The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c6.8

c6.8

There is much food for reflection in the fact that the abiding cause of the failings—such as they are—of bureaucracy in India has always been, and still is, its complete ignorance of Indo-Aryan history—the only history of India which really matters. It is an axiom in British Imperial administration to trust the man on the spot. In India he is the District Officer, the eyes and ears of the Government of India, dispensing British justice under the village banyan tree. His knowledge of India is certainly extensive and peculiar—only his India is not Aryan India. It is aboriginal or prehistoric, Muhammadan India, and the India of the Government files. The India which counts most in history, Aryan India, is not on the file, and under these circumstances the District Officer would be more than human if he knew much of it.