José Rizal: Asian Apostle of Racial Equalitarianism

Author(s): Marguerite J. Fisher

Source: The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 28, No. 3 (Sep., 1956), pp. 259-265
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1876237
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 NOTE

JOSE RIZAL: ASIAN APOSTLE OF RACIAL EQUALITARIANISM

MARGUERITE J. FISHER

ONE of the basic concepts of Western
liberalism has been inherent in the anti-
colonial and revolutionary movements of Asia
in recent decades. This concept postulates the
essential equality of all groups of men, regard-
less of race, color, or class. Considered racial
inferiors for centuries by the Western white
man, the Asians are now challenging this as-
sumption in a variety of ways, ranging from
open violence to a nationalistic defense of
indigenous cultural patterns. In the process of
emancipation from a deep-seated sense of in-
feriority on grounds of race and color, inculcated
by the West, antiwesternism is a frequent con-
comitant. The subject of racial equality in-
evitably affects the attitudes of Asian leaders
toward the United States and Communist
China. There is some truth to the statement
that millions of Asians, knowing little about
either democracy or communism, are disposed
to favor what the yellow man, rather than what
the white man, offers.
Some of the eighteenth- and nineteenth-
century theorists of the Enlightenment, among
them Paine, Godwin, and John Stuart Mill, ac-
cepted the principle that all men, without dis-
crimination on grounds of race or color, should
be entitled to the inalienable rights of man that
distinguished a free society. But toward the
end of the nineteenth century a more subtle and
fundamental question was raised by philos-
ophers and scientists. Were the cultures of
Asia and Africa, accepted as inferior by the
West, inferior because of innate biological de-
ficiencies in the native peoples? Were the
"colored races" inferior by nature and thus in-
capable of producing a culture equivalent to
those of the West? Or were these cultures less
highly developed because of historical and other
factors without evidence of native biological in-
feriority?
The first of these two points of view was
zehnten Jahrhunderts, was translated and published
stated forcefully by Count Arthur de Gobineau,
in his Essai sur l'inegalite des races humaines,
published in Paris in 1853-55. There were su-
Derior and inferior races, said Gobineau, and
racial factors rather than cultural or physical
environment explained the development and
decline of civilizations. Gobineau's ideas were
expanded by Houston Stewart Chamberlain,
an Englishman educated in Germany. Cham-
berlain explained the progress of civilization in
terms of innately superior and inferior races and
proclaimed the Teutons as the racial stock best
capable of developing civilized society in the
future.' In France, Vacher de Lapouge (Les
selections sociales [1896]) expounded a similar
thesis, declaring the best racial stock to be the
Nordic dolichocephalic type. Otto Ammon in
Germany developed somewhat similar theories.
Meanwhile, in England Sir Francis Galton
published his Hereditary genius (1869) and
English men of science (1874). Galton's studies
stressed the differences among individuals in
mental and physical characteristics and the de-
pendence of these differences upon heredity.
From these facts it was inferred that changes in
racial stock through social selection were the
most important factor in the rise or decline of
a civilization.
In America, Lewis Morgan, in his Ancient
society (1877), set forth a theory of social evolu-
tion from savagery to civilization, with a fixed
order or sequence of development. There was a
definite correlation, maintained Morgan, be-
tween cultural and biological development,
obvious in the "gradual enlargement of the
brain itself, particularly in the cerebral por-
tion."2 The Aryans, he asserted, had produced
the highest stage of human progress.
In the 1870's and 1880's only a few voices
were raised in contradiction of these theories.
In Germany, Adolf Bastian (1826-1905), in
volumes published in 1868 and 1881, expressed
the conviction that there was no difference in
innate mentality between civilized and primitive
I His principal work, Die Grundlagen des neun-
under the title Foundations of the nineteenth century
(2 vols.; London and New York, 1910).
2 Ancient society (New York, 1907), p. 36.

259

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 260 MARGUERITE J. FISHER

man. Geography, material conditions, and other his boyhood he had witnessed the contempt of
environmental influences determined the form the Spanish for the indio, the treatment of his
taken by ideas and institutions. In England, people as persons of an inferior race. Early in
Edward Burnet Tylor, an evolutionary ethnolo- his career he occupied himself with the question:
gist, postulated in his Primitive culture (1871) Were the abasement and servitude of the
and Anthropology (1881) a theory of the pro- Filipinos the result of innate racial inferiority
gressive evolution of cultures from the primitive or the product of historical circumstances? As
to the civilized stage. But the process of cul- one of his biographers says: "This question was
tural evolution, according to Tylor, was due to always on his mind when a schoolboy, and he
such factors as independent invention, in- was keenly observant of his white companions
heritance from ancestors in a distant region, and as well as of himself.... He was pleased when
diffusion and transmission from one area to a difficult problem, which his fellow scholars
another, without dependence on biological or were unable to solve, fell to his lot to unravel
racial differences. successfully. He looked upon this not as a per-
Into this intellectual setting came a young sonal success, but as the triumph of his collec-
Filipino who journeyed to Europe for the first tive race.... From this he concluded that the
time in 1882. The name of Jose Rizal is revered white race and the native possessed the same
by Filipinos, and the cities and towns of the natural intellectual faculties."3
Philippines have their Rizal statues and Rizal Born in the province of Laguna in 1861, Rizal
avenues. Filipino school children learn that came from a family of modest but comfortable
Rizal was a great patriot who was executed by means. After specializing in medicine at the
the Spanish in 1896 as an alleged insurrection- University of Santo Tomas in Manila, he went
ist. His place in the history of social and political to Spain in 1882 to study medicine and philos-
ideas is less generally appreciated, however, and ophy at the Central University of Madrid. He
comparatively little attention has been directed later traveled widely in Europe, studying in
to the relationship between Rizal and Western Paris, Heidelberg, Leipzig, Berlin, and other
liberal theory of the eighteenth and nineteenth cities. While in Europe he wrote his first po-
centuries. While his country was still a colony of litical novel, Noli me tangere,4 which was pub-
Spain, restive under an authoritarian political lished first in Berlin in 1887 and later in Madrid.
system which denied the Filipinos representa- He then returned to the Philippines and opened
tion in government or recognition of individual a medical clinic. But copies of his novel came to
rights, Jose Rizal spoke out forcefully in his the attention of the Spanish colonial authorities,
novels, essays, and letters, expounding a po- and Rizal was soon in difficulty. The Permanent
litical philosophy which was new in southeast Censorship Commission of the Philippines de-
Asia. Through Rizal, the Filipinos were exposed clared the novel to be "libelous, immoral and
to ideas unknown in their colonial experience, pernicious" and recommended that the author
such as the essential equality of all men and be punished. Rizal returned to Europe and
races, the inviolability of individual rights, wrote his second novel, El filibusterismo,5 a
human worth, and dignity, the popular basis of sequel to Noli me tangere, published in Ghent,
political authority, and faith in social progress Belgium, in 1891.
through reason and enlightenment. In a sense,
3 Ferdinand BLUMENTRITT, "Rizal on race dif-
Rizal prepared the ground ideologically not
ferences," Internationales Archive fur Ethnologie,
only for the revolt against the Spanish, which
Vol. X (1897), in Rizal's political writings, ed. Austin
came after his death, but for the principles and CRAIG (Manila, 1933), p. 46.
policies of the American regime of the twentieth
4 Translated literally, Noli me tangere means "Do
century and the national independence attained
not touch me." The novel has been published in
in 1946. Now that the Philippines have become
English under the title The social cancer (see the
a testing ground for democracy in Asia, Jose translation by Charles E. DERBYSHIRE [Manila,
Rizal's political philosophy and his ideological 1912]).
influence on the Filipinos assume a new sig-
5 The word "Filibustero" was loosely applied to
nificance.
Filipinos with liberal ideas who were openly critical
Rizal's great popularity among the Filipinos of the monastic-military Spanish colonial regime.
was derived in large part from his passionate The novel has been translated into English under the
insistence upon the equality of all human beings,title The reign of greed (see the translation by Charles
regardless of race, color, or nationality. From DERBYSHIRE [Manila, 1912]).

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 JOSt RIZAL 261

During these years in Europe Rizal wrote
numerous articles and co-operated assiduously
with Filipino propagandists in Spain who were
working for reforms in his native country. He
contributed regularly to La solidaridad, a
journal of Philippine propaganda published in
Madrid by Filipinos who hoped to gain the
sympathetic attention of the Spanish authori-
ties. La solidaridad, according to Apolinario
Mabini, one of the Philippine revolutionary
fathers, demanded such political reforms as the
following :6 that the miltary form of government corresponded with some of western Europe's
in the islands be replaced by civil government;
that the powers of the governor-general be
regulated and determined by law; that the
individual liberties guaranteed by the Spanish
constitution be extended to Filipinos; that the
islands be given representation in the Spanish
cortes; that the friars be expelled from the
islands and the parishes put in charge of secular
priests; that the Spanish civil guards be re-
formed or suppressed; and that the public em-
ployments of the insular government be filled
through competitive examinations.
The motivation for his work and ideas came
to Rizal early in life. While he was still a boy
studying in Manila, he suffered an experience
described in his own words as "too unpleasant
and heartbreaking for me ever to forget it."'
His mother was falsely accused of a crime and
arrested by the Spanish authorities. She was
forced to walk on foot to the capital of the
province and subjected to humiliating treat-
ment during her imprisonment.
In one of his essays Rizal described the early by the Filipinos and arouse public opinion in
impressions which motivated his work: "In
the University, I got to understand better in
what sort of world I was. In it there were
privileges for some and rules for others, and
assuredly the discrimination was not based on
capacity.... An incident opened my eyes. I
entered a literary contest and, to my mis-
fortune, I won. I heard applause resound,
sincere and enthusiastic; but when it was dis-
covered that the winner was a Filipino, the
applause grew cold, it changed to ridicule-to
insult, even, and the Spaniards whom I had
vanquished were given the ovation."8
6 Apolinario MABINI, The rise and fall of the
Philippine republic. Mabini's work is included in
Austin CRAIG, The Filipino fight for freedom (Manila,
1949), pp. 73, 265.
1933), pp. 310-11.
7 Memorias de un estudiante de Manila (2d ed.;
Manila, 1951), p. 10.
It was in Europe that Rizal came into con-
tact with the philosophy of Western liberalism.
He read Rousseau and Voltaire, Victor Hugo,
Dumas and Lamartine, Jeremy Bentham and
John Stuart Mill.9 While in Leipzig he read
Schiller and began the translation of Schiller's
William Tell into Tagalog, his native Filipino
vernacular, in order to bring to his people the
story of the Swiss hero who defied tyrants and
fought for freedom.
In the course of his travels Rizal met and
outstanding scholars, as, for example, A. B.
Meyer, president of the Anthropological and
Ethnological Society of Berlin, and Friedrich
Ratzel, anthropogeographer at the University
of Leipzig.10 Rizal's closest friend in Europe
was Ferdinand Blumentritt, an Austrian scholar
who had published several articles on the
Philippines. To facilitate his reading in Euro-
pean philosophy and literature and his contacts
with scholars, Rizal became adept in French,
English, German, and Italian." His letters to his
friends display an astonishing variety of inter-
ests, including medicine, philosophy, history,
land reform, entomology, biology, religion,
anthropology, sculpture, poetry, painting, and
engineering.
Rizal deliberately utilized the novel as an
instrument for the dissemination of political
ideas. When he was studying in Madrid, he read
Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's cabin, and
this suggested the possibility of a novel in like
vein which would portray the injustices suffered
favor of reform. The style tends to be stilted and
artificial, and the characters stereotyped as
"good" or "bad" in Noli me tangere and El
filibusterismo. There are long discourses on
politics, religion, and social ethics, ostensibly
uttered by the characters in the novels. In spite
of these obvious literary defects, however, the
reader will long remember the brilliant pages of
description, the rich and variegated pictures of
8 Wenceslao E. RETANA, Vida y escritos del Dr.
Jose Rizal (Madrid, 1907), p. 164.
9 See, for example, the reference to Bentham in
Elfilibusterismo (Barcelona, 1909), p. 146.
10 Rafael PALMA, Biografia de Rizal (Manila,
11 He also knew Latin, Greek, and some Arabic,
Sanskrit, Hebrew, Swedish, Dutch, Chinese,
Japanese, and Russian.

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 262 MARGUERITE J. FISHER
Filipino life-the fiestas, the banquets, and the
processions.
Because of the threat of persecution at home,
Rizal settled in the British colony of Hongkong,
where he established a medical practice. But in
1892, believing that he would not be molested
as long as he worked only for peaceful reforms,
he returned to the Philippines. He proceeded to
organize La Liga Filipina, an association de-
voted to the promotion of industry, education,
and agriculture. This project got him into
trouble, however, and in 1892 he was exiled to
Dapitan, a remote outpost on the island of
Mindanao in the southern Philippines.12 Dur-
ing his four years of exile Rizal worked valiant-
ly for the betterment of conditions in Dapitan.
He established schools, taught improved meth-
ods of agriculture, and ministered to the medical
needs of the natives. In 1896 the Spanish gov-
ernment granted him permission to serve as an
army surgeon in Cuba. But before he could
reach his destination he was arrested and sent
back to Manila. He was tried by a military
court on charges of fomenting insurrection
and was executed on December 28, 1896.
Equality, particularly racial equality, is the
subject of Rizal's best-known essay, The indo-
lence of the Filipino. His conclusion was that
the so-called "indolence" was "an effect of mis-
government and of backwardness, and not a
cause thereof." Rizal painstakingly examined
historical records and marshaled many pages of
evidence to prove that before the Spanish con-
quest the Filipinos were a hardy, industrious,
and ambitious people. With sensitive psycho-
logical insight he declared: "Man works for an
object. Remove the object and you reduce him
to inaction. The most active man in the world
will fold his arms from the instant he under-
stands that it is madness to bestir himself, that
this work will be the cause of his trouble, that
for him it will be the cause of vexations at home
and of the pirate's greed abroad. It seems that
these thoughts have never entered the minds of
12 The Hongkong Telegraph, on receiving the the mountains. Since the Spanish confiscated
news of Rizal's exile, published the following edi- the wealth possessed by the natives, the latter
torial on September 23, 1892: "There is yet one more
plan open to the friends and sympathizers of Rizal
and of political and religious liberty-the plan of
Hampden and Pym, of Cromwell and the Chartists;
when all other means have failed to gain redress,
when no door is left open but one, then that one 14.
must
be taken even if it leads to bloodshed, murder,
revolution, and direct anarchy" (Rizal's political
writings, ed. Austin CRAIG, P. 339).
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those who cry out against the indolence of the
Filipinos."'3 The Spanish, said Rizal, were re-
sponsible for "that insinuated inferiority, a sort
of daily and constant depreciation of the mind
so that it may not be raised to the regions of
light, which deadens the energies, paralyzes all
tendency toward advancement, and at the least
struggle a man gives up without fighting."''4
From the Spanish the Filipinos learned: "'You
can't know more than this or that old man!'
'Don't aspire to be greater than the curate!'
'You belong to an inferior race!' 'You haven't
any energy!' This is what they tell the child,
and as they repeat it so often, it has perforce
to become engraved on his mind and thence
molds and pervades all his actions. The child
or youth who tries to be anything else is accused
of vanity and presumption; the curate ridicules
him with cruel sarcasm, his relatives look upon
him with fear, strangers regard him with great
compassion. No forward movement! Get back
in the ranks and keep in line!"',5
"Indolence in the Philippines is a chronic
malady," declared Rizal, "but not a hereditary
one."'6 He noted that Chinese travelers as early
as the thirteenth century had commented upon
the wealth and active commerce of the islands,
the mines, the farms, the shipbuilding, the
weaving of silk and cotton, the pearl fisheries,
and the horn and hide industries. How is it,
then, asked Rizal, that the active and enterpris-
ing infidel native was transformed into the in-
dolent Christian Filipino? The exhaustion of
natural resources by the Spaniards, the enslave-
ment of the natives and the consequent de-
population of the islands, the abandonment of
native industry and agriculture by those forced
to work for the Spanish overlords, the "costly
wars and fruitless expeditions" against the
Portuguese and Dutch in which the Filipinos
were impressed as soldiers and sailors-all these
factors wasted the "moral and material energies
of the country." During the years of oppressive
Spanish rule many Filipinos gave up their
former trades and occupations and escaped to
ceased to produce things of value.
Furthermore, Spanish "restrictions, pass-
ports and other administrative requirements"
13 The indolence of the Filipino (Manila, 1950), p.
4Ibid., p. 25.
15 Ibid., p. 26. 16Ibid., p. 28.
 JOSt RIZAL 263

throttled Filipino trade with nearby nations, understand, of accepting beliefs that are not
thereby destroying the incentive to produce explained to them, of having absurdities im-
goods.17 Bureaucratic regulations, such as the posed upon them, while the protests of reason
requirement of a permit to go to the capital, are repressed."'21
discouraged work and enterprise. Colonial On all sides, then, the Filipino was induced
officials, desirous of getting rich quickly, de- by his environment to lose his belief in himself,
frauded the natives, and hence the latter lost to accept an inferior role, to give up hope for
interest in industry and commerce. The Span- himself and his nation. "From his birth until
ish, moreover, provided a bad example in "sur- he sinks into his grave, the training of the native
rounding themselves with servants and despis- is brutalizing, depressive and anti-human."22
ing manual or corporeal labor," thus leading The authorities "boldly proclaim that it is an
the Filipinos to look with contempt on manual evil for the natives to know Castilian, that the
work.18 native should not be separated from his
The Spanish, Rizal pointed out, had refused carabao." Furthermore, "What future awaits
to educate the Filipinos, and this contributed him who distinguishes himself, him who
to their lack of progress. Like his western studies, who rises above the crowd?"
European predecessors of the Age of Reason and Such environmental conditions, asserted
Enlightenment, Rizal had an idealistic faith in Rizal, debase the individual and his society.
education. Through education all people, re- They not only deprive the Filipino of his moral
gardless of race, could be developed and trained strength but also "make him useless even for
to meet the problems confronting mankind. those who wish to make use of him. Every crea-
Ibarra, the hero of Noli me tangere, declares: "I ture has its stimulus, its mainspring; man's sis
desire the country's welfare; that is why I have his self-respect. Take it away from him and he
constructed a school. I seek it through educa- is a corpse, and who seeks activity in a corpse
tion, and through progressive advancement. will encounter only worms."23
Without light there can be no way."19 The indolence of the Filipino is the most
The Spanish religious orders, the friars, widely known of Rizal's essays among the peo-
argued Rizal, had played a prominent role in ple of the Philippines. The reason is obvious.
the debasement of the Filipinos. He maintained: It still strikes a responsive chord in a nation
"The fact that the best plantations, the best which endured colonialism for nearly four cen-
tracts of land in some provinces, those that from turies. The Filipino, like many other Asians,
their easy access are more profitable than still feels a need for reassurance of his worth-
others, are in the hands of the religious corpora-a need to prove his equality with the white man.
tions, whose desideratum is ignorance and a There are still psychic scars from the centuries
condition of semistarvation for the native, so of colonial subjection to the white man, and
that they may continue to govern him and make Rizal's essay helps to heal these scars.
themselves necessary to his wretched existence,
is one of the reasons why so many towns do not 2pIbid., p. 26. There is an active controversy
progress, in spite of the efforts of the inhabit- among Filipinos concerning the question of Rizal's
ants."20 "Nurtured by the examples of alleged retraction, a few hours before he died, of the
anticlericalist opinions expressed in his writings. In
anchorites of a contemplative and lazy life, the
1935 a document of retraction supposedly signed by
natives spend their lives in giving their gold to
Rizal was discovered in the archives of the arch-
the Church in the hope of miracles and other bishop of Manila. Among the Rizal scholars who
wonderful things. Their will is hypnotized: contend that this document is a forgery and that
from childhood they learn to act mechanically,Rizal did not retract his views on religion, are
without knowledge of the object, thanks to the Ricardo R. PASCUAL, Dr. Jose Rizal beyond the
exercises imposed upon them from the tenderest grave (Manila, 1935); and Rafael PALMA,Biografia de
years, of Draying for whole hours in an unknown Rizal (Manila, 1949). On the other hand, among the
authors who believe that the retraction was genuine,
tongue, or venerating things that they do not
are Jos6 M. HERNANDEZ, Rizal (Manila, 1950); and
17Ibid., p. 37. Don Gonzalo PINANA, Muri6 el doctor cristiana-
mente? Reconstitucion de las 2ltimas horas de su vida
18Ibid., p.43.
(Barcelona, 1920).
19 Noli me tangere, trans. Feliciano BASA and
Francisco BENITEZ (Manila, 1933), p. 489. 22 The indolence of the Filipino, p. 27.

20 The indolence of the Filipino, p. 22. 23Ibid., p. 29.

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 264 MARGUERITE J. FISHER

A major theme in Rizal's two novels is a
bitter condemnation of the Spanish colonial
government because it violated the fundamental
principles of human dignity and equality in
treating the Filipinos as racial inferiors. In one
of the scenes in Noli me tangere, a Filipino has
just been killed by a falling building. But the
Spanish alcalde points out that it is fortunate
that the victim was only a native. "Let this not
prevent the fiesta from going on, Sefior Ibarra!"
said the alcalde. "Praise be to the Lord! The
dead man is no priest or Spaniard."24 In another
scene the discussion concerns a Spaniard, Don
Tiburcio, who, although devoid of medical
training, is posing as a physician and charging
exorbitant fees. "Let the poor fellow make his
small capital," said his fellow Spaniards. "Sup-
pose he does cheat the ignorant indios. Well,
let them be more wide awake" 125
Partly because of his intense desire to dis-
prove the Spanish assumption of the racial in-
feriority of the Filipinos, Rizal at one time
planned the establishment of a Filipino colony
in British North Borneo. Under the more
favorable conditions of British rule, he hoped
that the Filipinos would be able to demonstrate
their capabilities to a doubtful world. His pre-
occupation with the subject of race equality
led him to be critical of America when he
crossed the United States in 1888. "America
is undoubtedly a great country," said Rizal,
"but it has many defects," particularly racial
prejudice. "The negro cannot marry a white
woman, nor the white man a negress."26
Whether in his novels, his essays, or his
letters, Rizal expressed consistent belief in the
basic tenets of eighteenth- and nineteenth-
century Western political liberalism. In a sense,
his place was that of an Asian apostle of the
Age of Reason and Enlightenment. Throughout
his writings he reiterated in stirring words the this exploitation has been based: the innate
need to respect individual worth and human
dignity, regardless of race. In a bitter chapter in understanding of this point, the intransigence
El filibusterismo, attacking the archaic teaching and seeming belligerence of some Asian leaders
methods of the Spanish friars, he cries out: "But
yet He who from eternity watches the conse-
quences of a deed develop like a thread through
the loom of the centuries. . . He, if He is just,
will demand a strict accounting from those who
must render it, of the millions of intelligences
darkened and blinded, of human dignity
24 BASA and BENITEZ, p. 324.
25 Ibid., p. 414.
27 DERBYSHIRE, The reign of greed, p. 126.
26 Epistolario Rizalino (Manila, 1936), IV, 184.
trampled upon in millions of His creatures . . .
the millions and millions who do not know how
to preserve the light of their intelligences and
their dignity of mind."27
Thus, some seventy years ago, Jose Rizal
voiced with prophetic insight the aspirations
and resentments of the Asian peoples in the
contemporary world. The postulates of Western
liberalism and the European Enlightenment
were expressed for the first time by an Asian, as
a creed for an Asian nation. It was in Europe
that Rizal became steeped in these principles,
and he set them down in his novels and essays
as a philosophy for an Asian people. But most
important in Rizal's tenets of liberalism was
racial equality-specifically, the innate equal-
ity of all peoples. Differences in culture there
were, admittedly, between the East and the
West, but the backwardness of Eastern cultures
was to be explained in terms of historical, geo-
graphic, and other environmental factors, not
in terms of biological or racial deficiencies.
It is this same motivation, the passionate
wish to challenge the West's assumption of their
inherent racial inferiority, that inspires many
of the articulate Asians at the present time. It
lies, consciously or unconsciously, at the basis
of much antiwesternism as well as pride and
satisfaction in the power and victories of non-
white Communist China. Jose Rizal's fierce de-
nunciation of Spanish colonial rule and its treat-
ment of the Filipinos as inferiors foreshadows
the distrust and bitterness of many colonial
peoples today toward their present and former
European rulers. Rizal's writings provide con-
siderable insight into contemporary develop-
ments in Asia, particularly his graphic portrayal
of the fact that many Asians have been wounded
most of all, not by political or economic ex-
ploitation, but by the assumption upon which
racial inferiority of Asian peoples. Without an
in dealing with the West appear incompre-
hensible. That the psychic wound was often far
deeper than any other was illustrated by a
recent remark by an Indian political leader:
"The fall of the British Empire in India was due
to social insults rather than to political in-
justices."
In the twentieth century most Western
anthropologists and ethnologists came to accept

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 JOSE
the interpretation of cultural development in
terms of environmental, social, and psycho-
logical rather than innate racial factors. This
was the explanation that Rizal had insisted
upon. The first major figure who developed such
theories was Franz Boas. In The mind of primi-
tive man (1911) he maintained that there was
no inherent difference between the mind of
primitive and civilized man. Cultural differ-
ences could be accounted for on historical,
social, and environmental grounds rather than
in terms of biological inheritance. This point of
view was accepted for the most part by such
students of Boas as Clark Wissler, Robert Lowie,
and Alexander Goldenweiser. According to the
Boas school, cultural phenomena were not bio-
logically predetermined. They were due to
transmission or diffusion from other cultures,
to social and physical environment, to historical
influences, and to the intricate psychological
relationships between the different aspects of a
culture.
Some seventy years after Rizal proclaimed
the innate equality of brown-skinned Filipinos
and white Westerners, most contemporary an-
thropologists accept to a large degree the point
of view developed in positive fashion by Franz
Boas. It is admitted that organic factors, such
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RIZAL 265
as the state of health or disease in a society,
obviously affect the capacity for cultural
growth. Various environmental factors may
facilitate or retard the cultural evolution of a
society. But it is assumed that all groups of
men have common inherent potentialities for
cultural development.
Although the concept of racial equalitarian-
ism that Rizal expressed in his novels and essays
had been advanced by a few anthropologists
and ethnologists at the time he went to Europe,
nevertheless he was the first to proclaim this
idea in Asia, for Asians, and to make it the pre-
requisite for a future in which Asians, as natural
equals, would be entitled to the same liberties
and democratic rights as the free peoples of the
West. Hence his writings offer assurance, in-
spiration, and solace for Asians of today. Rizal
anticipated the interpretation which later gen-
erations of Asian leaders would add to the
Western principles of social and political liberal-
ism. Thus Rizal becomes far more than a
Filipino patriot; he merits new evaluation as a
precursor of ideas molding Asian thought and
action in the contemporary world.
MAXWELL GRADUATE SCHOOL0 OF CITIZENSHIP
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