History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c11.4

v1.c11.4

The main cause of this difference in the vitality of the nations in the west and the nations in the east appears to be the complete divergence in the development of their political ideas. While in the west the highest ideal of a state was evolved at a very ancient date in Greece, in India the Indo-Aryan intellect not only failed to grasp the essentials of a perfect state but developed ideas which were diametrically opposed to them. Perhaps the Indo-Aryan intellect was, as said before, engrossed with the idea of the nothingness of this world's prosperity and devoting itself to spirtual speculation spurned the limitations of a limited state and concerned itself with the welfare of the whole world, man and beast, animate and inanimate. In Europe the small citizen states of Greece were led by the Hellenic intellect to a very high political development and the Romans by their legal temperament carried it to the farthest limits. The duties and the dignities of a citizen of the Roman Empire, a word which still reminds us of the ancient develpment of city-states, were now clearly understood and defined and they in their turn moulded the development of political ideas in the Germanic peoples who added their own political instincts and notions to the ideas inherited from the civilizations of Greece and Rome. The German states were, indeed, not republics like the ancient states of Greece and Rome, but the power of the king in these was limited by institutions of states-general or representative assemblies of the people; and these have developed into the modern kingdoms of Europe with their limited monarchies. The rights and duties of the citizens or rather members of a state have further been developed by French thinkers preceding the French Revolution and their ideas have now permeated to the lowest class in each and every state of Europe. Under their influence each individual citizen in the western states believes that he is a partner in the political partnership of the state and is thus both its master and servant in his own small capacity. Each citizen again is bound to the state not only by ties of affection or patriotism but also by the ties of self-interest, for each one shares in the prosperity of the state or its adversity and is thus ready to make any sacrifice for it by self-interest as well as by patriotism. Such a state must necessarily be a strong organisation and cannot be suppressed or killed except by the greatest exertion of enemies. Nay, it has come to be a maxim with political philosophers in the west that no people, however few, imbued with the instincts of true citizenship, can ever be suppressed by force.