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38
THE SYSTEMS OF INDIAN PHILOSOPHY
other hand, what might be called India's "religious independence" was a glowing reality before Gandhi's eyes and he was extremely anxious lest this too should gradually become extinct. Hence his tirade against the Christian missionaries. Let us however not forget that Gandhi's chief weapon in the struggle for what was in his eyes his country's "religious survival" was positive rather than negative. That is to say, Gandhi was interested not so much in saying things against the Christian missionaries as in saying things in favour of India's cultural heritage, a heritage to which his own Jaina community had made no mean contribution.
This background to Gandhi's activities explains why he always spoke with the zeal of a missionary. But significantly enough, in Gnadhi's mental make-up there was also a scholarly side and the best literary specimens where he comes out as a beautiful blend of the missionary and the scholar are his lectures pertaining to Jainism-particularly those related to the Jaina doctrine of Karma. A specimen belonging to the same group is his present lecture-series dealing with the systems of Indian philosophy. However, this series has certain specific features of its own, and it is to these that we turn our attention next.
The task of interpreting the systems of Indian Philosophy is beset with two sets of problems, one having to do with the nature of the subject-matter in question and the other with what happens to be the general standpoint of the interpreter concerned. To take the two sets one by one. The major part of India's philosophical literature is in Sanskrit, some in Prakrit and some in Pali; and almost no texts that claim attention in this connection are a modern composition. Thus a student of Indian philosophy has not only to master a language like Sanskrit (preferably, Prakrit and Pali as well) but he has also to learn the art of placing himself in the position of an ancient or a medieval Indian. It
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