________________
are
common
also. Its sacrifices. And achievements will also be com
ARMATOGIN
gathered. Later these became the opposing forces of Hinduism with. its ever-increasing subjection to the Brahmin, and the Sannyasin with his unbelief in a destiny imposed by birth,-caste and democracy, culture and social equality side by side. Under Mahomedanism again, the idea of human equality and fraternity, the idea that nothing depends on birth and all'on individuality, again finds witness. Akbar is a Mahomedan deeply tinged with. Hindu culture. Each of the great
Moguls has his share of both.
To-day, if we had all been Hindus or all Mahomedans, we could not
hope to have made an Indian nation.
It is because we are both, that we
shall swerve neither to the right hand nor the left, but create that body of thought, feeling and discipline which is yet to restore our Motherland to her ancient place. All men have certain characteristic ideas and intuitions which are apt to run to superstitions. All men are liable to mistake the superstition of a truth for the truth itself. The English are great in that power of organisation which rises out of commerce. But they have an idea that everything in the world must The be subordinated to commerce. one thing is a truth, the other n superstition. Only by the presence of a strongly contrasted faction, free from the spell of the given prepossession, can the line be safely drawn between truth and falsehood. The English cannot emancipate themselves from their own delusion, though it is easy enough for us to see and smile at it. Similarly we have to cancel out of the national culture all that is merely sectarian or mutually exclusive. Such things are to be relegated to the sphere of personal opinion or ecclesiastical practice.. Only that which is to the honour and advantage of both Hindu and Mahomedan, may be spoken by either within the circle of the national life.
ANANDAMATH. CHAPTER IV
The darkness of the wood was
very deep and Kalyani could not find her way. In the thickly. woven entanglement of trees, creepers and thorns there was no path at the best of times and on that there came this impenetrable darkness. Separating the branches and creepers, pushing through thorn and briar Kalyani began to make her way into the thickness of the wood. The thorns pierced the child's skin and she cried from time to time; and at that the shouts of the pursuing robbers rose higher. In this way with torn and bleeding body, Kalyani made far progross into the woodland. After a little while the moon rose. Until then there was some slight confidence in Kalyani's mind that in the darkness the robbers would not be able to find her and after a brief and fruitless search would desist from the pursuit, hnt, now
In India, as a matter of fact, national greatness has always occurTeri as a resultant of two opposed lens. The Empire of Pataliputra was made popular and democratic wder Asoka, when acted on by the ideas of Buddhism. Buddhism was neither more nor less, at that pero'd. than the democratising of the highest Aryan culture. Here we have two forces acting at right angles to one otherthe Vedic, intensifying knowledge, in the forest ashramas and at universities like Sarnath, and the influence of the Buddhist orders, calling
Let us look for a moment at how much this covers. First, food-supply and wealth. It needs no arguwent to prove that abundance of rice, or wheat, abundance of wealth is as much to the good of Mahomedan as of Hindu. The one has as much to gain as the other from widesocial stability, from a of manlal men to share the honey thus spread amelioration "The Bengal soaps are the cheapest and best in the market.'
IRON.
5
created.
mon
common
It was said that it is actually necessary to the national idea that it should take its birth from elements in strong mutual opposition. The higher the contrast, the grenter the strength of This the nationality is well scen in English history. Spain, as the waymaker of Catholicism, was defeated by an English navy under a Catholic admiral in the time of Elizabeth. The Englishman's sense of nationality was so strong, that he never thought apparently of his church. The political parties, of which today one. sings tweedledum to the other's tweedledee, were once the Cavaliers and Roundheads who made war on one another, fought pitched battles and beheaded a king. The comthe home and canso have only to bo felt, in order to drive all other considerations into the background. He who says that more is necessary to nation-making, is but a poor builder. If the common language were essential, could the Swiss be a nation? If common religion were essential, could the Germans be a nation? If a common history were essential, could England herself, built up of warring factions, be a nation? If any thing more than the common home and common future were required, what hope would there be for America today? An aggregaton of villages forms a district, not country. The language of a province need not be interprovincial. A nation can assimilate any numter of unlike units, provided only there be the common home.
ners, from industrial revival, from increase of education, from the recovery of national prestige, the establishment of national universities and centres of learning, from the recapture and and development of the Asiatic culture. Whether a man buttons his coat to right or to left and bathes at dawn. or midday, are not maiters that concern his nationality. But the
increase of learning and power of self-direction amongst his own people will benefit the son of Islam as much as the children of the Sanatan Dharma, and what is gained for one is gained for both.
Mahomedans are related to Arabia by their whole past. That tie they need do nothing to strengthen,
since their fathers have done it for them. What the Mahomedan has to do today, and what he knows he has to do and will not be prevented from doing, is to relate himself to India, the soil and the People. His own and his children's future depends on his doing this. Islam is no longer to be reckoned as a backward faith. The Caliph himself is the representative of progress and enlightenment, and it is not to be expected that the Mahomedans of India will be contented to lag behind their brethren in Turkey and in Persia
