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794
Presidential Address
time of this assembly and I dare not abuse the privilege of my chair any longer. However, I may be permitted to make a concluding remark. In submitting a plea for the better recognition of Indian Philosophy, I may assure you, ladies and gentlemen, that I am not actuated by false patriotism. I firmly hold that in Philosophy there is no such thing as East and West or old and new, but I am equally certain that there can be no satisfactory progress of human civilization unless mankind conserves its past and at the same time moves forward as one compact whole.
. In these days of rapid communication India can no longer remain an isolated nation. One has only to watch the banks of the Hooghly or the Bombay Harbour to realise how powerful are trade currents of the world into which India is being drawn. Her political and social institutions are undergoing a gradual but steady transformation. Even some of her long-cherished religious prejudices are being shed in order to enable her to keep pace with the march of progressing humanity. Therefore, if in this age of inevitable transformation, India is to retain her soul, she must keep her philosophy alive, and the way to do so is not to shut it off from the rest of the world, or even to rest content with bringing it to light, but it is to make it share the world's larger life. This, I am confident, will bless both the giver and the receiver.
