AURO UNIVERSITY

(INDIA)

School of Information Technology

(2017 – 20)

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:

Mr. Debiprasad Pramanik Dhruvik Virani
Semester: 5

TOPIC: Is India Civilized?

Structure of the report:
1. Introduction
2. Main argument of the Chapter
3. Evaluation of chapter focusing on opinion and personal reflection
4. Chapter Summary
INTRODUCTION
A book under this rather startling title was published some years ago by Sir John
Woodroffe, the well-known scholar and writer on Tantric philosophy.Sir John
Woodroffe’s purpose was to disclose the conflict of European and Asiatic culture
and, in greater prominence, the distinct meaning and value of Indian civilisation.

MAIN ARGUMENT OF CHAPTER 1

A culture is to be valued to the extent to which it has discovered the right key of this
harmony and organised its expressive motives and movements and a civilisation
must be judged by the manner in which all its principles, ideas, forms, ways of living
work to bring that harmony out, manage its rhythmic play and secure its continuance
or the development of its motives.India’s central conception is that of the Eternal,
the Spirit here encased in matter, involved in it and evolving on the material plane
by rebirth of the individual up the scale of being till in mental man it enters the world
of ideas and realm of conscious morality, dharma.The culture which gives up its
living separateness, the civilisation which neglects an active self-defence will be
swallowed up and the nation which lived by it will lose its soul and perish. Each
nation is a Shakti or power of the evolving spirit in humanity and lives by the
principle which it embodies.
India is the Bharata Shakti, the living energy of a great spiritual.

The precept of conflict has assumed the large historic aspect of an agelong clash and
pressure of conflict among Asia and Europe. This conflict, this mutual pressure has
had its fabric facet, however has borne additionally its cultural and religious issue.
Both materially and spiritually Europe has thrown herself again and again upon Asia,
Asia too upon Europe, to conquer, assimilate and dominate. There has been a
consonant alternation, a flowing from side to side of those seas of electricity. All
Asia has usually had the non secular tendency in greater or less intensity,
with more or much less clearness; however in this crucial count India is the
quintessence of the Asiatic manner of being. Europe too in mediaeval times had a
lifestyle in which via the dominance of the Christian idea — however Christianity
changed into of Asiatic beginning — the non secular cause took the lead; then there
has been an crucial similarity in addition to a certain distinction. Still the
differentiation of cultural temperament has on the complete been regular. Since a
few centuries Europe has emerge as cloth, predatory, aggres- sive, and has lost the
concord of the internal and outer man that is the true that means of civilisation and
the efficient condition of a real progress. Material consolation, fabric development,
material efficiency have grow to be the gods of her worship. The current European
civilisation which has invaded Asia and which all violent attacks on Indian ideals
represent, is the effective form of this materialistic tradition. India, proper to her non
secular cause, has in no way shared within the bodily assaults of Asia upon Europe;
her technique has usually been an infiltration of the world together with her ideas,
inclusive of we these days see again in progress. But she has now been physically
occupied through Europe and this bodily con- quest must necessarily be associated
with an try at cultural conquest; that invasion too has also made a few progress. On
the alternative hand English rule has enabled India nonetheless to preserve her
identity and social kind.

The first degree is the duration of battle and opposition which has been ever
dominant within the past and still overshadows the prevailing of mankind. For even
when the crudest varieties of cloth conflict are mitigated, the warfare itself
nonetheless survives and the cultural war comes into extra prominence. The second
step brings the degree of concert. The 0.33 and closing is marked by means of the
spirit of sacrifice in which, because all is called the only Self, each gives himself for
the good of others. The 2nd level has infrequently at all started for maximum; the
third belongs to the indeterminate destiny. Individuals have reached the very best
level; the perfected Sannyasin, the liberated man, the soul that has become one with
the Spirit, is aware of all being as himself and for him all self-defence and assault
are pointless. For strife does not belong to the regulation of his seeing; sacrifice and
self- giving are the complete precept of his motion. But no human beings has reached
that stage, and to observe a law or precept involuntarily or ignorantly or contrary to
the reality of one’s focus is a falsehood and a self-destruction. To permit oneself to
be killed, like the lamb attacked by way of the wolf, brings no boom, furthers no
development, assures no non secular benefit.Europe now favours, bears in its heart
the seed of demise; for the dwelling goal of subculture is the realisation on this planet
of the dominion of heaven. India, though its urge is closer to the Eternal, due to the
fact that that is continually the best, the absolutely actual, nevertheless includes in
her personal tradition and her own philosophy a excellent reconciliation of the
everlasting and the temporal and he or she need not are trying to find it from out of
doors. On the identical principle the shape of the interdependence of mind, frame
and spirit in a harmonious way of life is important in addition to the natural spirit;
for the form is the rhythm of the spirit. It follows that to interrupt up the shape is to
injure the spirit’s self- expression or as a minimum to position it into grave
peril.Takes on a different thing.

Sir John Woodroffe invites us to a vigorous self-defence. But defence by itself in the
modern struggle can only end in defeat, and, if battle there must be, the only sound
strategy is a vigorous aggression based on a strong, living and mobile defence; for
by that aggressive force alone can the defence itself be effective. Why are a certain
class of Indians still hypnotised in all fields by European culture and why are we all
still hypno- tised by it in the field of politics? Because they constantly saw all the
power, creation, activity on the side of Europe, all the immobility or weakness of a
static inefficient defence on the side of India. But wherever the Indian spirit has been
able to react, to attack with energy and to create with e ́clat, the European glamour
has begun immediately to lose its hypnotic power. No one now feels the weight of
the religious assault from Europe. which was very powerful at the outset, because
the creative activities of the Hindu revival have made Indian religion a living and
evolving, a secure, triumphant and self-assertive power. But the seal was put to this
work by two events, the Theosophi- cal movement and the appearance of Swami
Vivekananda at Chicago. For these two things showed the spiritual ideas for which
India stands no longer on their defence but aggressive and invading the materialised
mentality of the incident.India had been vulgarised and anglicised in its aesthetic
notions by English education and influence, until the brilliant and sudden dawn of
the Bengal school of art cast its rays so far as to be seen in Tokyo, London and Paris.
That significant cultural event has already effected an aesthetic revolution in the
countryEven in the province of politics that was the internal sense of the policy of
the so- called extremist party in the Swadeshi movement; for it was a movement
which attempted to override the previous apparent impossibility of political creation
by the Indian spirit upon other than imitative European lines.India alone, with
whatever fall or decline of light and vigour, has remained faithful to the heart of the
spiritual motive. India alone is still obstinately recalcitrant; for Turkey and China
and Japan, say her critics, have outgrown that foolishness, by which it is meant that
they have grown rationalistic and materialistic. India alone as a nation, whatever
individuals or a small class may have done, has till now refused to give up her
worshipped Godhead or bow her knee to the strong reigning idols of rationalism,
commercialism and economism, the successful iron gods of the West.

On the opposite hand one sees a developing revival of this ancient Hindu faith and
the monstrous sweep of a spiritual awakening and its considerable movements. And
out of this ambiguous scenario there can be simplest one out of problems. Either
India could be rationalised and industrialised out of all reputation and he or she will
not be India otherwise she will be the chief in a brand new international-section, aid
via her instance and cultural infiltration the new dispositions of the West and
spiritualise the human race. That is the only radical and poignant query at problem.
Will the non secular purpose which India represents be triumphant on Europe and
create their new paperwork congenial to the West, or will European rationalism and
commercialism put an stop for ever to the Indian form of way of life?
Not, then, whether India is civilised is the question that have to be placed, however
whether the reason which has formed her civilisation or the vintage-European
intellectual or the new-European cloth- istic reason is to steer human lifestyle. Is the
concord of the spirit, thoughts and frame to found itself at the gross law of our
physical nature, rationalised only or touched on the maximum by an useless spiritual
glimmer, or is the dominant strength of spirit to take the lead and pressure the lesser
powers of the intellect, thoughts and body to a greater exalted attempt after a
maximum concord, a positive ever- developing equipoise? India should protect
herself with the aid of reshaping her cultural forms to explicit greater powerfully,
intimately and flawlessly her ancient perfect. Her aggression must lead the waves of
the mild accordingly liberated in victorious self-increasing rounds all around the
international which it once possessed or as a minimum enlightened in a ways-off
ages. An appearance of struggle must be admitted for a time, for so long as the
assault of an contrary way of life keeps.

MAIN ARGUMENT OF CHAPTER 2

Does the future of humanity lies in a lifestyle based totally upon motive and
technology? Is the progress of human life the effort of a thoughts, a non-stop
collective thoughts constituted through an ever converting sum of transient
individuals, that has emerged from the darkness of the inconscient material universe
and is stumbling about in it on the lookout for some clean light and some positive
aid amid its problems and troubles?
All our philosophy, all our religion, — supposing religion has not been outgrown
and rejected, — all our technology, thought, artwork, social shape, law and
organization should discovered itself upon this idea of life and need to serve this one
intention and endeavour.This is the formula which European civilisation has
customary and continues to be labouring to convey into a few kind of realisation.
whether the future hope of the race lies in a rational and an intelligently mechanised
or in a spiritual, intuitive and religious civilisation and culture, — that, then, is the
important issue.
Indian civilisation in the past has been and must be recognised as the fruit of a great
culture, quite as much as the Graeco-Roman, the Christian, the Islamic or the later
Renaissance civilisation of Europe.The secret of our ultimate perfection is to be
discovered deeper within us and things and Nature; it is to be sought centrally in
spiritual self-knowledge and self- perfection and in the founding of life on that self-
knowledge.
An academic interest or an attractive turn of scholars and thinkers towards Vedanta,
Sankhya, Buddhism, admiration for the subtlety and largeness of Indian
philosophical idealism, the stamp left by the Upanishads and the Gita on great
intellects like Schopenhauer and Emerson and on a few lesser thinkers, this was the
first narrow inlet of the floods. The impression did not go very far at the best and the
little effect it might have produced was counteracted and even effaced for a time by
the great flood of scientific materialism which submerged the whole life-view of
later nineteenth-century Europe.
On the one hand, as a first consequence of the seeking for a larger thought and vision
of the universe, Indian Monism has taken a subtle but powerful hold on many minds,
though often in strange disguises. On the other hand new philosophies have been
born, not indeed directly spiritual, vitalistic rather and pragmatic, but yet by their
greater subjectivity already nearer to Indian ways of thinking.Theosophy with its
comprehensive combinations of old and new beliefs and its appeal to ancient
spiritual and psychic systems, has everywhere exercised an influence far beyond the
circle of its professed adherents.A Christian missionary quoted through Sir John
Woodroffe is “amazed to find the volume to which Hindu Pantheism has begun to
permeate the spiritual conceptions of Germany, of America, even of England” and
he considers its cumulative effect an impending “danger” to the subsequent
technology.A distinguished French psychologist currently advised an Indian tourist
that India had already laid down all of the huge lines and primary truths, the large
schema, of a true psychology and all that Europe can now do is to fill them in with
specific information and clinical verifications. These utterances are the extreme
symptoms of a developing alternate of which the waft is unmistakable.India’s
constant intention has been on the contrary to find a foundation of residing inside
the better non secular fact and to live from the inner spirit outwards, to exceed the
present manner of thoughts, life and body, to command and dictate to external
Nature.

MAIN ARGUMENT OF CHAPTER 3

We can respond at the cultural difficulty from the view-factor of the past and the
valuation of various cultures as acquired contributions to the increase of the human
race, that Indian civilisation has been the shape and expression of a tradition as
extraordinary as any of the historical civilisations of mankind, wonderful in religion,
splendid in philosophy, fantastic in technological know-how, notable in concept of
many kinds, notable in literature, artwork and poetry, first rate in the organization of
society and politics, fantastic in craft and change and commerce.
If we look from the view-point of the present and the fruitful workings of the
revolutionary Time-Spirit, we are able to say that even here notwithstanding our
downfall all isn't at the debit aspect. Many of the varieties of our civilisation have
emerge as inept and effete and Others stand in need of radical trade and
preservation.In spite of all drawbacks and no matter downfall the spirit of Indian
way of life, its primary thoughts, its high-quality beliefs have still their message for
humanity and no longer for India alone. And we in India trust that they're able to
developing out of themselves by using touch with new needs and ideas as desirable
and better solutions of the troubles before us than the ones which can be presented
to us secondhand from Western assets.
There are similarly desires closer to which humanity is moving, — and the present
is only a crude aspiration in the direction of them and the instantaneous future we
now see in hope and attempt to bring about in form, handiest its crude preparatory
degree.Human progress may be very tons an adventure through the un- regarded, an
unknown full of surprises and baffling barriers.
The present does not always compare favourably with the past; even when it is more
advanced in the mass, it may still be inferior in certain directions important to our
inner or our outer welfare. But earth does move forward after all, eppur si muove.
Even in failure there is a preparation for success: our nights carry in them the secret
of a greater dawn. This is a frequent experience in our individual progress, but the
human collectivity also moves in much the same manner. The question is whither
are we marching or what are the true routes and harbours of our voyage.If on the
other hand an ancient Indian of the time of the Upanishads, the Buddhist period or
the later classical age were to be set down in modern India and note that larger part
of its life which belongs to the age of decline, he would experience a much more
depressing sensation, the sense of a national, a cultural debacle, a fall from the
highest summits to discouragingly low levels. He might well ask himself what this
degenerate posterity had done with the mighty civilisation of the past. He would
wonder how with so much to inspire, to elevate, to spur them to yet greater
accomplishment and self-exceeding, they could have lapsed into this impotent and
inert confusion and, instead of developing the high motives of Indian culture to yet
deeper and wider issues, allowed them to overload themselves with ugly accretions,
to rust, to rot, almost to perish. He would see his race clinging to forms and shells
and rags of the past and missing nine-tenths of its nobler values. He would compare
the spiritual light and energy of the heroic ages of the Upanishads and philosophies
with the later inertia or small and broken frag- mentarily derivative activity of our
philosophical thought. After the intellectual curiosity, scientific development, the
creative literary and artistic greatness, the noble fecundity of the classical age he
would be amazed by the extent of a later degeneracy, its mental poverty, immobility,
static repetition, the comparative feebleness of the creative intuition, the long
sterility of art, the cessation of science.
The greatness of the beliefs of the beyond is a promise of extra ideals for the future.
A persistent enlargement of what stood behind beyond endeavour and capability is
the only abiding justification of a dwelling way of life.For this beyond and present
are creating the more steps of that destiny and plenty of it'll continue to exist even in
that which supplants it. There is at the back of our imperfect cultural figures a
permanent spirit to which we ought to hold and as a way to continue to be everlasting
even hereafter; there are positive fundamental reasons or critical idea-forces which
cannot be thrown apart, because they may be a part of the important principle of our
being and of the goal of Nature in us, our svadharma.There is this permanent spirit
in matters and there may be this persistent swadharma or regulation of our nature;
but there may be too a much less binding gadget of laws of successive formula, —
rhythms of the spirit, bureaucracy, turns, conduct of nature, and these undergo the
mutations of the a while, yugadharma.

Opinion and Personal reflection

In the first chapter ,specifically argues approximately the conflict between Asia and
Europe,whereas both have distinct approach and each comply with spirituality and
subculture.Even on this chapters talks approximately various ranges like:
● Conflict and Competition
● Stage of Concern
● Spirit of Sacrifice.

● They additionally showed the trouble of india slowly lowering

spirituality due to following english faculties sample, they learned vulgarised
language so one can replica the western pattern.

2. In the second chapter, specially argues all our philosophy, faith, — supposing
faith has no longer been outgrown and rejected, — all our technological know-how,
concept, art, social shape, regulation and group need to determined itself upon this
idea of existence and have to serve this one purpose and endeavour.
● On the one hand, as a first result of the in search of for a bigger thought and
vision of the universe. On the other hand new philosophies had been born, now not
certainly directly religious, vitalistic as a substitute and pragmatic, however yet by
way of their extra subjectivity already closer to Indian methods of thinking.

● Whether the future desire of the race lies in a rational and an intelligently
mechanised or in a religious, intuitive and spiritual civilisation and lifestyle, — that,
then, is the essential difficulty.
 3. If we look from the view-point of the present and the fruitful workings
of the progressive Time-Spirit:
we can say that even here in spite of our downfall all is not on the
debit side. Its central ideas, its best ideals have still their message for
humanity.
● In India believe that they are capable of developing out of themselves by
contact with new needs and ideas as good and better solutions of the
problems before us than those which are offered to us secondhand from
Western sources.

Summary
In the principal part ,mostly talks about the conflict among Asia and
Europe,whereas both have distinctive methodology and both pursue
spirituality and culture.Even in this section discusses different stages like:
Strife and Competition,Phase of Concern, Soul of Sacrifice.
They likewise demonstrated the issue of india gradually diminishing
spirituality because of following english schools design, they learned
vulgarised language from the western influences.
In the subsequent section, chiefly contends all our way of thinking, religion,
assuming religion has not been outgrown and dismissed, — all our science,
thought, workmanship, social structure, law and organization must ended well
Regardless of whether the future any desire for the race lies in a normal and a
shrewdly automated or in a strict civilisation and culture, — that, at that point,
is the significant issue.
On the off chance that we look from the view-purpose of the present and the
productive activities of the dynamic Time-Spirit:
we can say that even here regardless of our defeat all isn't on the charge side.
Its focal thoughts, its best standards have still their message for mankind.
In India accept that they are equipped for creating out of themselves by contact
with new needs and thoughts as great and better arrangements of the issues
before us than those which are offered to us used from Western sources.