[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Studies](https://indike.org/pramana/ins) › [Polity, law and society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity) › [The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985) › c5.17 # The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c5.17 The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society c5.17 - **Language:** English ### [c5.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c5.17) The indubitable fact of the alienness of modernity introduced by a colonial government seems to be greatly overrated as a source of difficulties, for such a view is ultimately based on the romantic belief in the closed and monolithic character of a civilization as an autonomous organism. That this is not only a belief, and as such is beyond proof or disproof, but rank superstition is sufficiently clear—even the most superficial reading on Indian civilization can demonstrate this—and should not detain us here. - [Previous: c5.16](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c5.16) - [Next: c5.18](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c5.18) - [Up: c5](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c5) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c5.17](https://indike.org/pramana/ins.polity.heesterman-1985.c5.17) · Pramāṇa