History of Dharmashastra (Ancient and Mediaeval Religious and Civil Law in India) v7.c96.s1.22

v7.c96.s1.22

During the last four or five hundred years the Western nations professing Christianity started on a career of conquest, exploitation of undeveloped countries and peoples, colonial empires, use of the discoveries of science for competitive purposes, the amassing of wealth with such ideologies as those expressed in the words 'everybody should be for himself and the devil take the hind-most.' But the devastation and atrocities of the last two world wars and the possibility of the annihilation of the human race or a very large part of it by atomic warfare have now opened the eyes of many thoughtful leaders and people in the West that, if modern civilization is to be saved, they must cultivate regard for spiritual values, love of righteousness and justice, sympathy with the oppressed, and active belief in the brotherhood of man. Though our ancient sages and lawgivers laid great emphasis on spiritul values, a very large majority of our people and so-called leaders have been wanting in the practice of those values for centuries. Instead of merely praising our past glories, the present author would humbly request all educated Indians to be introspective and to ponder over certain questions that are often asked and seek to find the reasons for the loss of our freedom from the 13th century onwards. (1) Why Hindus were generally found inferior to the invaders, Persian, Greek, Scythian, Turk, English, even though Indians far outnumbered and even though most invaders were impressed by the courage and perfect indifference to death on the part of India's soldiers; (2) Why Hindus could not form a permanent organized State comprising the whole of India for many centuries; (3) why did they fail to take advantage of the splendid natural resources of India to excel in manufactures, commerce and industry. We must enter upon a thoroughgoing and honest inquiry into our past to find our own defects (political and others) that led to our fall for centuries and try to remove those defects as quickly as possible, now that Bhārata has won independence after centuries. There was no political unity of the whole of India till the British began to rule over the whole of India. There were constant wars among Hindu kingdoms and princes. For example, because the Marathas invaded Bengal, the Bengalis hated Marathas and were jubilant over the defeat of the Marathas by the British. We Indians hardly had any deep-seated feeling of all Indians being one people or of nationalism till the 2nd half of the 19th century A. D. This chapter cannot discuss at length the subject of the causes of the downfall of India, politically and in other respects. But a few remarks would not be altogether out of place here.