Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t4: Kang Youwei
Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c7.s9.t4
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Kang Youwei
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Kang Youwei 康有为 (19 March, 1858 – 31 March, 1927) was a famous Chinese scholar, philosopher and reformer of the late Qing period. He is best known for the leading role he played in the Hundred Days Reform Movement 戊戌变法 of 1898, which sought to introduce major political and institutional reforms in China through the patronage of the Guangxu emperor. He was the author of the famous work *Da Tong Shu* 大同书, in which he envisioned a future utopia encompassing the whole world. This book was completed during
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From left: Kang Youwei, Commentary on the Analects of Confucius (front cover)
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a period of exile he underwent in India after the suppression of the reform movement which he had pioneered. Kang Youwei was one of the earliest and most influential Chinese intellectuals to analyse and write about modern India from first-hand experience.
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Kang Youwei lived in India from 1901 to 1903. Although based in the hill station Darjeeling in the northeastern part of India, he travelled to different parts of the country. He visited India again in 1909. We find more than 200 references to India in his writings, some derived from his direct observations of India and the Indian people, while others were based on earlier Chinese writing. One of his most important essays on India was entitled “Essay for fellow scholar Liang Qichao and others discussing the destruction of India due to its fragmentation”, written in 1902. As can be seen from the title of this essay, Kang was mainly interested in analysing India’s situation as a country under foreign subjugation, as well as the causes for it, so that his own country would not suffer the same fate. Like many of his contemporaries among Chinese intellectuals, he categorised India as a wang guo 亡國 or ‘ruined country’. He also wanted to use the example of India to buttress the arguments in support of his own political views at that time.
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Kang Youwei many times expressed his admiration for India’s ancient civilisation, which he considered as “the ancestor of the European and American civilisations”. However he bemoaned the decline of this civilisation to the point where “a British trading company worth just 1,20,000 *taels* ruined India.” “India,” he wrote, “that spans several thousand kilometres, has been caged by the British like a bird.” Much of Kang’s writing on India was devoted to trying to understand how India had come to this pass. Initially he analysed that it was due to conservatism and a reluctance to change. This view was perhaps influenced by his own views on the pressing need for change and reform in China. In 1898, even before coming to India, he had written: “A boundless nation like India perished due to its reluctance to introduce political reform.” He further expanded his analysis of the causes of India’s subjugation to include the disunity among its constituent parts. He wrote: “I lived in India for a long time, glanced over its modern history, and tried to get to the reason for its enslavement; I found out that it was the independence of various states.” He saw that the British were able to utilise the differences among the princely states to extend their own domination.
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In his writings on India, Kang Youwei commented on social issues as well. He condemned the caste system, saying “how abominable and absurd it is to divide people into valuable and worthless!” He also criticised the colonial system of education, warning that if education in India was conducted in a foreign language, the indigenous customs and traditions were in danger of disappearing. In one of his writings he mentions having “discussed with Gandhi and others” the division of Indian society on caste and religious lines. It is probable that the two met in December 1901 when Gandhi had come from South Africa to attend the Calcutta session of the Indian National Congress.
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Family photo of Kang Youwei, Shanghai, 1921. (Middle row, from right): Fifth wife Liao Dingzheng, fourth wife Shi Gang He zi, first wife Zhang Yunzhu, Kang Youwei, second wife Liang Suijue, sixth wife Zhang Guang, daughter Tonghuan. (Front row, from right): Tongling, Tongjian. (Back row, from right): Daughter Tongfu, son-in-law Pan Qixuan
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Kang Youwei pondered many times over how Indians would be able to secure their freedom again, but given the time in which he wrote about India, it is not surprising that he could not really envision how this would come about. Nevertheless, his interest in and links with India represent an important milestone in the process of Chinese and Indians learning afresh about each other in the modern era.