CONCLUSION
Ruskin's book thus paraphrased has a lesson for Indians no
less than for the
Englishmen to whom it was primarily addressed. New ideas are
in the air in
India. Our young men who have received Western education are
full of spirit.
This spirit should be directed into the right channels, as
otherwise it can only
do us harm. 'Let us have Swaraj' is one slogan; let us
industrialize the country'
is another.
But we hardly understand what Swaraj is. Natal for instance
enjoys Swaraj but
her Swaraj stinks in our nostrils, for she crushes the
negroes, and oppresses the
Indians. If by some chance the negroes and the Indians left
Natal, its white men
would fight among themselves and bring about their own
destruction.
If not like Natal's will we have Swaraj as in the Transvaal
one of whose leaders,
General Smuts, breaks his promises, says one thing and does
another? He has
dispensed with the services of English policemen and
employed Afrikanders
instead. I do not think that this is going to help any of
the two nationalities in
the long run. Selfish men will loot their own people, when
there are no more
'outsiders' left to be looted.
Thus Swaraj is not enough to make a nation happy. What would
be the result of
Swaraj being conferred on a band of robbers? They would be
happy only if they
were placed under the control of a good man who was not a
robber himself.
The United States, England and France for instance are
powerful States, but
there is no reason to think that they are really happy.
Swaraj really means self-control. Only he is capable of
self-control who
observes the rules of morality, does not cheat or give up
truth, and does his
duty to his parents, wife and children, servants and
neighbours. Such a man is
in enjoyment of Swaraj, no matter where he lives. A State
enjoys Swaraj if it
can boast of a large number of such good citizens. Ruskin
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It is not right that one people should rule another. British
rule in India is an
evil, but let us not run away with the idea that all will be
well when the British
quit India.
The existence of British rule in the country is due to our
disunity, immorality
and ignorance. If these national defects were overcome, not
only would the
British leave India without a shot being fired but we would
be enjoying real
Swaraj.
Some foolish Indians rejoice in bomb-throwing, but if all
the Britishers in the
country were thus killed, the killers would become the
rulers of India who
would only have a change of masters. The bomb now thrown at
Englishmen will
be aimed at Indians after the English are there no longer.
It was a Frenchman
who murdered the President of the French Republic. It was an
American who
murdered President Cleveland. Let us not blindly imitate
Western people.
If Swaraj cannot be attained by the sin of killing
Englishmen, it cannot be
attained either by the erection of huge factories. Gold and
silver may be
accumulated but they will not lead to the establishment of
Swaraj. Ruskin has
proved this to the hilt. Western civilization is a mere
baby, a hundred or only
fifty years old. And yet it has reduced Europe to a sorry
plight. Let us pray that
India is saved from the fate that has overtaken Europe,
where the nations are
poised for an attack on one another, and are silent only
because of the
stockpiling of armaments. Some day there will be an
explosion, and then
Europe will be a veritable hell on earth. Non-white races
are looked upon as
legitimate prey by every European State. What else can we
expect where
covetousness is the ruling passion in the breasts of men?
Europeans pounce
upon new territories like crows upon a piece of meat. I am
inclined to think
that this is due to their mass-production factories.
India must indeed have Swaraj but she must have it by
righteous methods. Our
Swaraj must be real Swaraj, which cannot be attained by
either violence or
industrialization. India was once a golden land, because
Indians then had hearts
of gold. The land is still the same but it is a desert
because we are corrupt. It Ruskin UNTO THIS LAST
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33
can become a land of gold again only if the base metal of
our present national
character is transmuted into gold. The philosopher's stone
which can effect this
transformation
1
is a little word of
two syllables – Satya (Truth). If every Indian
sticks to truth, Swaraj will come to us of its own accord.
1 ‘Institutions’, says Herbert Spencer, ‘are dependent on
character; and however changed
in their superficial aspects, cannot be changed in their
essential natures faster than
character changes.’
V.G.D.
ምንም አስተያየቶች የሉም:
አስተያየት ይለጥፉ