the ‘Sermon of the mount’ and thoughts of Leo Tolstoy. His voice for women rights was also influenced by European thoughts. He diverted Hindu thoughts towards popular and equalitarian social order instead of hierarchy of class and caste.
- Future of Indian Culture – Basham tries to predict the future of both India and Hindu culture. He says, we don’t know what will be the future of India considering its economic and political conditions. But nowadays, it is certain that most of the people have started to feel proud on ancient Indian past and traditions and the coming generations won’t be copies of European culture. They will carry forward Indian culture and traditions. In the past, Indian culture has assimilated Iranian, Mesopotamian, Turkish, Persian, Roman, Greek, Scythian etc. cultures and it is certainly on the path of doing same with the Western culture.
- Significant removal of evils from Indian culture – A.L. Basham says that Indian culture has been purified significantly. It has eliminated various evils like animal sacrifices of ancient India, sati pratha, child marriage, caste based discrimination as brahmans are rubbing their shoulders during travelling with low caste people. Caste is vanishing and the objectionable features of it have got eliminated within a generation. Old family system has adopted new features. Indian culture is going through significant changes yet its traditions are continuing strongly.
Language
The language of the essay is simple and analytical. The analysis of the inspiration of thoughts of Mahatma Gandhi is proof of that. He has used simple language without any complexity.
Organic nature of Indian Culture
A.L. Basham praises a special quality of the Indian culture. He says that Indian culture evolves itself after assimilating foreign elements. Hence, it grows like a living being. This organic growth makes it adopt the changes and survive the oblivion.
Criticism of Basham’s thoughts
Many critics have called thoughts of Basham as one sided. He has tried to prove superiority of the Western culture when he says that Gandhiji has learnt from western culture rather than ancient Indian thoughts. Contrary to Basham’s thoughts, the emphasis on non-violence and truth are also found in Buddhism well before west promoted them. Similarly women rights were promoted in ancient India also when women were allowed to get education and work with men equally. It was the medieval times which pushed India towards superstitions and ignorance. Over that caste system is still going strongly in India and discrimination with so called lower caste people is prevalent in various parts of the country. The post-independence times were no where near to removal of discriminations with lower caste people, neither child marriage was anywhere near to elimination.
Conclusion
It’s a very well written essay which applauds Indian culture for its flexibility towards changes in the society. He although does not declare that Indian culture is superior to the west and indirectly claims of Western superiority by putting it as the source of Gandhiji’s thoughts.
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