The great nationalist leader Lala Lajpat Rai visited the US more than once. He wrote a travelogue The United States Of America: A Hindu’s Impression and a Study after his extended visit in 1916. This is an excerpt in which Rai contemplates on the real nature of “civilization”. This is the first in a new series of Mint On Sunday republications of out-of-print Indian writing and journalism.
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Five hundred and ninety-three days ago I left my home and my people on my way to England. Two days later I sailed from Bombay and looked for the last time on the shore, the trees, and the buildings of my dear country. Since, I have travelled a good deal in Great Britain, crossed the great Atlantic and seen the United States.
I have seen and lived at times for months in some of the biggest cities of the world, I have witnessed the highest achievements and the biggest glories of what passes under the name of modern civilization, I have met numerous men, good, bad and indifferent—some of them the cream of the modern world, its intellectual and political leaders, professors, scholars, students, ministers, cabinet ministers, secretaries of state, newspaper editors, journalists, members of parliament, politicians, authors of books, thinkers, lecturers, teachers, merchants, bankers, poets, artists, orators, philanthropists, charity organizers, educationists, and others; I have met many women, most of them good women, leaders in their respective spheres; I have read many books on all sorts of subjects—politics, religion, sociology, history, economics, art, fiction, and many a magazine and paper; I have gazed at the achievements of modern science and modern man with wonder and admiration.
Yet all the time the ruling note of my thoughts has been one of sadness and helplessness.
Looked at superficially and from outside, the world (I mean the world I have seen in this period) seems to be very happy, very gay, light-hearted, cheerful and hopeful.
The theaters, the moving picture palaces, the concerts and fairs are all crowded, ringing with the laughter of men, women and children; so are the saloons and restaurants, dancing halls and billiard table places. In short, there is no lack of play and pleasure. The resorts of pleasure are always overcrowded, where men and women, boys and girls, of all ages and of all classes, from the richest to the poorest, jostle each other in their pursuit of pleasure and in their desire to have a ‘’good time” and make the best of their lives.
All do their allotted work in their respective spheres of activities in all earnestness and seriousness. The idea of doing their duty and doing it well, seems to be fairly common among modern men and women, though the objective all the time is the pleasure that is to follow, after the work is finished.
At times I have felt a sort of bewilderment at what the genius of man has achieved in the West. I have admiringly studied democracy and democratic institutions and have made myself conversant with all the currents, undercurrents, and cross currents of social and political life in the great cities of the United States.
The wealthy classes, the gentry, the nobility and the rich among the middle classes live in a constant whirlpool of pleasure and gaiety. The social functions they organise and attend; the pleasure engagements they make and keep; the time they spend on personal adornments and on shopping, hardly leave them any moments to devote to the serious side of life. This they avoid as they would avoid a ferocious, man-devouring beast.
The generality of them have neither time nor inclination for the serious questions of life and death, of sin and virtue, of duty and religion. They read a lot and some even noble books. But the desire all the time is to be able to amuse themselves as well as others; to show off; to keep up and carry on interesting talk; to entertain and be entertained. The poorer middle classes and the workmen spend most of their time in making the two ends meet, in earning sufficient to live decently and to support those that depend on them.
But even in their case the desire for pleasure and the hankering after the good things of the world is the ruling passion of life. They are discontented because they believe that the wealthy classes enjoy at their cost and because they have not sufficient opportunities of doing so. The standard of general intelligence is fairly high. The number of those engaged in intellectual work and in stimulating thought is fairly large.
Yet the desire for pleasure and power is the dominating passion of the western man and woman. Serious thought and serious work is only a means to an end—the acquisition and the accumulation of power, power to possess, power to enjoy, power to do good, power to serve. The desire for powder and pleasure absorbs the best thought and the best life of the west and no one can deny that the western people have had wonderful success in tapping all the resources of humanity, physical and intellectual, to gain these ends and that they are at the present moment the masters of the world. The world rolls at their feet.
Even the elements obey their commands and do their behest. Land, water and air are all at their service. They make and unmake heat and cold. They yoke and unyoke all material forces to meet their wants and contribute to their pleasure and power.
Yes, I have seen all that, but at the same time I have not been able to free myself from the feeling that all is not well with the world. I have found myself going in and going out, thinking and trying to find a reply to the questions, “Are they really happy?” “Has the modem civilization really added substantially to the sum total of the happiness of humanity?” “Has it brought humanity nearer to perfection?” “Has it drawn the hearts of mankind nearer to each other?” “Has it spread contentment?” “Has it reduced misery and wretchedness?” “Is the majority of mankind really happier and better today than it was before the discovery of the steam-power and the printing press?” “Is the lot of the toiler, the unfortunate drawer of water and hewer of wood, the miner, the farm labourer, the factory man and the factory woman, the working boy and the working girl, better and more endurable than it was before?” “Does the pleasure that men and women, boys and girls, derive from saloons, picture-shows, and pleasure-resorts, sufficiently compensate for the misery and the squalor that attend their labor in the factory or the mine?”
Even in the West in these richest countries, which own the mines of the world, which possess most of its gold and silver and which control the destinies and the labours of the rest of mankind, the number of those that have to live from hand to mouth, that have to toil and labour, without the compensation of having the ordinary decencies, not to speak of the finer pleasures, of life is enormously large.
The majority only live to provide for the pleasures of the few, however large the number of these few may be. But if to their numbers one were to add the vast masses of humanity that are kept down and exploited for the benefit of the fortunate few in the ancient and the most populous countries of the world, in Asia, and in Africa, one cannot but feel extremely uneasy about the real nature of the modern civilization.
These vast masses of Europe and America, of Asia and Africa form the bulk of humanity. The socialist literature is full of bitterness towards the few. The vast bulk of humanity in the West is at war with the wealthy in possession, and at times even with themselves. They are thoroughly discontented and rebellious. If one were to believe all that is printed and published in their name the majority of men and women in the West must be very miserable and unhappy.
They have minds and bodies that require nourishment both mental and physical. They also want happiness and pleasure. What of their lives? Why is theirs an unending struggle without a single ray of joy and happiness in it, subjected to tyranny and oppression of the worst sort, obliged to work under compulsion for their lords and masters, for low wages or for the benefit of the latter, constantly abused, insulted, humiliated and sometimes even whipped and lashed; always spoken of and treated with contempt, and disposed of like chattel?
A legion writers have told us that mankind are equal; that all men are brothers; that liberty is the birthright of every son of a mother and so on. I have listened to many a sermon and many a lecture on universal brotherhood, on the philosophy of equality, liberty and fraternity. I have heard of “the rights of man”. But so far I have failed to see them in life, in practice, either in the East or in the West.
Our respected leader, the late Mr. G. K. Gokhale, used to say that when the Europeans talk of the peace of the world, they mean Europe, and when they talk of humanity they mean “whitemanity”; but even in Europe and even in the midst of whitemanity one does not find many traces of that equality, and liberty, which the modern civilization boasts to have brought into the world.
In what does then lie the superiority of the modern civilization? If it lies in the conquest of nature, in the subjugation and harnessing of the forces of nature, and in the application of the powers acquired thereby for the benefit of the few, then the claim may be admitted. If civilization consists in making life more complex, in multiplying the needs of man, in adding to the pleasures of the outer man, in concentrating power in the hands of the few, even then the claims of modern civilization may well be conceded.
But if civilization means a reign of truth, honesty, brotherhood, justice, and equality; then what passes under the name of modern civilization is not a genuine article. If civilization consists in securing peace of mind to the bulk of humanity; or in giving equal opportunities to mankind in general; or in establishing a reign of universal brotherhood, universal justice and universal love all over the world (not the European world only); then the modern civilization has ignominiously failed. The world is still dominated by merit; by power and by force—not even benevolent force but aggressive force.
Here in Japan where I am writing these lines, only 65 years before, simplicity and domesticity held their sway. There was neither a navy nor an army. The people had fewer wants and they were easily satisfied. They were a hermit nation who had practically no inter-course with the outside world. No doubt, they often quarreled among themselves and even then the mighty and the wealthy ruled the weak and the poor. But they were a self-contained people who had no political, military or commercial ambition outside their own island empire.
About 60 years ago they were at the point of the bayonet forced to open their doors. They did open their doors and began to learn lessons of modern civilization from those who had thus forced them out of their seclusion. They are good at learning and so they have learnt their lessons well; in fact, so well that today they are a source of embarrassment and anxiety and trouble to their former masters and teachers.
The progress of Japan in the modern ways of life is remarkable. They have a grand army and a formidable navy. Their ships navigate all seas and their commerce is worldwide.Yet it remains to be seen if the people are really happier than they were under the old conditions.
Life in Japan is more strenuous, more exacting and more agitated to-day than it was in the beginning of the 19th Century. The country is groaning under the millstone of military expenditure, which must go on growing as the importance and the fears and ambitions of the nation grow. They have won their place in the comity of nations, won it with iron and blood, won it honorably; they are proud of it and anxious to increase their prestige; add to their wealth and extend their dominions.
Judging from the modern point of view they are justified in their ambition and it does not lie in the mouth of the Western people to find fault with them. They are simply following their example. Nay, they have to do it in self-defence. But for their huge army and their grand navy they might be attacked and deprived of their national existence, any day. In their case it is a choice of evils and if they have chosen the one that is consistent with the current political morality, no one can blame them.
Yet the question remains, if Japan is really on the path of happiness and if the bulk of her people would be happier under the altered conditions. We must wait and see.
If on the other hand civilization means the negation of the world, a negation of its reality, a refusal to face it by renouncing it—a contentment which might bring servility, and an idealism which might end in political bondage, humiliation and disgrace, even then I am unable to reconcile myself to it. In fact if a choice were given to me between the two I would rather choose the former than the latter.
The ancient Aryans were a virile people. They conquered the world and spread over and occupied the East and the West. Even today the descendants of those who settled in Europe are ruling the world. The Hindus went down, because at a certain stage of their development they took to the analytic way of looking at things. They proclaimed “neti, neti” (neither this nor that). The Far Eastern nations followed the Hindus and they also fell.
Now there is a reaction and the materialistic civilization of the West is at their door. The choice lies between extinction and Europeanisation, unless they can find out a mean by which they may be able to retain the best parts of both and evolve a new and a more humane civilization of their own. That is the problem before the East, and on the solution of that problem depends the future happiness of the world. When and how it will be solved is in the womb of the future.
Be that as it may, I see no justification for saying that the world to-day is happier, morally better, more righteous and more God-fearing than it was 2000 years ago. It may be perhaps that the speculations of the Vedic Hindus about the world, about spirit and matter, their solution of the social problems, their ideals of life and society were nearer the truth than those of the modern civilization; it may be that the moderners are on the right road to the evolution of a perfect ideal and civilization; or it may be that human affairs move in a circle. In any case I have not yet found a reply to the question “What is real civilization?”
