Book Title: Gandhi Before Gandhi
Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai
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A GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
India has glorious history & ancient civilization
taken great pains to show that Hindu civilization was nothing in comparison with modern Western civilization. He also thinks that the civilization of ancient India represented only the infancy of civilization. To him the glorious civilization of Europe is the model. In his opinion only the ignorant and half-educated look upon the past as the Golden, and the present as the Iron age; while he himself forgets his own doctrines on the original fall of man.
India is unique in its artistic work
If we are proud of these learned scholars who have disclosed to the
Western nations the ancient glory and civilization of India, we cannot help being ashamed of several short-sighted Europeans, and Americans too, who think that "India has no history worth mentioning until the time of the Mohammedan conquest;" "that Indian history is nothing but a dreary record of disunion and subjection, and who on the whole present to the public, India as a conquered country. But the careful student of Indian antiquities and literature is always convinced that both antiquities and literatures present a history of Hindu civilization for thousands of years so full and clear "that he who cares may read." The theory that Jesus at the age of thirteen went to India has been held by many to be true, but it is for the first time advanced publicly by N. Notovitch. Orthodox Christians would deem it sacrilegious even to imagine that the "Son of God" went to India and there studied its religions and philosophies. We shall examine the facts which will help us to reason on this point.
it is a great mistake to compare the Hindu civilization with Western civilization. It is impossible to compare the hand work of India, with industrial production of Europe, "turned out" as it is aptly phrased, by machines. Machinery and mechanical progress cannot be applied to any artistic work, except the avowed imitation or copying of great art works. It is true that the Hindu artist has his own traditions on decorative art, which is a crystallized tradition all together perfect in form; it is true that the spirit of fine art which is latent in India requires to be quickened into creative operations in these times. Still the Indian workman, from the humblest potter to the most creative embroiderer, is a true artist. But has the Western civilization preserved its true character? Sir George Birdwood, who lived and studied in India for a number of years and says in connection with the Indian exhibits in the Paris
Christian divines have described India as a heathen country both materially and spiritually. Comparisons are frequently drawn between the civilization of Ancient India and Europe, and a missionary in India has
