Is India Civilized?

Is India Civilized? Essays on Indian Culture by Sir John George WoodroffeTHE question which forms the title of this book is of course absurd. Even the most antipathetic or ignorant would admit that India has a civilization (as he would say) 'of sorts.' There is an acute difference as to the value of it. The question however is not mine but is raised by Mr. Wm. Archer, a literary and dramatic critic of note in his recent book 'India and the Future.' He finds India as a whole to be in the state of 'Barbarism.' 'What does it matter if he does say so,' said an Indian to me, adding 'this is only the last of a long list of misunderstanding works abusive of our country and its culture.' That is so, though the number is increasing now a days of those who respect both. Yet this indifferent attitude is a mistake. India cannot at the present moment allow any charges against her to go unanswered. I have here given some reasons why, without waiting for the completion of a larger work I had in the first steps of preparation on the general principles of Indian Culture. Lordship over alien peoples at present ultimately rests on might, though particular circumstances may render its actual enforcement unnecessary. But (apart from such implied consent as may in any particular case be held to exist) the right which Power-holders to-day allege is cultural superiority and the duty to raise the ruled to the cultural level religious, moral, and intellectual of those who control. It is with reference to such a duty that Mr. Archer finds India to be barbarous.