A History of Hindu Political Theories from the Earliest Times to the End of the First Quarter of the Seventeenth Century A.D. c6.3

c6.3

Such in our view are the factors that helped to sow the seeds of political speculation on the Indian soil. It is, however, idle to disguise the fact that scholars of undoubted eminence have pointed to certain alleged tendencies of the Hindu national character as disqualifying the people from conceiving the idea of the State. It was a little over half a century ago that the illustrious Prof. Max Müller delivered his verdict on the genius of the Hindu people in words that have become classical. “The Hindus,” he said, “were a nation of philosophers. Their struggles were the struggles of thought; their past, the problem of creation; their future, the problem of existence.......It might therefore be justly said that India has no place in the political history of the world.”cont This celebrated dictum, which was justified at the time of its pronouncement by the darkness in which the history and the literature of ancient India were still enveloped, would seem to call for no serious notice at the present day, when immense strides have been taken in almost every branch of Indian antiquities. It is, however, a tribute to the enduring influence of Max Müller’s teaching that his verdict is still accepted in scholarly circles in the present times. Thus it is confidently declared by a recent writer in words echoing the classical lines cited above, “The Orient in general, India in particular, did not conceive the idea of the State...... To employ a Christian expression, the sole city for the Indian sages is the city divine.”[^ *] Another eminent scholar attributes to the religious institutions of the Hindus the same dominating influence as is attached by Max Müller to their religious ideals. “From the beginning of India’s history,” writes Prof. Bloomfield, “religious institutions control the character and the development of its people to an extent unknown elsewhere........The religious life of the Brahmanical Hindu is divided into the four stages of religious disciple; god-fearing and sacrificing householder; contemplative forest-dweller; and wandering world-abandoning ascetic. Such at least is the theory of their religious law......There is no provision in such a scheme for the interests of the State and the development of the race.”†