inhabit them. Whenever we develop an intellectual life these things will be altered, but not in priority to the spiritual mood. House by house, village by village, the character of a civilization changes as the character of the individuals change. When we begin to build up a lofty world within the national soul, soon the country becomes beautiful and worthy of respect in its externals. That building up of the inner world we have neglected. Our excited political controversies, our placing at militarism, have tended to bring men’s thought from central depths to surfaces. Life is drawn to its frontiers away from its spiritual base, and behind the surfaces we have little to fall back on. Few of our notorieties could be trusted to think out any economic or social problem thoroughly and efficiently. They have been engaged in passionate attempts at the readjustment of the superficies of things. What we require more than men of action at present are scholars, economists, scientists, thinkers, educationalists, and litterateurs, who will populate the desert depths of national consciousness with real thought and turn the void into a fullness.”
Apply to India what “A. E.” says of Ireland and I think we shall see how timely his words are —
“Those who love India nobly desire for her the highest of human destinies. They would ransack the ages and accumulate wisdom to make Indian life seem as noble in men’s eyes as any the world has known. The better minds in every race, eliminating passion and prejudice by the exercise of the imaginative reason, have revealed to their countrymen ideals which they recognised were implicit in national character. It is such discoveries we have yet to make about ourselves to unite us to fulfil our destiny. We have to discover what is fundamental in Indian character, the affections, leanings, tendencies towards one or more of the eternal principles which have governed and inspired all great human effort, all great civilizations from the dawn of history. A nation is but a host of men united by some God-begotten mood, some hope of liberty or dream of power or beauty or justice or brotherhood, and until that master idea is manifested to us there is no shining star to guide the ship of our destinies.
We have to do for India — though we hope with less arrogance — what the long and illustrious line of German thinkers, scientists, poets, philosophers, and historians did for Germany, or what the poets and artists of Greece did for the Athenians and that is, to create national ideals which will dominate the policy of statesmen, the actions of citizens, the universities, the social organizations, the administration of State departments, and unite in one spirit urban and rural life.”
Now this means not only arduous thought but strenuous and consistent action. Many years ago when I was speaking to a group of students in Calcutta I quoted from a book about Ireland. It described how a young Irish patriot, who had looked forward to a political career in the cause of his country's freedom, was told by his priest to serve Ireland by living amongst her people and serving them as their comrade. It meant giving up the fame and popularity of a political career of great promise, but this youth chose a life of daily drudgery in an obscure village because he realised that in that way he was helping to free his countrymen from what was far more fatal than political subjection, namely subjection to ignorance, indolence, and vice. In every country the attainment of true Swaraj can only be achieved by means such as these, and “A. E.” shows us the way in which practical Swaraj is being attained in Ireland.
II
“We do right to expect great things from the State, but we ought to expect still greater things from ourselves.”
“The national idealism which will not go into the fields and deal with the fortunes of the working farmers is false idealism.”
Let us now turn to the methods proposed by “A. E.” for the development of this new civilisation. It is clear that the means are not political, but economic and educational.
The Irish Agricultural Organization Society is in Ireland the organ of effective action. It is described as “a swing back to Ireland’s traditional and natural communism in work.” This means that it is rooted in the best traditions of Ireland’s past. Instead of attempting to introduce a poor copy of an alien system the desire has been to apply to modern conditions the principles original and fundamental in the Irish nation.
Now just as in Ireland the main industry is agriculture so is it in India, and therefore the chief problem of India is the same as that of Ireland, namely, “how to
