The Ancient and Medieval Architecture of India: A Study of Indo-Aryan Civilisation c9.6

c9.6

The Indian village always remained the political unit of the state throughout the centuries when dynasty after dynasty succeeded one another in building empires upon that foundation, until the foundation itself was recklessly broken up to make a new one after modern Western models. Its wonderful organisation was the true secret of India's recuperative power when one horde followed another in ravaging the land, or when the continued failure of the monsoon rains brought desolation and famine. The working of the secular bureaucratic machinery, which has been substituted for a system of self-government probably the most perfect the world has ever known and consecrated by the religious sentiment of the Indian people, may justly excite the astonishment of the world. It is an amazing experiment based upon the same ignorance of Indian history which inspired the writings of Fergusson and his followers, but it has still to justify itself.