,,works ,,by    ,,sir ,,rabindranath    
,,tagore      ,,gitanjali 7,song        
,offerings74 ,with ,introduction by ,w4 
,b4 ,,yeats and  ,portrait4 ,cr4 #hvo4  
#ds4 #f;d4 net4    ,,fruit-,,gathering4 
7,a ,sequel to ,gitanjali47 ,cr4 #hvo4  
#ds4 #f;d4 net4    ,,the ,,crescent     
,,moon4 ,child-,poems4 ,with #h         
,illustrations in ,colour4  ,pott #dto4 
#ds4 #f;d4 net4    ,,the ,,gardener4    
,poems4 ,with ,portrait4 ,cr4 #hvo4 #ds4
 #f;d4 net4    ,,stray ,,birds4 ,poems4 
,with ,frontispiece by ,,willy          
,,pog,,ny4 ,cr4 #hvo4 #ds4  #f;d4 net4  
,,lover',s ,,gift ,,and ,,crossing4 ,cr4
 #hvo4 #es4 net4    ,,chitra4 ,a ,play4 
,ex4 cr4 #hvo4 #bs4 #f;d4 net4    ,,the 
,,king ,,of ,,the ,,dark ,,chamber4 ,a  
,play4 ,cr4 #hvo4 #ds4 #f;d4 net4       
,,the ,,post ,,office4 ,a ,play4 ,cr4   
#hvo4 #bs4 #f;d4 net4    ,,the ,,cycle  
,,of ,,spring4 ,a ,play4 ,cr4 #hvo4 #cs4
 #f;d4 net4    ,,sacrifice ,,and ,,other
 ,,plays4 ,cr4 #hvo4 #es4 net4          
,,hungry ,,stones ,,and ,,other         

,,stories4 ,translated by various       
,writers4 ,cr4  #hvo4 #es4 net4         
,,mashi ,,and ,,other ,,stories4 ,cr4   
#hvo4 #es4 net4    ,,personality3       
,lectures delivered in ,america4        
,illustrated4 ,ex4 cr4  #hvo4 #es4 net4 
,,my ,,reminiscences4 ,illustrated4 ,ex4
 cr4 #hvo4 #gs4 #f;d4 net4    ,,sadhana3
 ,the ,realisation of ,life4 ,lectures4 
,ex4 cr4 #hvo4 #es4  net4               
,,nationalism4 ,ex4 cr4 #hvo4 #ds4 #f;d4
 net4      ,,london3 ,,macmillan ,,and  
,,co41 ,,ltd4          ,,nationalism    
,illustration3 ,logo    ,,macmillan     
,,and ,,co41 ,,limited    ,,london      
,,bombay  ,,calcutta  ,,madras          
,,melbourne    ,,the ,,macmillan        
,,company    ,,new ,,york  ,,boston     
,,chicago  ,,dallas  ,,san ,,francisco  
,,the ,,macmillan ,,co4 ,,of ,,canada1  
,,ltd4    ,,toronto                     
,,nationalism    ,,by    ,,sir          
,,rabindranath ,,tagore    ,,macmillan  
,,and ,,co41 ,,limited  ,,st4           
,,martin',s ,,street1 ,,london  #aiah   

,,copyright    ,first ,edition #aiag    
,reprinted #aiah 7twice7                
,,contents                              
,,page  ,,nationalism ,,in ,,the ,,west 
#a    ,,nationalism ,,in ,,japan        
#dg    ,,nationalism ,,in ,,india       
#ie    ,,the ,,sunset ,,of ,,the        
,,century      #aca                     
,,nationalism ,,in ,,the ,,west         
,man's history is being shaped according
 to the difficulties it  encounters4    
,these have offered us problems and     
claimed their solutions  from us1 the   
penalty of non-fulfilment being death or
 degradation4    ,these difficulties    
have been different in different peoples
 of the  earth1 and in the manner of our
 overcoming them lies our distinction4  
,the ,scythians of the earlier period of
 ,asiatic history had to struggle  with 
the scarcity of their natural resources4
 ,the easiest solution that  they could 
think of was to organize their whole    
population1 men1 women1  and children1  
into bands of robbers4 ,and they were   

irresistible to those  who were chiefly 
engaged in the constructive work of     
social  co-operation4    ,but           
fortunately for man the easiest path is 
not his truest path4 ,if his  nature    
were not as complex as it is1 if it were
 as simple as that of a  pack of hungry 
wolves1 then1 by this time1 those hordes
 of marauders  would have overrun the   
whole earth4 ,but man1 when confronted  
with  difficulties1 has to acknowledge  
that he is man1 that he has his         
responsibilities to the higher faculties
 of his nature1 by ignoring  which he   
may achieve success that is immediate1  
perhaps1 but that will  become a        
death-trap to him4 ,for what are        
obstacles to the lower  creatures are   
opportunities to the higher life of man4
    ,to ,india has been given her       
problem from the beginning of           
history--it is  the race problem4 ,races
 ethnologically different have in this  
country  come into close contact4 ,this 
fact has been and still continues to be 

the most important one in our history4  
,it is our mission to face it and  prove
 our humanity by dealing with it in the 
fullest truth4 ,until we  fulfil our    
mission all other benefits will be      
denied us4    ,there are other peoples  
in the world who have to overcome       
obstacles in  their physical            
surroundings1 or the menace of their    
powerful neighbours4  ,they have        
organized their power till they are not 
only reasonably free  from the tyranny  
of ,nature and human neighbours1 but    
have a surplus of  it left in their     
hands to employ against others4 ,but in 
,india1 our  difficulties being         
internal1 our history has been the      
history of  continual social adjustment 
and not that of organized power for     
defence  and aggression4    ,neither the
 colourless vagueness of                
cosmopolitanism1 nor the fierce         
self-idolatry of nation-worship1 is the 
goal of human history4 ,and ,india  has 
been trying to accomplish her task      

through social regulation of            
differences1 on the one hand1 and the   
spiritual recognition of unity on  the  
other4 ,she has made grave errors in    
setting up the boundary walls  too      
rigidly between races1 in perpetuating  
in her classifications the  results of  
inferiority2 often she has crippled her 
children's minds and  narrowed their    
lives in order to fit them into her     
social forms2 but for  centuries new    
experiments have been made and          
adjustments carried out4    ,her mission
 has been like that of a hostess who has
 to provide proper  accommodation for   
numerous guests1 whose habits and       
requirements are  different from one    
another4 ,this gives rise to infinite   
complexities  whose solution depends not
 merely upon tactfulness but upon       
sympathy and  true realization of the   
unity of man4 ,towards this realization 
have  worked1 from the early time of the
 ,upanishads up to the present moment1  
a series of great spiritual teachers1   

whose one object has been to set  at    
naught all differences of man by the    
overflow of our consciousness of  ,god4 
,in fact1 our history has not been of   
the rise and fall of kingdoms1  of      
fights for political supremacy4 ,in our 
country records of these days  have been
 despised and forgotten1 for they in no 
way represent the true  history of our  
people4 ,our history is that of our     
social life and  attainment of spiritual
 ideals4    ,but we feel that our task  
is not yet done4 ,the world-flood has   
swept  over our country1 new elements   
have been introduced1 and wider         
adjustments are waiting to be made4     
,we feel this all the more1 because the 
teaching and example of the ,west  have 
entirely run counter to what we think   
was given to ,india to  accomplish4 ,in 
the ,west the national machinery of     
commerce and politics  turns out neatly 
compressed bales of humanity which have 
their use and  high market value2 but   
they are bound in iron hoops1 labelled  

and  separated off with scientific care 
and precision4 ,obviously ,god made man 
to be human2 but this modern product has
 such marvellous square-cut  finish1    
savouring of gigantic manufacture1 that 
the ,creator will find it  difficult to 
recognize it as a thing of spirit and a 
creature made in  ,his own divine image4
    ,but ,i am anticipating4 ,what ,i   
was about to say is this4 ,take it in   
whatever spirit you like1 here is       
,india1 of about fifty centuries at     
least1 who tried to live peacefully and 
think deeply1 the ,india devoid  of all 
politics1 the ,india of no nations1     
whose one ambition has been to  know    
this world as of soul1 to live here     
every moment of her life in the  meek   
spirit of adoration1 in the glad        
consciousness of an eternal and         
personal relationship with it4 ,it was  
upon this remote portion of  humanity1  
childlike in its manner1 with the wisdom
 of the old1 that the  ,nation of the   
,west burst in4    ,through all the     

fights and intrigues and deceptions of  
her earlier  history ,india had remained
 aloof4 ,because her homes1 her fields1 
her  temples of worship1 her schools1   
where her teachers and students lived   
together in the atmosphere of simplicity
 and devotion and learning1 her  village
 self-government with its simple laws   
and peaceful  administration--all these 
truly belonged to her4 ,but her thrones 
were  not her concern4 ,they passed over
 her head like clouds1 now tinged with  
purple gorgeousness1 now black with the 
threat of thunder4 ,often they  brought 
devastations in their wake1 but they    
were like catastrophes of  nature whose 
traces are soon forgotten4    ,but this 
time it was different4 ,it was not a    
mere drift over her  surface of         
life1--drift of cavalry and foot        
soldiers1 richly caparisoned  elephants1
 white tents and canopies1 strings of   
patient camels bearing  the loads of    
royalty1 bands of kettle-drums and      
flutes1 marble domes of  mosques1       

palaces and tombs1 like the bubbles of  
the foaming wine of  extravagance2      
stories of treachery and loyal devotion1
 of changes of  fortune1 of dramatic    
surprises of fate4 ,this time it was the
 ,nation of  the ,west driving its      
tentacles of machinery deep down into   
the soil4    ,therefore ,i say to you1  
it is we who are called as witnesses to 
give  evidence as to what our ,nation   
has been to humanity4 ,we had known the 
hordes of ,moghals and ,pathans who     
invaded ,india1 but we had known them   
as human races1 with their own religions
 and customs1 likes and  dislikes1--we  
had never known them as a nation4 ,we   
loved and hated them  as occasions      
arose2 we fought for them and against   
them1 talked with  them in a language   
which was theirs as well as our own1 and
 guided the  destiny of the ,empire in  
which we had our active share4 ,but this
 time we  had to deal1 not with kings1  
not with human races1 but with a        
nation--we1 who are no nation ourselves4

    ,now let us from our own experience 
answer the question1 ,what is this      
,nation8    ,a nation1 in the sense of  
the political and economic union of a   
people1  is that aspect which a whole   
population assumes when organized for a 
mechanical purpose4 ,society as such has
 no ulterior purpose4 ,it is an  end in 
itself4 ,it is a spontaneous            
self-expression of man as a social      
being4 ,it is a natural regulation of   
human relationships1 so that men  can   
develop ideals of life in co-operation  
with one another4 ,it has also  a       
political side1 but this is only for a  
special purpose4 ,it is for             
self-preservation4 ,it is merely the    
side of power1 not of human ideals4     
,and in the early days it had its       
separate place in society1 restricted   
to the professionals4 ,but when with the
 help of science and the  perfecting of 
organization this power begins to grow  
and brings in  harvests of wealth1 then 
it crosses its boundaries with amazing  

rapidity4 ,for then it goads all its    
neighbouring societies with greed of    
material prosperity1 and consequent     
mutual jealousy1 and by the fear of     
each other's growth into powerfulness4  
,the time comes when it can stop  no    
longer1 for the competition grows       
keener1 organization grows vaster1  and 
selfishness attains supremacy4 ,trading 
upon the greed and fear of  man1 it     
occupies more and more space in society1
 and at last becomes its  ruling force4 
,it is just possible that you have lost 
through habit consciousness that  the   
living bonds of society are breaking up1
 and giving place to merely  mechanical 
organization4 ,but you see signs of it  
everywhere4 ,it is owing  to this that  
war has been declared between man and   
woman1 because the  natural thread is   
snapping which holds them together in   
harmony2 because  man is driven to      
professionalism1 producing wealth for   
himself and  others1 continually turning
 the wheel of power for his own sake or 

for  the sake of the universal          
officialdom1 leaving woman alone to     
wither and  to die or to fight her own  
battle unaided4 ,and thus there where   
co-operation is natural has intruded    
competition4 ,the very psychology of    
men and women about their mutual        
relation is changing and becoming the   
psychology of the primitive fighting    
elements1 rather than of humanity       
seeking its completeness through the    
union based upon mutual  self-surrender4
 ,for the elements which have lost their
 living bond of  reality have lost the  
meaning of their existence4 ,like       
gaseous particles  forced into a too    
narrow space1 they come in continual    
conflict with  each other till they     
burst the very arrangement which holds  
them in  bondage4    ,then look at those
 who call themselves anarchists1 who    
resent the  imposition of power1 in any 
form whatever1 upon the individual4 ,the
 only  reason for this is that power has
 become too abstract--it is a           

scientific product made in the political
 laboratory of the ,nation1  through the
 dissolution of personal humanity4      
,and what is the meaning of these       
strikes in the economic world1 which    
like the prickly shrubs in a barren soil
 shoot up with renewed vigour  each time
 they are cut down8 ,what1 but that the 
wealth-producing  mechanism is          
incessantly growing into vast stature1  
out of proportion to  all other needs of
 society1--and the full reality of man  
is more and  more crushed under its     
weight8 ,this state of things inevitably
 gives  rise to eternal feuds among the 
elements freed from the wholeness and   
wholesomeness of human ideals1 and      
interminable economic war is waged      
between capital and labour4 ,for greed  
of wealth and power can never have  a   
limit1 and compromise of self-interest  
can never attain the final  spirit of   
reconciliation4 ,they must go on        
breeding jealousy and  suspicion to the 
end--the end which only comes through   

some sudden  catastrophe or a spiritual 
re-birth4    ,when this organization of 
politics and commerce1 whose other name 
is the  ,nation1 becomes all-powerful at
 the cost of the harmony of the higher  
social life1 then it is an evil day for 
humanity4 ,when a father becomes  a     
gambler and his obligations to his      
family take the secondary place in  his 
mind1 then he is no longer a man1 but an
 automaton led by the power  of greed4  
,then he can do things which1 in his    
normal state of mind1 he  would be      
ashamed to do4 ,it is the same thing    
with society4 ,when it  allows itself to
 be turned into a perfect organization  
of power1 then  there are few crimes    
which it is unable to perpetrate4       
,because success  is the object and     
justification of a machine1 while       
goodness only is the  end and purpose of
 man4 ,when this engine of organization 
begins to  attain a vast size1 and those
 who are mechanics are made into parts  
of  the machine1 then the personal man  

is eliminated to a phantom1  everything 
becomes a revolution of policy carried  
out by the human parts  of the machine1 
with no twinge of pity or moral         
responsibility4 ,it may  happen that    
even through this apparatus the moral   
nature of man tries  to assert itself1  
but the whole series of ropes and       
pullies creak and  cry1 the forces of   
the human heart become entangled among  
the forces of  the human automaton1 and 
only with difficulty can the moral      
purpose  transmit itself into some      
tortured shape of result4    ,this      
abstract being1 the ,nation1 is ruling  
,india4 ,we have seen in our  country   
some brand of tinned food advertised as 
entirely made and packed  without being 
touched by hand4 ,this description      
applies to the governing  of ,india1    
which is as little touched by the human 
hand as possible4 ,the  governors need  
not know our language1 need not come    
into personal touch  with us except as  
officials2 they can aid or hinder our   

aspirations from  a disdainful distance1
 they can lead us on a certain path of  
policy and  then pull us back again with
 the manipulation of office red tape2   
the  newspapers of ,england1 in whose   
columns ,london street accidents are    
recorded with some decency of pathos1   
need but take the scantiest notice  of  
calamities which happen in ,india over  
areas of land sometimes larger  than the
 ,british ,isles4    ,but we1 who are   
governed1 are not a mere abstraction4   
,we1 on our side1  are individuals with 
living sensibilities4 ,what comes to us 
in the  shape of a mere bloodless policy
 may pierce into the very core of our   
life1 may threaten the whole future of  
our people with a perpetual             
helplessness of emasculation1 and yet   
may never touch the chord of  humanity  
on the other side1 or touch it in the   
most inadequately feeble  manner4 ,such 
wholesale and universal acts of fearful 
responsibility man  can never perform1  
with such a degree of systematic        

unawareness1 where  he is an individual 
human being4 ,these only become         
possible1 where the  man is represented 
by an octopus of abstractions1 sending  
out its  wriggling arms in all          
directions of space1 and fixing its     
innumerable  suckers even into the      
far-away future4 ,in this reign of the  
nation1 the  governed are pursued by    
suspicions2 and these are the suspicions
 of a  tremendous mass of organized     
brain and muscle4 ,punishments are meted
  out1 which leave a trail of miseries  
across a large bleeding tract of  the   
human heart2 but these punishments are  
dealt by a mere abstract  force1 in     
which a whole population of a distant   
country has lost its  human personality4
    ,i have not come here1 however1 to  
discuss the question as it affects my   
own country1 but as it affects the      
future of all humanity4 ,it is not a    
question of the ,british ,government1   
but of government by the ,nation--the   
,nation which is the organized          

self-interest of a whole people1 where  
it  is least human and least spiritual4 
,our only intimate experience of the    
,nation is with the ,british ,nation1   
and as far as the government by the     
,nation goes there are reasons to       
believe that it is one of the best4     
,then1 again1 we have to consider that  
the ,west is necessary to the ,east4    
,we are complementary to each other     
because of our different outlooks  upon 
life which have given us different      
aspects of truth4 ,therefore if  it be  
true that the spirit of the ,west has   
come upon our fields in the  guise of a 
storm it is nevertheless scattering     
living seeds that are  immortal4 ,and   
when in ,india we become able to        
assimilate in our life  what is         
permanent in ,western civilization we   
shall be in the position to  bring about
 a reconciliation of these two great    
worlds4 ,then will come  to an end the  
one-sided dominance which is galling4   
,what is more1 we  have to recognize    

that the history of ,india does not     
belong to one  particular race but to a 
process of creation to which various    
races of  the world contributed--the    
,dravidians and the ,aryans1 the ancient
 ,greeks  and the ,persians1 the        
,mohammedans of the ,west and those of  
central  ,asia4 ,now at last has come   
the turn of the ,english to become true 
to  this history and bring to it the    
tribute of their life1 and we neither   
have the right nor the power to exclude 
this people from the building of  the   
destiny of ,india4 ,therefore what ,i   
say about the ,nation has more to  do   
with the history of ,man than specially 
with that of ,india4    ,this history   
has come to a stage when the moral man1 
the complete man1  is more and more     
giving way1 almost without knowing it1  
to make room for  the political and the 
commercial man1 the man of the limited  
purpose4  ,this process1 aided by the   
wonderful progress in science1 is       
assuming  gigantic proportion and power1

 causing the upset of man's moral       
balance1  obscuring his human side under
 the shadow of soul-less organization4  
,we  have felt its iron grip at the root
 of our life1 and for the sake of       
humanity we must stand up and give      
warning to all1 that this nationalism   
is a cruel epidemic of evil that is     
sweeping over the human world of the    
present age1 and eating into its moral  
vitality4    ,i have a deep love and a  
great respect for the ,british race as  
human  beings4 ,it has produced         
great-hearted men1 thinkers of great    
thoughts1  doers of great deeds4 ,it has
 given rise to a great literature4 ,i   
know  that these people love justice and
 freedom1 and hate lies4 ,they are      
clean in their minds1 frank in their    
manners1 true in their friendships2  in 
their behaviour they are honest and     
reliable4 ,the personal experience      
which ,i have had of their literary men 
has roused my admiration not  merely for
 their power of thought or expression   

but for their chivalrous  humanity4 ,we 
have felt the greatness of this people  
as we feel the sun2  but as for the     
,nation1 it is for us a thick mist of a 
stifling nature  covering the sun       
itself4    ,this government by the      
,nation is neither ,british nor anything
 else2 it  is an applied science and    
therefore more or less similar in its   
principles wherever it is used4 ,it is  
like a hydraulic press1 whose  pressure 
is impersonal1 and on that account      
completely effective4 ,the  amount of   
its power may vary in different engines4
 ,some may even be  driven by hand1 thus
 leaving a margin of comfortable        
looseness in their  tension1 but in     
spirit and in method their differences  
are small4 ,our  government might have  
been ,dutch1 or ,french1 or ,portuguese1
 and its  essential features would have 
remained much the same as they are now4 
,only perhaps1 in some cases1 the       
organization might not have been so     
densely perfect1 and1 therefore1 some   

shreds of the human might still  have   
been clinging to the wreck1 allowing us 
to deal with something  which resembles 
our own throbbing heart4    ,before the 
,nation came to rule over us we had     
other governments which  were foreign1  
and these1 like all governments1 had    
some element of the  machine in them4   
,but the difference between them and the
 government by  the ,nation is like the 
difference between the hand-loom and the
  power-loom4 ,in the products of the   
hand-loom the magic of man's living     
fingers finds its expression1 and its   
hum harmonizes with the music of  life4 
,but the power-loom is relentlessly     
lifeless and accurate and  monotonous in
 its production4    ,we must admit that 
during the personal government of the   
former days  there have been instances  
of tyranny1 injustice and extortion4    
,they  caused sufferings and unrest from
 which we are glad to be rescued4 ,the  
protection of law is not only a boon1   
but it is a valuable lesson to us4  ,it 

is teaching us the discipline which is  
necessary for the stability of          
civilization and for continuity of      
progress4 ,we are realizing through it  
that there is a universal standard of   
justice to which all men1  irrespective 
of their caste and colour1 have their   
equal claim4    ,this reign of law in   
our present ,government in ,india has   
established  order in this vast land    
inhabited by peoples different in their 
races  and customs4 ,it has made it     
possible for these peoples to come in   
closer  touch with one another and      
cultivate a communion of aspiration4    
,but this desire for a common bond of   
comradeship among the different  races  
of ,india has been the work of the      
spirit of the ,west1 not that of  the   
,nation of the ,west4 ,wherever in ,asia
 the people have received the  true     
lesson of the ,west it is in spite of   
the ,western ,nation4 ,only  because    
,japan had been able to resist the      
dominance of this ,western  ,nation     

could she acquire the benefit of the    
,western ,civilization in  fullest      
measure4 ,though ,china has been        
poisoned at the very spring of  her     
moral and physical life by this ,nation1
 her struggle to receive the  best      
lessons of the ,west may yet be         
successful if not hindered by the       
,nation4 ,it was only the other day that
 ,persia woke up from her age-long      
sleep at the call of the ,west to be    
instantly trampled into stillness by    
the ,nation4 ,the same phenomenon       
prevails in this country also1 where the
  people are hospitable1 but the ,nation
 has proved itself to be  otherwise1    
making an ,eastern guest feel humiliated
 to stand before you  as a member of the
 humanity of his own motherland4    ,in 
,india we are suffering from this       
conflict between the spirit of the      
,west and the ,nation of the ,west4 ,the
 benefit of the ,western civilization   
is doled out to us in a miserly measure 
by the ,nation1 which tries to  regulate

 the degree of nutrition as near the    
zero-point of vitality as  possible4    
,the portion of education allotted to us
 is so raggedly  insufficient that it   
ought to outrage the sense of decency of
 a ,western  humanity4 ,we have seen in 
these countries how the people are      
encouraged  and trained and given every 
facility to fit themselves for the great
  movements of commerce and industry    
spreading over the world1 while in      
,india the only assistance we get is    
merely to be jeered at by the ,nation   
for lagging behind4 ,while depriving us 
of our opportunities and reducing  our  
education to the minimum required for   
conducting a foreign  government1 this  
,nation pacifies its conscience by      
calling us names1 by  sedulously giving 
currency to the arrogant cynicism that  
the ,east is  east and the ,west is west
 and never the twain shall meet4 ,if we 
must  believe our schoolmaster in his   
taunt that1 after nearly two centuries  
of his tutelage1 ,india not only remains

 unfit for self-government but  unable  
to display originality in her           
intellectual attainments1 must we       
ascribe it to something in the nature of
 ,western culture and our  inherent     
incapacity to receive it or to the      
judicious niggardliness of  the ,nation 
that has taken upon itself the white    
man's burden of  civilizing the ,east8  
,that ,japanese people have some        
qualities which we  lack we may admit1  
but that our intellect is naturally     
unproductive  compared to theirs we     
cannot accept even from them whom it is 
dangerous  for us to contradict4    ,the
 truth is that the spirit of conflict   
and conquest is at the origin  and in   
the centre of ,western nationalism2 its 
basis is not social  co-operation4 ,it  
has evolved a perfect organization of   
power1 but not  spiritual idealism4 ,it 
is like the pack of predatory creatures 
that must  have its victims4 ,with all  
its heart it cannot bear to see its     
hunting-grounds converted into          

cultivated fields4 ,in fact1 these      
nations  are fighting among themselves  
for the extension of their victims and  
their reserve forests4 ,therefore the   
,western ,nation acts like a dam to     
check the free flow of ,western         
civilization into the country of the    
,no-,nation4 ,because this civilization 
is the civilization of power1  therefore
 it is exclusive1 it is naturally       
unwilling to open its  sources of power 
to those whom it has selected for its   
purposes of  exploitation4    ,but all  
the same moral law is the law of        
humanity1 and the exclusive             
civilization which thrives upon others  
who are barred from its benefit  carries
 its own death-sentence in its moral    
limitations4 ,the slavery  that it gives
 rise to unconsciously drains its own   
love of freedom dry4  ,the helplessness 
with which it weighs down its world of  
victims exerts  its force of gravitation
 every moment upon the power that       
creates it4  ,and the greater part of   

the world which is being denuded of its 
self-sustaining life by the ,nation will
 one day become the most terrible  of   
all its burdens1 ready to drag it down  
into the bottom of  destruction4        
,whenever ,power removes all checks from
 its path to make its  career easy1 it  
triumphantly rides into its ultimate    
crash of death4 ,its  moral brake       
becomes slacker every day without its   
knowing it1 and its  slippery path of   
ease becomes its path of doom4    ,of   
all things in ,western civilization1    
those which this ,western ,nation  has  
given us in a most generous measure are 
law and order4 ,while the  small        
feeding-bottle of our education is      
nearly dry1 and sanitation  sucks its   
own thumb in despair1 the military      
organization1 the  magisterial offices1 
the police1 the ,criminal ,investigation
 ,department1  the secret spy system1   
attain to an abnormal girth in their    
waists1  occupying every inch of our    
country4 ,this is to maintain order4    

,but is  not this order merely a        
negative good8 ,is it not for giving    
people's  life greater opportunities for
 the freedom of development8 ,its       
perfection is the perfection of an      
egg-shell1 whose true value lies in  the
 security it affords to the chick and   
its nourishment and not in the          
convenience it offers to the person at  
the breakfast table4 ,mere              
administration is unproductive1 it is   
not creative1 not being a living  thing4
 ,it is a steam-roller1 formidable in   
its weight and power1 having  its uses1 
but it does not help the soil to become 
fertile4 ,when after  its enormous toil 
it comes to offer us its boon of peace  
we can but  murmur under our breath that
 peace is good1 but not more so than    
life1  which is ,god's own great boon4  
,on the other hand1 our former          
governments were woefully lacking in    
many  of the advantages of the modern   
government4 ,but because those were not 
the governments by the ,nation1 their   

texture was loosely woven1 leaving  big 
gaps through which our own life sent its
 threads and imposed its  designs4 ,i am
 quite sure in those days we had things 
that were extremely  distasteful to us4 
,but we know that when we walk          
barefooted upon ground  strewn with     
gravel1 our feet come gradually to      
adjust themselves to the  caprices of   
the inhospitable earth2 while if the    
tiniest particle of  gravel finds its   
lodgment inside our shoes we can never  
forget and  forgive its intrusion4 ,and 
these shoes are the government by the   
,nation1--it is tight1 it regulates our 
steps with a closed-up system1  within  
which our feet have only the slightest  
liberty to make their own  adjustments4 
,therefore1 when you produce your       
statistics to compare the  number of    
gravels which our feet had to encounter 
in former days with  the paucity in the 
present rgime1 they hardly touch the    
real points4 ,it  is not a question of  
the number of outside obstacles but the 

comparative  powerlessness of the       
individual to cope with them4 ,this     
narrowness of  freedom is an evil which 
is more radical1 not because of its     
quantity  but because of its nature4    
,and we cannot but acknowledge this     
paradox1  that while the spirit of the  
,west marches under its banner of       
freedom1  the ,nation of the ,west      
forges its iron chains of organization  
which are  the most relentless and      
unbreakable that have ever been         
manufactured in  the whole history of   
man4    ,when the humanity of ,india was
 not under the government of the        
,organization1 the elasticity of change 
was great enough to encourage men  of   
power and spirit to feel that they had  
their destinies in their own  hands4    
,the hope of the unexpected was never   
absent1 and a freer play of             
imagination1 on the part both of the    
governor and the governed1 had its      
effect in the making of history4 ,we    
were not confronted with a future1      

which was a dead white wall of granite  
blocks eternally guarding against  the  
expression and extension of our own     
powers1 the hopelessness of  which lies 
in the reason that these powers are     
becoming atrophied at  their very roots 
by the scientific process of paralysis4 
,for every  single individual in the    
country of the ,no-,nation is completely
 in the  grip of a whole nation1--whose 
tireless vigilance1 being the vigilance 
of a machine1 has not the human power to
 overlook or to discriminate4 ,at  the  
least pressing of its button the monster
 organization becomes all  eyes1 whose  
ugly stare of inquisitiveness cannot be 
avoided by a single  person amongst the 
immense multitude of the ruled4 ,at the 
least turn of  its screw1 by the        
fraction of an inch1 the grip is        
tightened to the  point of suffocation  
around every man1 woman and child of a  
vast  population1 for whom no escape is 
imaginable in their own country1 or     
even in any country outside their own4  

,it is the continual and stupendous dead
 pressure of this inhuman upon  the     
living human under which the modern     
world is groaning4 ,not merely  the     
subject races1 but you who live under   
the delusion that you are  free1 are    
every day sacrificing your freedom and  
humanity to this fetich  of nationalism1
 living in the dense poisonous          
atmosphere of world-wide  suspicion and 
greed and panic4    ,i have seen in     
,japan the voluntary submission of the  
whole people to the  trimming of their  
minds and clipping of their freedom by  
their  government1 which through various
 educational agencies regulates their   
thoughts1 manufactures their feelings1  
becomes suspiciously watchful  when they
 show signs of inclining toward the     
spiritual1 leading them  through a      
narrow path not toward what is true but 
what is necessary for  the complete     
welding of them into one uniform mass   
according to its own  recipe4 ,the      
people accept this all-pervading mental 

slavery with  cheerfulness and pride    
because of their nervous desire to turn 
themselves into a machine of power1     
called the ,nation1 and emulate other   
machines in their collective            
worldliness4    ,when questioned as to  
the wisdom of its course the newly      
converted  fanatic of nationalism       
answers that so long as nations are     
rampant in  this world we have not the  
option freely to develop our higher     
humanity4  ,we must utilize every       
faculty that we possess to resist the   
evil by  assuming it ourselves in the   
fullest degree4 ,for the only           
brotherhood  possible in the modern     
world is the brotherhood of hooliganism4
 ,the  recognition of the fraternal bond
 of love between ,japan and ,russia1    
which has lately been celebrated with an
 immense display of rejoicing in        
,japan1 was not owing to any sudden     
recrudescence of the spirit of          
,christianity or of ,buddhism1 but it   
was a bond established according to  the

 modern faith in a surer relationship of
 mutual menace of  bloodshedding4 ,yes1 
one cannot but acknowledge that these   
facts are the  facts of the world of the
 ,nation1 and the only moral of it is   
that all  the peoples of the earth      
should strain their physical1 moral and 
intellectual resources to the utmost to 
defeat one another in the  wrestling    
match of powerfulness4 ,in the ancient  
days ,sparta paid all  her attention to 
becoming powerful2 she did become so by 
crippling her  humanity1 and died of the
 amputation4    ,but it is no           
consolation to us to know that the      
weakening of humanity  from which the   
present age is suffering is not limited 
to the subject  races1 and that its     
ravages are even more radical because   
insidious and  voluntary in peoples who 
are hypnotized into believing that they 
are  free4 ,this bartering of your      
higher aspirations of life for profit   
and  power has been your own free       
choice1 and ,i leave you there1 at the  

wreckage of your soul1 contemplating    
your protuberant prosperity4 ,but  will 
you never be called to answer for       
organizing the instincts of             
self-aggrandizement of whole peoples    
into perfection and calling it  good8 ,i
 ask you what disaster has there ever   
been in the history of man1  in its     
darkest period1 like this terrible      
disaster of the ,nation fixing  its     
fangs deep into the naked flesh of the  
world1 taking permanent  precautions    
against its natural relaxation8    ,you1
 the people of the ,west1 who have      
manufactured this abnormality1 can  you 
imagine the desolating despair of this  
haunted world of suffering  man         
possessed by the ghastly abstraction of 
the organizing man8 ,can you  put       
yourself into the position of the       
peoples1 who seem to have been  doomed  
to an eternal damnation of their own    
humanity1 who not only must  suffer     
continual curtailment of their manhood1 
but even raise their  voices in pans of 

praise for the benignity of a mechanical
 apparatus in  its interminable parody  
of providence8    ,have you not seen1   
since the commencement of the existence 
of the  ,nation1 that the dread of it   
has been the one goblin-dread with which
  the whole world has been trembling8   
,wherever there is a dark corner1  there
 is the suspicion of its secret         
malevolence2 and people live in a       
perpetual distrust of its back where it 
has no eyes4 ,every sound of a          
footstep1 every rustle of movement in   
the neighbourhood1 sends a thrill  of   
terror all around4 ,and this terror is  
the parent of all that is base  in man's
 nature4 ,it makes one almost openly    
unashamed of inhumanity4  ,clever lies  
become matters of self-congratulation4  
,solemn pledges become  a               
farce1--laughable for their very        
solemnity4 ,the ,nation1 with all its   
paraphernalia of power and prosperity1  
its flags and pious hymns1 its          
blasphemous prayers in the churches1 and

 the literary mock thunders of  its     
patriotic bragging1 cannot hide the fact
 that the ,nation is the  greatest evil 
for the ,nation1 that all its           
precautions are against it1  and any new
 birth of its fellow in the world is    
always followed in its  mind by the     
dread of a new peril4 ,its one wish is  
to trade on the  feebleness of the rest 
of the world1 like some insects that are
 bred in  the paralysed flesh of victims
 kept just enough alive to make them    
toothsome and nutritious4 ,therefore it 
is ready to send its poisonous  fluid   
into the vitals of the other living     
peoples1 who1 not being  nations1 are   
harmless4 ,for this the ,nation has had 
and still has its  richest pasture in   
,asia4 ,great ,china1 rich with her     
ancient wisdom and  social ethics1 her  
discipline of industry and self-control1
 is like a  whale awakening the lust of 
spoil in the heart of the ,nation4 ,she 
is  already carrying in her quivering   
flesh harpoons sent by the unerring  aim

 of the ,nation1 the creature of science
 and selfishness4 ,her pitiful  attempt 
to shake off her traditions of humanity1
 her social ideals1 and  spend her last 
exhausted resources in drilling herself 
into modern  efficiency1 is thwarted at 
every step by the ,nation4 ,it is       
tightening  its financial ropes round   
her1 trying to drag her up on the shore 
and  cut her into pieces1 and then go   
and offer public thanksgiving to ,god   
for supporting the one existing evil and
 shattering the possibility of a  new   
one4 ,and for all this the ,nation has  
been claiming the gratitude of  history1
 and all eternity for its exploitation2 
ordering its band of  praise to be      
struck up from end to end of the world1 
declaring itself to  be the salt of the 
earth1 the flower of humanity1 the      
blessing of ,god  hurled with all ,his  
force upon the naked skulls of the world
 of  ,no-,nations4    ,i know what your 
advice will be4 ,you will say1 form     
yourselves into a  nation1 and resist   

this encroachment of the ,nation4 ,but  
is this the true  advice8 that of a man 
to a man8 ,why should this be a         
necessity8 ,i could  well believe you if
 you had said1 ,be more good1 more just1
 more true in  your relation to man1    
control your greed1 make your life      
wholesome in  its simplicity and let    
your consciousness of the divine in     
humanity be  more perfect in its        
expression4 ,but must you say that it is
 not the  soul1 but the machine1 which  
is of the utmost value to ourselves1 and
  that man's salvation depends upon his 
disciplining himself into a  perfection 
of the dead rhythm of wheels and        
counterwheels8 that machine  must be    
pitted against machine1 and nation      
against nation1 in an endless           
bull-fight of politics8    ,you say1    
these machines will come into an        
agreement1 for their mutual  protection1
 based upon a conspiracy of fear4 ,but  
will this federation  of steam-boilers  
supply you with a soul1 a soul which has

 her conscience  and her ,god8 ,what is 
to happen to that larger part of the    
world where  fear will have no hand in  
restraining you8 ,whatever safety they  
now  enjoy1 those countries of          
,no-,nation1 from the unbridled license 
of forge  and hammer and turn-screw1    
results from the mutual jealousy of the 
powers4 ,but when1 instead of being     
numerous separate machines1 they  become
 riveted into one organized             
gregariousness of gluttony1 commercial  
and political1 what remotest chance of  
hope will remain for those  others1 who 
have lived and suffered1 have loved and 
worshipped1 have  thought deeply and    
worked with meekness1 but whose only    
crime has been  that they have not      
organized8    ,but1 you say1 ,that does 
not matter1 the unfit must go to the    
wall--they  shall die1 and this is      
science4    ,no1 for the sake of your   
own salvation1 ,i say1 they shall live1 
and  this is truth4 ,it is extremely    
bold of me to say so1 but ,i assert that

  man's world is a moral world1 not     
because we blindly agree to believe  it1
 but because it is so in truth which    
would be dangerous for us to  ignore4   
,and this moral nature of man cannot be 
divided into convenient  compartments   
for its preservation4 ,you cannot secure
 it for your home  consumption with     
protective tariff walls1 while in       
foreign parts making  it enormously     
accommodating in its free trade of      
license4    ,has not this truth already 
come home to you now1 when this cruel   
war has  driven its claws into the      
vitals of ,europe8 when her hoard of    
wealth is  bursting into smoke and her  
humanity is shattered into bits on her  
battlefields8 ,you ask in amazement what
 has she done to deserve this8  ,the    
answer is1 that the ,west has been      
systematically petrifying her  moral    
nature in order to lay a solid          
foundation for her gigantic             
abstractions of efficiency4 ,she has all
 along been starving the life of  the   

personal man into that of the           
professional4    ,in your medival age in
 ,europe1 the simple and the natural    
man1 with all  his violent passions and 
desires1 was engaged in trying to find  
out a  reconciliation in the conflict   
between the flesh and the spirit4 ,all  
through the turbulent career of her     
vigorous youth the temporal and the     
spiritual forces both acted strongly    
upon her nature1 and were moulding  it  
into completeness of moral personality4 
,europe owes all her greatness  in      
humanity to that period of              
discipline1--the discipline of the man  
in  his human integrity4    ,then came  
the age of intellect1 of science4 ,we   
all know that intellect  is impersonal4 
,our life1 and our heart1 are one with  
us1 but our mind  can be detached from  
the personal man and then only can it   
freely move  in its world of thoughts4  
,our intellect is an ascetic who wears  
no  clothes1 takes no food1 knows no    
sleep1 has no wishes1 feels no love or  

hatred or pity for human limitations1   
who only reasons1 unmoved1 through  the 
vicissitudes of life4 ,it burrows to the
 roots of things1 because it  has no    
personal concern with the thing itself4 
,the grammarian walks  straight through 
all poetry and goes to the root of words
 without  obstruction1 because he is not
 seeking reality1 but law4 ,when he     
finds  the law1 he is able to teach     
people how to master words4 ,this is a  
power1--the power which fulfils some    
special usefulness1 some particular     
need of man4    ,reality is the harmony 
which gives to the component parts of a 
thing the  equilibrium of the whole4    
,you break it1 and have in your hands   
the  nomadic atoms fighting against one 
another1 therefore unmeaning4 ,those    
who covet power try to get mastery of   
these aboriginal fighting  elements1 and
 through some narrow channels force them
 into some violent  service for some    
particular needs of man4    ,this       
satisfaction of man's needs is a great  

thing4 ,it gives him freedom  in the    
material world4 ,it confers on him the  
benefit of a greater range  of time and 
space4 ,he can do things in a shorter   
time and occupies a  larger space with  
more thoroughness of advantage4         
,therefore he can  easily outstrip those
 who live in a world of a slower time   
and of space  less fully occupied4      
,this progress of power attains more and
 more rapidity of pace4 ,and1 for  the  
reason that it is a detached part of    
man1 it soon outruns the  complete      
humanity4 ,the moral man remains behind1
 because it has to deal  with the whole 
reality1 not merely with the law of     
things1 which is  impersonal and        
therefore abstract4    ,thus1 man with  
his mental and material power far       
outgrowing his moral  strength1 is like 
an exaggerated giraffe whose head has   
suddenly shot up  miles away from the   
rest of him1 making normal communication
 difficult  to establish4 ,this greedy  
head1 with its huge dental organization1

 has  been munching all the topmost     
foliage of the world1 but the           
nourishment  is too late in reaching his
 digestive organs1 and his heart is     
suffering from want of blood4 ,of this  
present disharmony in man's nature  the 
,west seems to have been blissfully     
unconscious4 ,the enormity of its       
material success has diverted all its   
attention toward  self-congratulation on
 its bulk4 ,the optimism of its logic   
goes on  basing the calculations of its 
good fortune upon the indefinite        
prolongation of its railway lines toward
 eternity4 ,it is superficial  enough to
 think that all to-morrows are merely   
to-days1 with the  repeated additions of
 twenty-four hours4 ,it has no fear of  
the chasm1  which is opening wider every
 day1 between man's ever-growing        
storehouses  and the emptiness of his   
hungry humanity4 ,logic does not know   
that1  under the lowest bed of endless  
strata of wealth and comforts1          
earthquakes are being hatched to restore

 the balance of the moral world1  and   
one day the gaping gulf of spiritual    
vacuity will draw into its  bottom the  
store of things that have their eternal 
love for the dust4    ,man in his       
fulness is not powerful1 but perfect4   
,therefore1 to turn him  into mere      
power1 you have to curtail his soul as  
much as possible4 ,when  we are fully   
human1 we cannot fly at one another's   
throats2 our  instincts of social life1 
our traditions of moral ideals stand in 
the  way4 ,if you want me to take to    
butchering human beings1 you must break 
up that wholeness of my humanity through
 some discipline which makes my  will   
dead1 my thoughts numb1 my movements    
automatic1 and then from the            
dissolution of the complex personal man 
will come out that abstraction1  that   
destructive force1 which has no relation
 to human truth1 and  therefore can be  
easily brutal or mechanical4 ,take away 
man from his  natural surroundings1 from
 the fulness of his communal life1 with 

all  its living associations of beauty  
and love and social obligations1 and    
you will be able to turn him into so    
many fragments of a machine for the     
production of wealth on a gigantic      
scale4 ,turn a tree into a log and it   
will burn for you1 but it will never    
bear living flowers and fruit4    ,this 
process of dehumanizing has been going  
on in commerce and politics4  ,and out  
of the long birth-throes of mechanical  
energy has been born this  fully        
developed apparatus of magnificent power
 and surprising appetite  which has been
 christened in the ,west as the ,nation4
 ,as ,i have hinted  before1 because of 
its quality of abstraction it has1 with 
the greatest  ease1 gone far ahead of   
the complete moral man4 ,and having the 
conscience of a ghost and the callous   
perfection of an automaton1 it is       
causing disasters of which the volcanic 
dissipations of the youthful  moon would
 be ashamed to be brought into          
comparison4 ,as a result1 the  suspicion

 of man for man stings all the limbs of 
this civilization like  the hairs of the
 nettle4 ,each country is casting its   
net of espionage  into the slimy bottom 
of the others1 fishing for their        
secrets1 the  treacherous secrets which 
brew in the oozy depths of diplomacy4   
,and what  is their secret service but  
the nation's underground trade in       
kidnapping1 murder and treachery and all
 the ugly crimes bred in the  depth of  
rottenness8 ,because each nation has its
 own history of thieving  and lies and  
broken faith1 therefore there can only  
flourish  international suspicion and   
jealousy1 and international moral shame 
becomes anmic to a degree of            
ludicrousness4 ,the nation's bagpipe of 
righteous indignation has so often      
changed its tune according to the       
variation of time and to the altered    
groupings of the alliances of           
diplomacy1 that it can be enjoyed with  
amusement as the variety  performance of
 the political music hall4    ,i am just

 coming from my visit to ,japan1 where  
,i exhorted this young  nation to take  
its stand upon the higher ideals of     
humanity and never  to follow the ,west 
in its acceptance of the organized      
selfishness of  ,nationalism as its     
religion1 never to gloat upon the       
feebleness of its  neighbours1 never to 
be unscrupulous in its behaviour to the 
weak1 where  it can be gloriously mean  
with impunity1 while turning its right  
cheek  of brighter humanity for the kiss
 of admiration to those who have the    
power to deal it a blow4 ,some of the   
newspapers praised my utterances  for   
their poetical qualities1 while adding  
with a leer that it was the  poetry of a
 defeated people4 ,i felt they were     
right4 ,japan had been  taught in a     
modern school the lesson how to become  
powerful4 ,the  schooling is done and   
she must enjoy the fruits of her        
lessons4 ,the ,west  in the voice of her
 thundering cannon had said at the door 
of ,japan1 ,let  there be a nation--and 

there was a ,nation4 ,and now that it   
has come  into existence1 why do you not
 feel in your heart of hearts a pure    
feeling of gladness and say that it is  
good8 ,why is it that ,i saw in an      
,english paper an expression of         
bitterness at ,japan's boasting of her  
superiority of civilization--the thing  
that the ,british1 along with  other    
nations1 has been carrying on for ages  
without blushing8 ,because  the idealism
 of selfishness must keep itself drunk  
with a continual dose  of               
self-laudation4 ,but the same vices     
which seem so natural and  innocuous in 
its own life make it surprised and angry
 at their  unpleasantness when seen in  
other nations4 ,therefore1 when you see 
the  ,japanese nation1 created in your  
own image1 launched in its career of    
national boastfulness you shake your    
head and say1 it is not good4 ,has  it  
not been one of the causes that raise   
the cry on these shores for             
preparedness to meet one more power of  

evil with a greater power of  injury8   
,japan protests that she has her        
bushido1 that she can never be          
treacherous to ,america1 to whom she    
owes her gratitude4 ,but you find it    
difficult to believe her1--for the      
wisdom of the ,nation is not in its     
faith in humanity but in its complete   
distrust4 ,you say to yourself that  it 
is not with ,japan of the bushido1 the  
,japan of the moral ideals1  that you   
have to deal--it is with the abstraction
 of the popular  selfishness1 it is with
 the ,nation2 and ,nation can only trust
 ,nation  where their interests         
coalesce1 or at least do not conflict4  
,in fact  your instinct tells you that  
the advent of another people into the   
arena  of nationality makes another     
addition to the evil which contradicts  
all  that is highest in ,man and proves 
by its success that unscrupulousness  is
 the way to prosperity1--and goodness is
 good for the weak and ,god is  the only
 remaining consolation of the defeated4 

,yes1 this is the logic of the ,nation4 
,and it will never heed the voice  of   
truth and goodness4 ,it will go on in   
its ring-dance of moral  corruption1    
linking steel unto steel1 and machine   
unto machine2  trampling under its tread
 all the sweet flowers of simple faith  
and the  living ideals of man4    ,but  
we delude ourselves into thinking that  
humanity in the modern days  is more to 
the front than ever before4 ,the reason 
of this self-delusion  is because man is
 served with the necessaries of life in 
greater  profusion1 and his physical    
ills are being alleviated with more     
efficacy4 ,but the chief part of this is
 done1 not by moral sacrifice1  but by  
intellectual power4 ,in quantity it is  
great1 but it springs from  the surface 
and spreads over the surface4 ,knowledge
 and efficiency are  powerful in their  
outward effect1 but they are the        
servants of man1 not  the man himself4  
,their service is like the service in a 
hotel1 where it  is elaborate1 but the  

host is absent2 it is more convenient   
than  hospitable4    ,therefore we must 
not forget that the scientific          
organizations vastly  spreading in all  
directions are strengthening our power1 
but not our  humanity4 ,with the growth 
of power the cult of the self-worship of
 the  ,nation grows in ascendancy2 and  
the individual willingly allows the     
,nation to take donkey-rides upon his   
back2 and there happens the anomaly     
which must have such disastrous effects1
 that the individual worships  with all 
sacrifices a god which is morally much  
inferior to himself4  ,this could never 
have been possible if the god had been  
as real as the  individual4    ,let me  
give an illustration of this in point4  
,in some parts of ,india it  has been   
enjoined as an act of great piety for a 
widow to go without  food and water on a
 particular day every fortnight4 ,this  
often leads to  cruelty1 unmeaning and  
inhuman4 ,and yet men are not by nature 
cruel to  such a degree4 ,but this piety

 being a mere unreal abstraction        
completely  deadens the moral sense of  
the individual1 just as the man1 who    
would  not hurt an animal unnecessarily1
 would cause horrible suffering to a    
large number of innocent creatures when 
he drugs his feelings with the  abstract
 idea of sport4 ,because these ideas are
 the creations of our  intellect1       
because they are logical                
classifications1 therefore they can  so 
easily hide in their mist the personal  
man4    ,and the idea of the ,nation is 
one of the most powerful ansthetics that
  man has invented4 ,under the influence
 of its fumes the whole people can      
carry out its systematic programme of   
the most virulent self-seeking  without 
being in the least aware of its moral   
perversion1--in fact  feeling           
dangerously resentful if it is pointed  
out4    ,but can this go on             
indefinitely8 continually producing     
barrenness of  moral insensibility upon 
a large tract of our living nature8 ,can

 it  escape its nemesis for ever8 ,has  
this giant power of mechanical          
organization no limit in this world     
against which it may shatter itself  all
 the more completely because of its     
terrible strength and velocity8  ,do you
 believe that evil can be permanently   
kept in check by competition  with evil1
 and that conference of prudence can    
keep the devil chained in  its makeshift
 cage of mutual agreement8    ,this     
,european war of ,nations is the war of 
retribution4 ,man1 the person1  must    
protest for his very life against the   
heaping up of things where  there should
 be the heart1 and systems and policies 
where there should  flow living human   
relationship4 ,the time has come when1  
for the sake of  the whole outraged     
world1 ,europe should fully know in her 
own person the  terrible absurdity of   
the thing called the ,nation4    ,the   
,nation has thriven long upon mutilated 
humanity4 ,men1 the fairest  creations  
of ,god1 came out of the ,national      

manufactory in huge numbers  as         
war-making and money-making puppets1    
ludicrously vain of their  pitiful      
perfection of mechanism4 ,human society 
grew more and more into a  marionette   
show of politicians1 soldiers1          
manufacturers and bureaucrats1  pulled  
by wire arrangements of wonderful       
efficiency4    ,but the apotheosis of   
selfishness can never make its          
interminable breed  of hatred and greed1
 fear and hypocrisy1 suspicion and      
tyranny1 an end  in themselves4 ,these  
monsters grow into huge shapes but never
 into  harmony4 ,and this ,nation may   
grow on to an unimaginable corpulence1  
not  of a living body1 but of steel and 
steam and office buildings1 till its    
deformity can contain no longer its ugly
 voluminousness1--till it begins  to    
crack and gape1 breathe gas and fire in 
gasps1 and its death-rattles  sound in  
cannon roars4 ,in this war the          
death-throes of the ,nation have        
commenced4 ,suddenly1 all its mechanism 

going mad1 it has begun the dance  of   
the ,furies1 shattering its own limbs1  
scattering them into the dust4  ,it is  
the fifth act of the tragedy of the     
unreal4    ,those who have any faith in 
,man cannot but fervently hope that the 
tyranny of the ,nation will not be      
restored to all its former teeth and    
claws1 to its far-reaching iron arms and
 its immense inner cavity1 all  stomach 
and no heart2 that man will have his new
 birth1 in the freedom  of his          
individuality1 from the enveloping      
vagueness of abstraction4    ,the veil  
has been raised1 and in this frightful  
war the ,west has stood  face to face   
with her own creation1 to which she had 
offered her soul4  ,she must know what  
it truly is4    ,she had never let      
herself suspect what slow decay and     
decomposition were  secretly going on in
 her moral nature1 which often broke out
 in  doctrines of scepticism1 but still 
oftener and in still more dangerously   
subtle manner showed itself in her      

unconsciousness of the mutilation and   
insult that she had been inflicting upon
 a vast part of the world4 ,now  she    
must know the truth nearer home4    ,and
 then there will come from her own      
children those who will break           
themselves free from the slavery of this
 illusion1 this perversion of           
brotherhood founded upon self-seeking1  
those who will own themselves as  ,god's
 children and as no bond-slaves of      
machinery1 which turns souls  into      
commodities and life into compartments1 
which1 with its iron  claws1 scratches  
out the heart of the world and knows not
 what it has  done4    ,and we of no    
nations of the world1 whose heads have  
been bowed to the  dust1 will know that 
this dust is more sacred than the bricks
 which  build the pride of power4 ,for  
this dust is fertile of life1 and of    
beauty and worship4 ,we shall thank ,god
 that we were made to wait in  silence  
through the night of despair1 had to    
bear the insult of the  proud and the   

strong man's burden1 yet all through it1
 though our hearts  quaked with doubt   
and fear1 never could we blindly believe
 in the  salvation which machinery      
offered to man1 but we held fast to our 
trust  in ,god and the truth of the     
human soul4 ,and we can still cherish   
the  hope that1 when power becomes      
ashamed to occupy its throne and is     
ready  to make way for love1 when the   
morning comes for cleansing the         
blood-stained steps of the ,nation along
 the highroad of humanity1 we  shall be 
called upon to bring our own vessel of  
sacred water--the water  of worship--to 
sweeten the history of man into purity1 
and with its  sprinkling make the       
trampled dust of the centuries blessed  
with  fruitfulness4                     
,,nationalism ,,in ,,japan      ,i      
,the worst form of bondage is the       
bondage of dejection1 which keeps men   
hopelessly chained in loss of faith in  
themselves4 ,we have been  repeatedly   
told1 with some justification1 that     

,asia lives in the  past1--it is like a 
rich mausoleum which displays all its   
magnificence  in trying to immortalize  
the dead4 ,it was said of ,asia that it 
could  never move in the path of        
progress1 its face was so inevitably    
turned  backwards4 ,we accepted this    
accusation1 and came to believe it4 ,in 
,india1 ,i know1 a large section of our 
educated community1 grown tired of      
feeling the humiliation of this charge  
against us1 is trying all its  resources
 of self-deception to turn it into a    
matter of boasting4 ,but  boasting is   
only a masked shame1 it does not truly  
believe in itself4    ,when things stood
 still like this1 and we in ,asia       
hypnotized ourselves  into the belief   
that it could never by any possibility  
be otherwise1  ,japan rose from her     
dreams1 and in giant strides left       
centuries of  inaction behind1          
overtaking the present time in its      
foremost  achievement4 ,this has broken 
the spell under which we lay in torpor  

for  ages1 taking it to be the normal   
condition of certain races living in    
certain geographical limits4 ,we forgot 
that in ,asia great kingdoms were       
founded1 philosophy1 science1 arts and  
literatures flourished1 and all  the    
great religions of the world had their  
cradles4 ,therefore it cannot  be said  
that there is anything inherent in the  
soil and climate of ,asia  to produce   
mental inactivity and to atrophy the    
faculties which impel  men to go        
forward4 ,for centuries we did hold     
torches of civilization in  the ,east   
when the ,west slumbered in darkness1   
and that could never be  the sign of    
sluggish mind or narrowness of vision4  
,then fell the darkness of night upon   
all the lands of the ,east4 ,the        
current of time seemed to stop at once1 
and ,asia ceased to take any new  food1 
feeding upon its own past1 which is     
really feeding upon itself4  ,the       
stillness seemed like death1 and the    
great voice was silenced which  sent    

forth messages of eternal truth that    
have saved man's life from  pollution   
for generations1 like the ocean of air  
that keeps the earth  sweet1 ever       
cleansing its impurities4    ,but life  
has its sleep1 its periods of           
inactivity1 when it loses its           
movements1 takes no new food1 living    
upon its past storage4 ,then it  grows  
helpless1 its muscles relaxed1 and it   
easily lends itself to be  jeered at for
 its stupor4 ,in the rhythm of life1    
pauses there must be  for the renewal of
 life4 ,life in its activity is ever    
spending itself1  burning all its fuel4 
,this extravagance cannot go on         
indefinitely1 but  is always followed by
 a passive stage1 when all expenditure  
is stopped  and all adventures abandoned
 in favour of rest and slow             
recuperation4    ,the tendency of mind  
is economical1 it loves to form habits  
and move in  grooves which save it the  
trouble of thinking anew at each of its 
steps4  ,ideals once formed make the    

mind lazy4 ,it becomes afraid to risk   
its  acquisitions in fresh endeavours4  
,it tries to enjoy complete security by 
shutting up its belongings behind       
fortifications of habits4 ,but this is  
really shutting oneself up from the     
fullest enjoyment of one's own          
possessions4 ,it is miserliness4 ,the   
living ideals must not lose their  touch
 with the growing and changing life4    
,their real freedom is not  within the  
boundaries of security1 but in the      
highroad of adventures1  full of the    
risk of new experiences4    ,one morning
 the whole world looked up in surprise  
when ,japan broke  through her walls of 
old habits in a night and came out      
triumphant4 ,it  was done in such an    
incredibly short time that it seemed    
like a change  of dress and not like the
 building up of a new structure4 ,she   
showed the  confident strength of       
maturity1 and the freshness and infinite
  potentiality of new life at the same  
moment4 ,the fear was entertained  that 

it was a mere freak of history1 a       
child's game of ,time1 the blowing  up  
of a soap-bubble1 perfect in its rondure
 and colouring1 hollow in its  heart and
 without substance4 ,but ,japan has     
proved conclusively that this  sudden   
revealment of her power is not a        
short-lived wonder1 a chance  product of
 time and tide1 thrown up from the depth
 of obscurity to be  swept away the next
 moment into the sea of oblivion4       
,the truth is that ,japan is old and new
 at the same time4 ,she has her  legacy 
of ancient culture from the ,east1--the 
culture that enjoins man  to look for   
his true wealth and power in his inner  
soul1 the culture  that gives           
self-possession in the face of loss and 
danger1  self-sacrifice without counting
 the cost or hoping for gain1 defiance  
of death1 acceptance of countless social
 obligations that we owe to men  as     
social beings4 ,in a word1 modern ,japan
 has come out of the immemorial  ,east  
like a lotus blossoming in easy grace1  

all the while keeping its  firm hold    
upon the profound depth from which it   
has sprung4    ,and ,japan1 the child of
 the ,ancient ,east1 has also fearlessly
 claimed  all the gifts of the modern   
age for herself4 ,she has shown her bold
  spirit in breaking through the        
confinements of habits1 useless         
accumulations of the lazy mind1 which   
seeks safety in its thrift and its      
locks and keys4 ,thus she has come in   
contact with the living time and  has   
accepted with eagerness and aptitude the
 responsibilities of modern             
civilization4    ,this it is which has  
given heart to the rest of ,asia4 ,we   
have seen that  the life and the        
strength are there in us1 only the dead 
crust has to be  removed4 ,we have seen 
that taking shelter in the dead is death
 itself1  and only taking all the risk  
of life to the fullest extent is living4
    ,i1 for myself1 cannot believe that 
,japan has become what she is by        
imitating the ,west4 ,we cannot imitate 

life1 we cannot simulate strength  for  
long1 nay1 what is more1 a mere         
imitation is a source of weakness4  ,for
 it hampers our true nature1 it is      
always in our way4 ,it is like  dressing
 our skeleton with another man's skin1  
giving rise to eternal  feuds between   
the skin and the bones at every         
movement4    ,the real truth is that    
science is not man's nature1 it is mere 
knowledge  and training4 ,by knowing the
 laws of the material universe you do   
not  change your deeper humanity4 ,you  
can borrow knowledge from others1 but   
you cannot borrow temperament4    ,but  
at the imitative stage of our schooling 
we cannot distinguish  between the      
essential and the non-essential1 between
 what is  transferable and what is not4 
,it is something like the faith of the  
primitive mind in the magical properties
 of the accidents of outward  forms     
which accompany some real truth4 ,we are
 afraid of leaving out  something       
valuable and efficacious by not         

swallowing the husk with the  kernel4   
,but while our greed delights in        
wholesale appropriation1 it is  the     
function of our vital nature to         
assimilate1 which is the only true      
appropriation for a living organism4    
,where there is life it is sure to      
assert itself by its choice of          
acceptance and refusal according to its 
constitutional necessity4 ,the living   
organism does not allow itself to  grow 
into its food1 it changes its food into 
its own body4 ,and only thus  can it    
grow strong and not by mere             
accumulation1 or by giving up its       
personal identity4    ,japan has        
imported her food from the ,west1 but   
not her vital nature4  ,japan cannot    
altogether lose and merge herself in the
 scientific  paraphernalia she has      
acquired from the ,west and be turned   
into a mere  borrowed machine4 ,she has 
her own soul1 which must assert itself  
over  all her requirements4 ,that she is
 capable of doing so1 and that the      

process of assimilation is going on1    
have been amply proved by the signs  of 
vigorous health that she exhibits4 ,and 
,i earnestly hope that ,japan  may never
 lose her faith in her own soul1 in the 
mere pride of her  foreign acquisition4 
,for that pride itself is a humiliation1
 ultimately  leading to poverty and     
weakness4 ,it is the pride of the fop   
who sets  more store on his new         
headdress than on his head itself4      
,the whole world waits to see what this 
great ,eastern nation is going to  do   
with the opportunities and              
responsibilities she has accepted from  
the  hands of the modern time4 ,if it be
 a mere reproduction of the ,west1 then 
the great expectation she has raised    
will remain unfulfilled4 ,for there  are
 grave questions that the ,western      
civilization has presented before  the  
world but not completely answered4 ,the 
conflict between the  individual and the
 state1 labour and capital1 the man and 
the woman2 the  conflict between the    

greed of material gain and the spiritual
 life of  man1 the organized selfishness
 of nations and the higher ideals of    
humanity2 the conflict between all the  
ugly complexities inseparable  from     
giant organizations of commerce and     
state and the natural instincts  of man 
crying for simplicity and beauty and    
fulness of leisure1--all  these have to 
be brought to a harmony in a manner not 
yet dreamt of4    ,we have seen this    
great stream of civilization choking    
itself from  dbris carried by its       
innumerable channels4 ,we have seen that
 with all  its vaunted love of humanity 
it has proved itself the greatest menace
 to  ,man1 far worse than the sudden    
outbursts of nomadic barbarism from     
which  men suffered in the early ages of
 history4 ,we have seen that1 in spite  
of its boasted love of freedom1 it has  
produced worse forms of slavery  than   
ever were current in earlier            
societies1--slavery whose chains are    
unbreakable1 either because they are    

unseen1 or because they assume the      
names and appearance of freedom4 ,we    
have seen1 under the spell of its       
gigantic sordidness1 man losing faith in
 all the heroic ideals of life  which   
have made him great4    ,therefore you  
cannot with a light heart accept the    
modern civilization  with all its       
tendencies1 methods and structures1 and 
dream that they are  inevitable4 ,you   
must apply your ,eastern mind1 your     
spiritual strength1  your love of       
simplicity1 your recognition of social  
obligation1 in order  to cut out a new  
path for this great unwieldy car of     
progress1 shrieking  out its loud       
discords as it runs4 ,you must minimize 
the immense  sacrifice of man's life and
 freedom that it claims in its every    
movement4 ,for generations you have felt
 and thought and worked1 have  enjoyed  
and worshipped in your own special      
manner2 and this cannot be  cast off    
like old clothes4 ,it is in your blood1 
in the marrow of your  bones1 in the    

texture of your flesh1 in the tissue of 
your brains2 and  it must modify        
everything you lay your hands upon1     
without your knowing1  even against your
 wishes4 ,once you did solve the        
problems of man to your  own            
satisfaction1 you had your philosophy of
 life and evolved your own  art of      
living4 ,all this you must apply to the 
present situation1 and out  of it will  
arise a new creation and not a mere     
repetition1 a creation  which the soul  
of your people will own for itself and  
proudly offer to  the world as its      
tribute to the welfare of man4 ,of all  
countries in  ,asia1 here in ,japan you 
have the freedom to use the materials   
you have  gathered from the ,west       
according to your genius and your need4 
,therefore  your responsibility is all  
the greater1 for in your voice ,asia    
shall  answer the questions that ,europe
 has submitted to the conference of     
,man4  ,in your land the experiments    
will be carried on by which the ,east   

will  change the aspects of modern      
civilization1 infusing life in it where 
it  is a machine1 substituting the human
 heart for cold expediency1 not  caring 
so much for power and success as for    
harmonious and living  growth1 for truth
 and beauty4    ,i cannot but bring to  
your mind those days when the whole of  
,eastern  ,asia from ,burma to ,japan   
was united with ,india in the closest   
tie of  friendship1 the only natural tie
 which can exist between nations4 ,there
  was a living communication of hearts1 
a nervous system evolved through  which 
messages ran between us about the       
deepest needs of humanity4 ,we  did not 
stand in fear of each other1 we had not 
to arm ourselves to keep  each other in 
check2 our relation was not that of     
self-interest1 of  exploration and      
spoliation of each other's pockets2     
ideas and ideals  were exchanged1 gifts 
of the highest love were offered and    
taken2 no  difference of languages and  
customs hindered us in approaching each 

other heart to heart2 no pride of race  
or insolent consciousness of            
superiority1 physical or mental1 marred 
our relation2 our arts and  literatures 
put forth new leaves and flowers under  
the influence of this  sunlight of      
united hearts2 and races belonging to   
different lands and  languages and      
histories acknowledged the highest unity
 of man and the  deepest bond of love4  
,may we not also remember that in those 
days of  peace and goodwill1 of men     
uniting for those supreme ends of life1 
your  nature laid by for itself the balm
 of immortality which has helped your   
people to be born again in a new age1 to
 be able to survive its old  outworn    
structures and take on a new young body1
 to come out unscathed  from the shock  
of the most wonderful revolution that   
the world has ever  seen8    ,the       
political civilization which has sprung 
up from the soil of ,europe  and is     
overrunning the whole world1 like some  
prolific weed1 is based  upon           

exclusiveness4 ,it is always watchful to
 keep the aliens at bay or  to          
exterminate them4 ,it is carnivorous and
 cannibalistic in its  tendencies1 it   
feeds upon the resources of other       
peoples and tries to  swallow their     
whole future4 ,it is always afraid of   
other races achieving  eminence1 naming 
it as a peril1 and tries to thwart all  
symptoms of  greatness outside its own  
boundaries1 forcing down races of men   
who are  weaker1 to be eternally fixed  
in their weakness4 ,before this         
political  civilization came to its     
power and opened its hungry jaws wide   
enough to  gulp down great continents of
 the earth1 we had wars1 pillages1      
changes  of monarchy and consequent     
miseries1 but never such a sight of     
fearful  and hopeless voracity1 such    
wholesale feeding of nation upon nation1
  such huge machines for turning great  
portions of the earth into  mince-meat1 
never such terrible jealousies with all 
their ugly teeth and  claws ready for   

tearing open each other's vitals4 ,this 
political  civilization is scientific1  
not human4 ,it is powerful because it   
concentrates all its forces upon one    
purpose1 like a millionaire  acquiring  
money at the cost of his soul4 ,it      
betrays its trust1 it weaves  its meshes
 of lies without shame1 it enshrines    
gigantic idols of greed  in its temples1
 taking great pride in the costly       
ceremonials of its  worship1 calling    
this patriotism4 ,and it can be safely  
prophesied that  this cannot go on1 for 
there is a moral law in this world which
 has its  application both to           
individuals and to organized bodies of  
men4 ,you  cannot go on violating these 
laws in the name of your nation1 yet    
enjoy  their advantage as individuals4  
,this public sapping of ethical ideals  
slowly reacts upon each member of       
society1 gradually breeding weakness1   
where it is not seen1 and causing that  
cynical distrust of all things  sacred  
in human nature1 which is the true      

symptom of senility4 ,you must  keep in 
mind that this political civilization1  
this creed of national  patriotism1 has 
not been given a long trial4 ,the lamp  
of ancient ,greece  is extinct in the   
land where it was first lighted1 the    
power of ,rome  lies dead and buried    
under the ruins of its vast empire4 ,but
 the  civilization1 whose basis is      
society and the spiritual ideal of man1 
is  still a living thing in ,china and  
in ,india4 ,though it may look feeble   
and small1 judged by the standard of the
 mechanical power of modern  days1 yet  
like small seeds it still contains life 
and will sprout and  grow1 and spread   
its beneficent branches1 producing      
flowers and fruits  when its time comes 
and showers of grace descend upon it    
from heaven4  ,but ruins of sky-scrapers
 of power and broken machinery of greed1
 even  ,god's rain is powerless to raise
 up again2 for they were not of life1   
but went against life as a whole1--they 
are relics of the rebellion that        

shattered itself to pieces against the  
eternal4    ,but the charge is brought  
against us that the ideals we cherish in
 the  ,east are static1 that they have  
not the impetus in them to move1 to open
  out new vistas of knowledge and power1
 that the systems of philosophy  which  
are the mainstays of the time-worn      
civilizations of the ,east  despise all 
outward proofs1 remaining stolidly      
satisfied in their  subjective          
certainty4 ,this proves that when our   
knowledge is vague we  are apt to accuse
 of vagueness our object of knowledge   
itself4 ,to a  ,western observer our    
civilization appears as all metaphysics1
 as to a  deaf man piano-playing appears
 to be mere movements of fingers and no 
music4 ,he cannot think that we have    
found some deep basis of reality  upon  
which we have built our institutions4   
,unfortunately all proofs of reality are
 in realization4 ,the reality of  the   
scene before you depends only upon the  
fact that you can see1 and it  is       

difficult for us to prove to an         
unbeliever that our civilization is  not
 a nebulous system of abstract          
speculations1 that it has achieved      
something which is a positive truth1--a 
truth that can give man's heart  its    
shelter and sustenance4 ,it has evolved 
an inner sense1--a sense of  vision1 the
 vision of the infinite reality in all  
finite things4    ,but he says1 ,you do 
not make any progress1 there is no      
movement in  you4 ,i ask him1 ,how do   
you know it8 ,you have to judge progress
  according to its aim4 ,a railway train
 makes its progress towards the         
terminus station1--it is movement4 ,but 
a full-grown tree has no definite       
movement of that kind1 its progress is  
the inward progress of life4 ,it  lives1
 with its aspiration towards light      
tingling in its leaves and  creeping in 
its silent sap4    ,we also have lived  
for centuries1 we still live1 and we    
have our  aspiration for a reality that 
has no end to its realization1--a       

reality  that goes beyond death1 giving 
it a meaning1 that rises above all evils
  of life1 bringing its peace and       
purity1 its cheerful renunciation of    
self4 ,the product of this inner life is
 a living product4 ,it will be  needed  
when the youth returns home weary and   
dust-laden1 when the  soldier is        
wounded1 when the wealth is squandered  
away and pride is  humbled1 when man's  
heart cries for truth in the immensity  
of facts and  harmony in the            
contradiction of tendencies4 ,its value 
is not in its  multiplication of        
materials1 but in its spiritual         
fulfilment4    ,there are things that   
cannot wait4 ,you have to rush and run  
and march if  you must fight or take the
 best place in the market4 ,you strain  
your  nerves and are on the alert when  
you chase opportunities that are always 
on the wing4 ,but there are ideals which
 do not play hide-and-seek with  our    
life2 they slowly grow from seed to     
flower1 from flower to fruit2  they     

require infinite space and heaven's     
light to mature1 and the fruits  that   
they produce can survive years of insult
 and neglect4 ,the ,east with  her      
ideals1 in whose bosom are stored the   
ages of sunlight and silence  of stars1 
can patiently wait till the ,west1      
hurrying after the  expedient1 loses    
breath and stops4 ,europe1 while busily 
speeding to her  engagements1           
disdainfully casts her glance from her  
carriage window at  the reaper reaping  
his harvest in the field1 and in her    
intoxication of  speed cannot but think 
him as slow and ever receding backwards4
 ,but the  speed comes to its end1 the  
engagement loses its meaning and the    
hungry  heart clamours for food1 till at
 last she comes to the lowly reaper     
reaping his harvest in the sun4 ,for if 
the office cannot wait1 or the  buying  
and selling1 or the craving for         
excitement1 love waits and  beauty and  
the wisdom of suffering and the fruits  
of patient devotion  and reverent       

meekness of simple faith4 ,and thus     
shall wait the ,east till  her time     
comes4    ,i must not hesitate to       
acknowledge where ,europe is great1 for 
great she  is without doubt4 ,we cannot 
help loving her with all our heart1 and 
paying her the best homage of our       
admiration1--the ,europe who1 in her    
literature and art1 pours out an        
inexhaustible cascade of beauty and     
truth fertilizing all countries and all 
time2 the ,europe who1 with a  mind     
which is titanic in its untiring power1 
is sweeping the height and  the depth of
 the universe1 winning her homage of    
knowledge from the  infinitely great and
 the infinitely small1 applying all the 
resources of  her great intellect and   
heart in healing the sick and           
alleviating those  miseries of man which
 up till now we were contented to accept
 in a  spirit of hopeless resignation2  
the ,europe who is making the earth     
yield  more fruit than seemed possible1 
coaxing and compelling the great forces 

of nature into man's service4 ,such true
 greatness must have its motive  power  
in spiritual strength4 ,for only the    
spirit of man can defy all  limitations1
 have faith in its ultimate success1    
throw its search-light  beyond the      
immediate and the apparent1 gladly      
suffer martyrdom for ends  which cannot 
be achieved in its lifetime and accept  
failure without  acknowledging defeat4  
,in the heart of ,europe runs the purest
 stream of  human love1 of love of      
justice1 of spirit of self-sacrifice for
 higher  ideals4 ,the ,christian culture
 of centuries has sunk deep in her      
life's  core4 ,in ,europe we have seen  
noble minds who have ever stood up for  
the  rights of man irrespective of      
colour and creed2 who have braved       
calumny  and insult from their own      
people in fighting for humanity's cause 
and  raising their voices against the   
mad orgies of militarism1 against the   
rage for brutal retaliation or rapacity 
that sometimes takes possession  of a   

whole people2 who are always ready to   
make reparation for wrongs  done in the 
past by their own nations and vainly    
attempt to stem the  tide of cowardly   
injustice that flows unchecked because  
the resistance  is weak and innocuous on
 the part of the injured4 ,there are    
these  knight-errants of modern ,europe 
who have not lost their faith in the    
disinterested love of freedom1 in the   
ideals which own no geographical        
boundaries or national self-seeking4    
,these are there to prove that the      
fountainhead of the water of everlasting
 life has not run dry in ,europe1  and  
from thence she will have her rebirth   
time after time4 ,only there1  where    
,europe is too consciously busy in      
building up her power1 defying  her     
deeper nature and mocking it1 she is    
heaping up her iniquities to  the sky1  
crying for ,god's vengeance and         
spreading the infection of  ugliness1   
physical and moral1 over the face of the
 earth with her  heartless commerce     

heedlessly outraging man's sense of the 
beautiful and  the good4 ,europe is     
supremely good in her beneficence where 
her face is  turned to all humanity2 and
 ,europe is supremely evil in her       
maleficent  aspect where her face is    
turned only upon her own interest1 using
 all  her power of greatness for ends   
which are against the infinite and the  
eternal in ,man4    ,eastern ,asia has  
been pursuing its own path1 evolving its
 own  civilization1 which was not       
political but social1 not predatory and 
mechanically efficient but spiritual and
 based upon all the varied and  deeper  
relations of humanity4 ,the solutions of
 the life problems of  peoples were     
thought out in seclusion and carried out
 behind the  security of aloofness1     
where all the dynastic changes and      
foreign  invasions hardly touched them4 
,but now we are overtaken by the outside
  world1 our seclusion is lost for ever4
 ,yet this we must not regret1 as a     
plant should never regret when the      

obscurity of its seed-time is  broken4  
,now the time has come when we must make
 the world problem our  own problem2 we 
must bring the spirit of our            
civilization into harmony  with the     
history of all nations of the earth2 we 
must not1 in foolish  pride1 still keep 
ourselves fast within the shell of the  
seed and the  crust of the earth which  
protected and nourished our ideals2 for 
these1  the shell and the crust1 were   
meant to be broken1 so that life may    
spring up in all its vigour and beauty1 
bringing its offerings to the  world in 
open light4    ,in this task of breaking
 the barrier and facing the world ,japan
 has come  out the first in the ,east4  
,she has infused hope in the heart of   
all  ,asia4 ,this hope provides the     
hidden fire which is needed for all     
works  of creation4 ,asia now feels that
 she must prove her life by producing   
living work1 she must not lie passively 
dormant1 or feebly imitate the  ,west1  
in the infatuation of fear or flattery4 

,for this we offer our  thanks to this  
,land of the ,rising ,sun and solemnly  
ask her to remember  that she has the   
mission of the ,east to fulfil4 ,she    
must infuse the sap  of a fuller        
humanity into the heart of modern       
civilization4 ,she must  never allow it 
to get choked with the noxious          
undergrowth1 but lead it  up towards    
light and freedom1 towards the pure air 
and broad space1  where it can receive1 
in the dawn of its day and the darkness 
of its  night1 heaven's inspiration4    
,let the greatness of her ideals become 
visible to all men like her snow-crowned
 ,fuji rising from the heart of  the    
country into the region of the infinite1
 supremely distinct from its            
surroundings1 beautiful like a maiden in
 its magnificent sweep of curve1  yet   
firm and strong and serenely majestic4  
,,ii    ,i have travelled in many       
countries and have met with men of all  
classes1  but never in my travels did ,i
 feel the presence of the human so      

distinctly as in this land4 ,in other   
great countries signs of man's  power   
loomed large1 and ,i saw vast           
organizations which showed efficiency   
in all their features4 ,there1 display  
and extravagance1 in dress1 in          
furniture1 in costly entertainments1 are
 startling4 ,they seem to push  you back
 into a corner1 like a poor intruder at 
a feast2 they are apt to  make you      
envious1 or take your breath away with  
amazement4 ,there1 you do  not feel man 
as supreme2 you are hurled against a    
stupendousness of  things that          
alienates4 ,but in ,japan it is not the 
display of power1 or  wealth1 that is   
the predominating element4 ,you see     
everywhere emblems of  love and         
admiration1 and not mostly of ambition  
and greed4 ,you see a  people whose     
heart has come out and scattered itself 
in profusion in its  commonest utensils 
of everyday life1 in its social         
institutions1 in its  manners1 which are
 carefully perfect1 and in its dealings 

with things  which are not only deft but
 graceful in every movement4    ,what   
has impressed me most in this country is
 the conviction that you  have realized 
nature's secrets1 not by methods of     
analytical knowledge1  but by sympathy4 
,you have known her language of lines1  
and music of  colours1 the symmetry in  
her irregularities1 and the cadence in  
her  freedom of movements2 you have seen
 how she leads her immense crowds of    
things yet avoids all frictions2 how the
 very conflicts in her creations  break 
out in dance and music2 how her         
exuberance has the aspect of the        
fulness of self-abandonment1 and not a  
mere dissipation of display4 ,you  have 
discovered that nature reserves her     
power in forms of beauty2 and  it is    
this beauty which1 like a mother1       
nourishes all the giant forces  at her  
breast1 keeping them in active vigour1  
yet in repose4 ,you have  known that    
energies of nature save themselves from 
wearing out by the  rhythm of a perfect 

grace1 and that she with the tenderness 
of her  curved lines takes away fatigue 
from the world's muscles4 ,i have felt  
that you have been able to assimilate   
these secrets into your life1 and  the  
truth which lies in the beauty of all   
things has passed into your  souls4 ,a  
mere knowledge of things can be had in a
 short enough time1 but  their spirit   
can only be acquired by centuries of    
training and  self-control4 ,dominating 
nature from outside is a much simpler   
thing  than making her your own in      
love's delight1 which is a work of true 
genius4 ,your race has shown that       
genius1 not by acquirement1 but by      
creation2 not by display of things1 but 
by manifestation of its own  inner      
being4 ,this creative power there is in 
all nations1 and it is ever  active in  
getting hold of men's natures and giving
 them a form according  to its ideals4  
,but here1 in ,japan1 it seems to have  
achieved its  success1 and deeply sunk  
into the minds of all men1 and permeated

 their  muscles and nerves4 ,your       
instincts have become true1 your senses 
keen1  and your hands have acquired     
natural skill4 ,the genius of ,europe   
has  given her people the power of      
organization1 which has specially made  
itself manifest in politics and commerce
 and in co-ordinating scientific        
knowledge4 ,the genius of ,japan has    
given you the vision of beauty in       
nature and the power of realizing it in 
your life4    ,all particular           
civilization is the interpretation of   
particular human  experience4 ,europe   
seems to have felt emphatically the     
conflict of  things in the universe1    
which can only be brought under control 
by  conquest4 ,therefore she is ever    
ready for fight1 and the best portion of
  her attention is occupied in          
organizing forces4 ,but ,japan has felt1
 in  her world1 the touch of some       
presence1 which has evoked in her soul a
  feeling of reverent adoration4 ,she   
does not boast of her mastery of        

nature1 but to her she brings1 with     
infinite care and joy1 her offerings  of
 love4 ,her relationship with the world 
is the deeper relationship of  heart4   
,this spiritual bond of love she has    
established with the hills of  her      
country1 with the sea and the streams1  
with the forests in all their  flowery  
moods and varied physiognomy of         
branches2 she has taken into her  heart 
all the rustling whispers and sighing of
 the woodlands and sobbing  of the      
waves2 the sun and the moon she has     
studied in all the  modulations of their
 lights and shades1 and she is glad to  
close her  shops to greet the seasons in
 her orchards and gardens and           
cornfields4  ,this opening of the heart 
to the soul of the world is not confined
 to a  section of your privileged       
classes1 it is not the forced product of
  exotic culture1 but it belongs to all 
your men and women of all  conditions4  
,this experience of your soul1 in       
meeting a personality in  the heart of  

the world1 has been embodied in your    
civilization4 ,it is a  civilization of 
human relationship4 ,your duty towards  
your state has  naturally assumed the   
character of filial duty1 your nation   
becoming one  family with your ,emperor 
as its head4 ,your national unity has   
not been  evolved from the comradeship  
of arms for defensive and offensive     
purpose1 or from partnership in raiding 
adventures1 dividing among each  member 
the danger and spoils of robbery4 ,it is
 not an outcome of the  necessity of    
organization for some ulterior purpose1 
but it is an  extension of the family   
and the obligations of the heart in a   
wide field  of space and time4 ,the     
ideal of maitri is at the bottom of your
  culture1--maitri with men and maitri  
with ,nature4 ,and the true  expression 
of this love is in the language of      
beauty1 which is so  abundantly         
universal in this land4 ,this is the    
reason why a stranger1  like myself1    
instead of feeling envy or humiliation  

before these  manifestations of beauty1 
these creations of love1 feels a        
readiness to  participate in the joy and
 glory of such revealment of the human  
heart4    ,and this has made me all the 
more apprehensive of the change which   
threatens ,japanese civilization1 as    
something like a menace to one's own    
person4 ,for the huge heterogeneity of  
the modern age1 whose only common  bond 
is usefulness1 is nowhere so pitifully  
exposed against the dignity  and hidden 
power of reticent beauty as in ,japan4  
,but the danger lies in this1 that      
organized ugliness storms the mind and  
carries the day by its mass1 by its     
aggressive persistence1 by its power  of
 mockery directed against the deeper    
sentiments of heart4 ,its harsh         
obtrusiveness makes it forcibly visible 
to us1 overcoming our  senses1--and we  
bring sacrifices to its altar1 as does a
 savage to the  fetich which appears    
powerful because of its hideousness4    
,therefore its  rivalry with things that

 are modest and profound and have the   
subtle  delicacy of life is to be       
dreaded4    ,i am quite sure that there 
are men in your country who are not in  
sympathy with your inherited ideals2    
whose object is to gain1 and not  to    
grow4 ,they are loud in their boast that
 they have modernized ,japan4  ,while ,i
 agree with them so far as to say that  
the spirit of the race  should harmonize
 with the spirit of the time1 ,i must   
warn them that  modernizing is a mere   
affectation of modernism1 just as       
affectation of  poesy is poetizing4 ,it 
is nothing but mimicry1 only affectation
 is  louder than the original1 and it is
 too literal4 ,one must bear in mind    
that those who have the true modern     
spirit need not modernize1 just as      
those who are truly brave are not       
braggarts4 ,modernism is not in the     
dress of the ,europeans2 or in the      
hideous structures1 where their         
children are interned when they take    
their lessons2 or in the square  houses 

with flat1 straight wall-surfaces1      
pierced with parallel lines of  windows1
 where these people are caged in their  
lifetime2 certainly  modernism is not in
 their ladies' bonnets1 carrying on them
 loads of  incongruities4 ,these are not
 modern1 but merely ,european4 ,true    
modernism  is freedom of mind1 not      
slavery of taste4 ,it is independence of
 thought  and action1 not tutelage under
 ,european schoolmasters4 ,it is        
science1  but not its wrong application 
in life1--a mere imitation of our       
science  teachers who reduce it into a  
superstition1 absurdly invoking its aid 
for all impossible purposes4    ,life   
based upon mere science is attractive to
 some men1 because it has  all the      
characteristics of sport2 it feigns     
seriousness1 but is not  profound4 ,when
 you go a-hunting1 the less pity you    
have the better2 for  your one object is
 to chase the game and kill it1 to feel 
that you are  the greater animal1 that  
your method of destruction is thorough  

and  scientific4 ,and the life of       
science is that superficial life4 ,it   
pursues  success with skill and         
thoroughness1 and takes no account of   
the higher  nature of man4 ,but those   
whose minds are crude enough to plan    
their  lives upon the supposition that  
man is merely a hunter and his paradise 
the paradise of sportsmen will be rudely
 awakened in the midst of their         
trophies of skeletons and skulls4    ,i 
do not for a moment suggest that ,japan 
should be unmindful of  acquiring modern
 weapons of self-protection4 ,but this  
should never be  allowed to go beyond   
her instinct of self-preservation4 ,she 
must know  that the real power is not in
 the weapons themselves1 but in the man 
who  wields those weapons2 and when he1 
in his eagerness for power1  multiplies 
his weapons at the cost of his own soul1
 then it is he who  is in even greater  
danger than his enemies4    ,things that
 are living are so easily hurt2         
therefore they require  protection4 ,in 

nature1 life protects itself within its 
coverings1 which  are built with life's 
own material4 ,therefore they are in    
harmony with  life's growth1 or else    
when the time comes they easily give way
 and are  forgotten4 ,the living man has
 his true protection in his spiritual   
ideals1 which have their vital          
connection with his life and grow with  
his growth4 ,but1 unfortunately1 all his
 armour is not living1--some of  it is  
made of steel1 inert and mechanical4    
,therefore1 while making use  of it1 man
 has to be careful to protect himself   
from its tyranny4 ,if he  is weak enough
 to grow smaller to fit himself to his  
covering1 then it  becomes a process of 
gradual suicide by shrinkage of the     
soul4 ,and ,japan  must have a firm     
faith in the moral law of existence to  
be able to  assert to herself that the  
,western nations are following that path
 of  suicide1 where they are smothering 
their humanity under the immense  weight
 of organizations in order to keep      

themselves in power and hold  others in 
subjection4    ,what is dangerous for   
,japan is1 not the imitation of the     
outer features  of the ,west1 but the   
acceptance of the motive force of the   
,western  nationalism as her own4 ,her  
social ideals are already showing signs 
of  defeat at the hands of politics4 ,i 
can see her motto1 taken from  science1 
,survival of the ,fittest1 writ large at
 the entrance of her  present-day       
history--the motto whose meaning is1    
,help yourself1 and  never heed what it 
costs to others2 the motto of the blind 
man who only  believes in what he can   
touch1 because he cannot see4 ,but those
 who can  see know that men are so      
closely knit that when you strike others
 the  blow comes back to yourself4 ,the 
moral law1 which is the greatest        
discovery of man1 is the discovery of   
this wonderful truth1 that man  becomes 
all the truer the more he realizes      
himself in others4 ,this truth  has not 
only a subjective value1 but is         

manifested in every department  of our  
life4 ,and nations who sedulously       
cultivate moral blindness as the  cult  
of patriotism will end their existence  
in a sudden and violent  death4 ,in past
 ages we had foreign invasions1 but they
 never touched the  soul of the people  
deeply4 ,they were merely the outcome of
 individual  ambitions4 ,the people     
themselves1 being free from the         
responsibilities  of the baser and more 
heinous side of those adventures1 had   
all the  advantage of the heroic and the
 human disciplines derived from them4   
,this developed their unflinching       
loyalty1 their single-minded devotion   
to the obligations of honour1 their     
power of complete self-surrender and    
fearless acceptance of death and danger4
 ,therefore the ideals1 whose  seats    
were in the hearts of the people1 would 
not undergo any serious  change owing to
 the policies adopted by the kings or   
generals4 ,but now1  where the spirit of
 the ,western nationalism prevails1 the 

whole people  is being taught from      
boyhood to foster hatreds and ambitions 
by all  kinds of means--by the          
manufacture of half-truths and untruths 
in  history1 by persistent              
misrepresentation of other races and the
 culture  of unfavourable sentiments    
towards them1 by setting up memorials of
  events1 very often false1 which for   
the sake of humanity should be  speedily
 forgotten1 thus continually brewing    
evil menace towards  neighbours and     
nations other than their own4 ,this is  
poisoning the very  fountainhead of     
humanity4 ,it is discrediting the       
ideals1 which were born  of the lives of
 men who were our greatest and best4 ,it
 is holding up  gigantic selfishness as 
the one universal religion for all      
nations of  the world4 ,we can take     
anything else from the hands of science1
 but not  this elixir of moral death4   
,never think for a moment that the hurts
 you  inflict upon other races will not 
infect you1 or that the enmities you    

sow around your homes will be a wall of 
protection to you for all time  to come4
 ,to imbue the minds of a whole people  
with an abnormal vanity of  its own     
superiority1 to teach it to take pride  
in its moral callousness  and           
ill-begotten wealth1 to perpetuate      
humiliation of defeated nations  by     
exhibiting trophies won from war1 and   
using these in schools in order  to     
breed in children's minds contempt for  
others1 is imitating the ,west  where   
she has a festering sore1 whose swelling
 is a swelling of disease  eating into  
its vitality4    ,our food crops1 which 
are necessary for our sustenance1 are   
products of  centuries of selection and 
care4 ,but the vegetation1 which we have
 not  to transform into our lives1 does 
not require the patient thoughts of     
generations4 ,it is not easy to get rid 
of weeds2 but it is easy1 by  process of
 neglect1 to ruin your food crops and   
let them revert to their  primitive     
state of wildness4 ,likewise the        

culture1 which has so kindly  adapted   
itself to your soil--so intimate with   
life1 so human--not only  needed tilling
 and weeding in past ages1 but still    
needs anxious work  and watching4 ,what 
is merely modern--as science and methods
 of  organization--can be transplanted2 
but what is vitally human has fibres  so
 delicate1 and roots so numerous and    
far-reaching1 that it dies when  moved  
from its soil4 ,therefore ,i am afraid  
of the rude pressure of the  political  
ideals of the ,west upon your own4 ,in  
political civilization1  the state is an
 abstraction and relationship of men    
utilitarian4 ,because  it has no root in
 sentiments1 it is so dangerously easy  
to handle4 ,half  a century has been    
enough for you to master this machine2  
and there are  men among you whose      
fondness for it exceeds their love for  
the living  ideals1 which were born with
 the birth of your nation and nursed in 
your  centuries4 ,it is like a child    
who1 in the excitement of his play1     

imagines he likes his playthings better 
than his mother4    ,where man is at his
 greatest1 he is unconscious4 ,your     
civilization1  whose mainspring is the  
bond of human relationship1 has been    
nourished  in the depth of a healthy    
life beyond reach of prying             
self-analysis4 ,but  a mere political   
relationship is all-conscious2 it is an 
eruptive  inflammation of               
aggressiveness4 ,it has forcibly burst  
upon your notice4  ,and the time has    
come when you have to be roused into    
full  consciousness of the truth by     
which you live1 so that you may not be  
taken unawares4 ,the past has been      
,god's gift to you2 about the present1  
you must make your own choice4    ,so   
the questions you have to put to        
yourselves are these--,have we read  the
 world wrong1 and based our relation to 
it upon an ignorance of human  nature8  
,is the instinct of the ,west right1    
where she builds her national  welfare  
behind the barricade of a universal     

distrust of humanity8    ,you must have 
detected a strong accent of fear        
whenever the ,west has  discussed the   
possibility of the rise of an ,eastern  
race4 ,the reason of  it is this1 that  
the power by whose help she thrives is  
an evil power2  so long as it is held on
 her own side she can be safe1 while the
 rest of  the world trembles4 ,the vital
 ambition of the present civilization of
  ,europe is to have the exclusive      
possession of the devil4 ,all her       
armaments and diplomacy are directed    
upon this one object4 ,but these  costly
 rituals for invocation of the evil     
spirit lead through a path of           
prosperity to the brink of cataclysm4   
,the furies of terror1 which the  ,west 
has let loose upon ,god's world1 come   
back to threaten herself and  goad her  
into preparations of more and more      
frightfulness2 this gives  her no rest1 
and makes her forget all else but the   
perils that she  causes to others and   
incurs herself4 ,to the worship of this 

devil of  politics she sacrifices other 
countries as victims4 ,she feeds upon   
their  dead flesh and grows fat upon it1
 so long as the carcasses remain        
fresh1--but they are sure to rot at     
last1 and the dead will take their      
revenge1 by spreading pollution far and 
wide and poisoning the vitality  of the 
feeder4 ,japan had all her wealth of    
humanity1 her harmony of  heroism and   
beauty1 her depth of self-control and   
richness of  self-expression2 yet the   
,western nations felt no respect for her
 till  she proved that the bloodhounds  
of ,satan are not only bred in the      
kennels of ,europe but can also be      
domesticated in ,japan and fed with     
man's miseries4 ,they admit ,japan's    
equality with themselves1 only when     
they know that ,japan also possesses the
 key to open the floodgate of  hell-fire
 upon the fair earth whenever she       
chooses1 and can dance1 in  their own   
measure1 the devil dance of pillage1    
murder and ravishment of  innocent      

women1 while the world goes to ruin4 ,we
 know that1 in the early  stage of man's
 moral immaturity1 he only feels        
reverence for the god  whose malevolence
 he dreads4 ,but is this the ideal of   
man which we can  look up to with pride8
 ,after centuries of civilization       
nations fearing  each other like the    
prowling wild beasts of the night-time2 
shutting  their doors of hospitality2   
combining only for purpose of aggression
 or  defence2 hiding in their holes     
their trade secrets1 state secrets1     
secrets of their armaments2 making      
peace-offerings to each other's  barking
 dogs with the meat which does not      
belong to them2 holding down  fallen    
races which struggle to stand upon their
 feet2 with their right  hands          
dispensing religion to weaker peoples1  
while robbing them with  their left1--is
 there anything in this to make us      
envious8 ,are we to  bend our knees to  
the spirit of this nationalism1 which is
 sowing  broadcast over all the world   

seeds of fear1 greed1 suspicion1        
unashamed  lies of its diplomacy1 and   
unctuous lies of its profession of peace
 and  good-will and universal           
brotherhood of ,man8 ,can our minds be  
free from  doubt when we rush to the    
,western market to buy this foreign     
product in  exchange for our own        
inheritance8 ,i am aware how difficult  
it is to know  one's self2 and the man  
who is intoxicated furiously denies his 
drunkenness2 yet the ,west herself is   
anxiously thinking of her problems  and 
trying experiments4 ,but she is like a  
glutton1 who has not the  heart to give 
up his intemperance in eating1 and      
fondly clings to the  hope that he can  
cure his nightmares of indigestion by   
medicine4 ,europe  is not ready to give 
up her political inhumanity1 with all   
the baser  passions of man attendant    
upon it2 she believes only in           
modification of  systems1 and not in    
change of heart4    ,we are willing to  
buy their machine-made systems1 not with

 our hearts1  but with our brains4 ,we  
shall try them and build sheds for them1
 but not  enshrine them in our homes or 
temples4 ,there are races who worship   
the  animals they kill2 we can buy meat 
from them when we are hungry1 but not   
the worship which goes with the killing4
 ,we must not vitiate our  children's   
minds with the superstition that        
business is business1 war is  war1      
politics is politics4 ,we must know that
 man's business has to be  more than    
mere business1 and so should be his war 
and politics4 ,you had  your own        
industry in ,japan2 how scrupulously    
honest and true it was1 you  can see by 
its products1--by their grace and       
strength1 their  conscientiousness in   
details1 where they can hardly be       
observed4 ,but the  tidal wave of       
falsehood has swept over your land from 
that part of the  world where business  
is business1 and honesty is followed    
merely as the  best policy4 ,have you   
never felt shame when you see the trade 

advertisements1 not only plastering the 
whole town with lies and  exaggerations1
 but invading the green fields1 where   
the peasants do  their honest labour1   
and the hill-tops1 which greet the first
 pure light  of the morning8 ,it is so  
easy to dull our sense of honour and    
delicacy  of mind with constant         
abrasion1 while falsehoods stalk abroad 
with proud  steps in the name of trade1 
politics and patriotism1 that any       
protest  against their perpetual        
intrusion into our lives is considered  
to be  sentimentalism1 unworthy of true 
manliness4    ,and it has come to pass  
that the children of those heroes who   
would keep  their word at the point of  
death1 who would disdain to cheat men   
for  vulgar profit1 who even in their   
fight would much rather court defeat    
than be dishonourable1 have become      
energetic in dealing with falsehoods    
and do not feel humiliated by gaining   
advantage from them4 ,and this has  been
 effected by the charm of the word      

modern4 ,but if undiluted  utility be   
modern1 beauty is of all ages2 if mean  
selfishness be modern1  the human ideals
 are no new inventions4 ,and we must    
know for certain  that however modern   
may be the proficiency which cripples   
man for the  sake of methods and        
machines1 it will never live to be old4 
,but while trying to free our minds from
 the arrogant claims of ,europe  and to 
help ourselves out of the quicksands of 
our infatuation1 we may  go to the other
 extreme and blind ourselves with a     
wholesale suspicion  of the ,west4 ,the 
reaction of disillusionment is just as  
unreal as the  first shock of illusion4 
,we must try to come to that normal     
state of  mind by which we can clearly  
discern our own danger and avoid it     
without  being unjust towards the source
 of that danger4 ,there is always the   
natural temptation in us of wishing to  
pay back ,europe in her own coin1  and  
return contempt for contempt and evil   
for evil4 ,but that again would  be to  

imitate ,europe in one of her worst     
features1 which comes out in  her       
behaviour to people whom she describes  
as yellow or red1 brown or  black4 ,and 
this is a point on which we in the ,east
 have to acknowledge  our guilt and own 
that our sin has been as great1 if not  
greater1 when  we insulted humanity by  
treating with utter disdain and cruelty 
men who  belonged to a particular creed1
 colour or caste4 ,it is really because 
we  are afraid of our own weakness1     
which allows itself to be overcome by   
the sight of power1 that we try to      
substitute for it another weakness      
which makes itself blind to the glories 
of the ,west4 ,when we truly know  the  
,europe which is great and good1 we can 
effectively save ourselves  from the    
,europe which is mean and grasping4 ,it 
is easy to be unfair in  one's judgment 
when one is faced with human            
miseries1--and pessimism is  the result 
of building theories while the mind is  
suffering4 ,to despair  of humanity is  

only possible if we lose faith in truth 
which brings to  it strength1 when its  
defeat is greatest1 and calls out new   
life from  the depth of its destruction4
 ,we must admit that there is a living  
soul  in the ,west which is struggling  
unobserved against the hugeness of the  
organizations under which men1 women and
 children are being crushed1 and  whose 
mechanical necessities are ignoring laws
 that are spiritual and  human1--the    
soul whose sensibilities refuse to be   
dulled completely by  dangerous habits  
of heedlessness in dealings with races  
for whom it  lacks natural sympathy4    
,the ,west could never have risen to the
 eminence  she has reached if her       
strength were merely the strength of the
 brute or  of the machine4 ,the divine  
in her heart is suffering from the      
injuries  inflicted by her hands upon   
the world1--and from this pain of her   
higher  nature flows the secret balm    
which will bring healing to those       
injuries4  ,time after time she has     

fought against herself and has undone   
the chains  which with her own hands she
 had fastened round helpless limbs2 and 
though she forced poison down the throat
 of a great nation at the point  of the 
sword for gain of money1 she herself    
woke up to withdraw from it1  to wash   
her hands clean again4 ,this shows      
hidden springs of humanity in  spots    
which look dead and barren4 ,it proves  
that the deeper truth in her  nature1   
which can survive such a career of cruel
 cowardliness1 is not  greed1 but       
reverence for unselfish ideals4 ,it     
would be altogether  unjust1 both to us 
and to ,europe1 to say that she has     
fascinated the  modern ,eastern mind by 
the mere exhibition of her power4       
,through the  smoke of cannons and dust 
of markets the light of her moral nature
 has  shone bright1 and she has brought 
to us the ideal of ethical freedom1     
whose foundation lies deeper than social
 conventions and whose province  of     
activity is world-wide4    ,the ,east   

has instinctively felt1 even through her
 aversion1 that she has  a great deal to
 learn from ,europe1 not merely about   
the materials of  power1 but about its  
inner source1 which is of mind and of   
the moral  nature of man4 ,europe has   
been teaching us the higher obligations 
of  public good above those of the      
family and the clan1 and the sacredness 
of law1 which makes society independent 
of individual caprice1 secures  for it  
continuity of progress1 and guarantees  
justice to all men of all  positions in 
life4 ,above all things ,europe has held
 high before our  minds the banner of   
liberty1 through centuries of martyrdom 
and  achievement1--liberty of           
conscience1 liberty of thought and      
action1  liberty in the ideals of art   
and literature4 ,and because ,europe has
 won  our deep respect1 she has become  
so dangerous for us where she is        
turbulently weak and false1--dangerous  
like poison when it is served  along    
with our best food4 ,there is one safety

 for us upon which we hope  we may      
count1 and that is1 that we can claim   
,europe herself as our ally  in our     
resistance to her temptations and to her
 violent encroachments2  for she has    
ever carried her own standard of        
perfection1 by which we can  measure her
 falls and gauge her degrees of failure1
 by which we can call  her before her   
own tribunal and put her to shame1--the 
shame which is  the sign of the true    
pride of nobleness4    ,but our fear is1
 that the poison may be more powerful   
than the food1  and what is strength in 
her to-day may not be the sign of       
health1 but  the contrary2 for it may be
 temporarily caused by the upsetting of 
the  balance of life4 ,our fear is that 
evil has a fateful fascination when it  
assumes dimensions which are            
colossal1--and though at last it is sure
 to  lose its centre of gravity by its  
abnormal disproportion1 the mischief    
which it creates before its fall may be 
beyond reparation4    ,therefore ,i ask 

you to have the strength of faith and   
clarity of mind to  know for certain    
that the lumbering structure of modern  
progress1  riveted by the iron bolts of 
efficiency1 which runs upon the wheels  
of  ambition1 cannot hold together for  
long4 ,collisions are certain to  occur2
 for it has to travel upon organized    
lines1 it is too heavy to  choose its   
own course freely2 and once it is off   
the rails1 its endless  train of        
vehicles is dislocated4 ,a day will come
 when it will fall in a  heap of ruin   
and cause serious obstruction to the    
traffic of the world4  ,do we not see   
signs of this even now8 ,does not the   
voice come to us1  through the din of   
war1 the shrieks of hatred1 the wailings
 of despair1  through the churning up of
 the unspeakable filth which has been   
accumulating for ages in the bottom of  
this nationalism1--the voice  which     
cries to our soul that the tower of     
national selfishness1 which  goes by the
 name of patriotism1 which has raised   

its banner of treason  against heaven1  
must totter and fall with a crash1      
weighed down by its  own bulk1 its flag 
kissing the dust1 its light             
extinguished8 ,my  brothers1 when the   
red light of conflagration sends up its 
crackle of  laughter to the stars1 keep 
your faith upon those stars and not upon
 the  fire of destruction4 ,for when    
this conflagration consumes itself and  
dies down1 leaving its memorial in      
ashes1 the eternal light will again     
shine in the ,east1--the ,east which has
 been the birthplace of the  morning sun
 of man's history4 ,and who knows if    
that day has not already  dawned1 and   
the sun not risen1 in the ,easternmost  
horizon of ,asia8 ,and ,i  offer1 as did
 my ancestor rishis1 my salutation to   
that sunrise of the  ,east1 which is    
destined once again to illumine the     
whole world4    ,i know my voice is too 
feeble to raise itself above the uproar 
of this  bustling time1 and it is easy  
for any street urchin to fling against  

me  the epithet of unpractical4 ,it will
 stick to my coat-tail1 never to be     
washed away1 effectively excluding me   
from the consideration of all           
respectable persons4 ,i know what a risk
 one runs from the vigorously  athletic 
crowds in being styled an idealist in   
these days1 when thrones  have lost     
their dignity and prophets have become  
an anachronism1 when  the sound that    
drowns all voices is the noise of the   
market-place4 ,yet  when1 one day1      
standing on the outskirts of ,yokohama  
town1 bristling  with its display of    
modern miscellanies1 ,i watched the     
sunset in your  southern sea1 and saw   
its peace and majesty among your        
pine-clad  hills1--with the great       
,fujiyama growing faint against the     
golden  horizon1 like a god overcome    
with his own radiance1--the music of    
eternity welled up through the evening  
silence1 and ,i felt that the sky  and  
the earth and the lyrics of the dawn and
 the dayfall are with the  poets and    

idealists1 and not with the marketmen   
robustly contemptuous of  all           
sentiment1--that1 after the             
forgetfulness of his own divinity1 man  
will remember again that heaven is      
always in touch with his world1 which   
can never be abandoned for good to the  
hounding wolves of the modern  era1     
scenting human blood and howling to the 
skies4          ,,nationalism ,,in      
,,india      ,our real problem in ,india
 is not political4 ,it is social4 ,this 
is a  condition not only prevailing in  
,india1 but among all nations4 ,i do not
  believe in an exclusive political     
interest4 ,politics in the ,west have   
dominated ,western ideals1 and we in    
,india are trying to imitate you4 ,we   
have to remember that in ,europe1 where 
peoples had their racial unity  from the
 beginning1 and where natural resources 
were insufficient for  the inhabitants1 
the civilization has naturally taken the
 character of  political and commercial 
aggressiveness4 ,for on the one hand    

they had no  internal complications1 and
 on the other they had to deal with     
neighbours who were strong and          
rapacious4 ,to have perfect combination 
among themselves and a watchful attitude
 of animosity against others was  taken 
as the solution of their problems4 ,in  
former days they organized  and         
plundered1 in the present age the same  
spirit continues--and they  organize and
 exploit the whole world4    ,but from  
the earliest beginnings of history      
,india has had her own  problem         
constantly before her--it is the race   
problem4 ,each nation must  be conscious
 of its mission1 and we1 in ,india1 must
 realize that we cut  a poor figure when
 we are trying to be political1 simply  
because we have  not yet been finally   
able to accomplish what was set before  
us by our  providence4    ,this problem 
of race unity which we have been trying 
to solve for so  many years has likewise
 to be faced by you here in ,america4   
,many people  in this country ask me    

what is happening as to the caste       
distinctions in  ,india4 ,but when this 
question is asked me1 it is usually done
 with a  superior air4 ,and ,i feel     
tempted to put the same question to our 
,american critics with a slight         
modification1 ,what have you done with  
the ,red ,indian and the ,negro8 ,for   
you have not got over your attitude  of 
caste toward them4 ,you have used       
violent methods to keep aloof from      
other races1 but until you have solved  
the question here in ,america1 you  have
 no right to question ,india4    ,in    
spite of our great difficulty1 however1 
,india has done something4 ,she  has    
tried to make an adjustment of races1 to
 acknowledge the real  differences      
between them where these exist1 and yet 
seek for some basis  of unity4 ,this    
basis has come through our saints1 like 
,nanak1 ,kabir1  ,chaitnaya and others1 
preaching one ,god to all races of      
,india4    ,in finding the solution of  
our problem we shall have helped to     

solve the  world problem as well4 ,what 
,india has been1 the whole world is now4
 ,the  whole world is becoming one      
country through scientific facility4    
,and the  moment is arriving when you   
also must find a basis of unity which is
 not  political4 ,if ,india can offer to
 the world her solution1 it will be a   
contribution to humanity4 ,there is only
 one history--the history of man4  ,all 
national histories are merely chapters  
in the larger one4 ,and we are  content 
in ,india to suffer for such a great    
cause4    ,each individual has his      
self-love4 ,therefore his brute instinct
 leads  him to fight with others in the 
sole pursuit of his self-interest4 ,but 
man has also his higher instincts of    
sympathy and mutual help4 ,the  people  
who are lacking in this higher moral    
power and who therefore  cannot combine 
in fellowship with one another must     
perish or live in a  state of           
degradation4 ,only those peoples have   
survived and achieved  civilization who 

have this spirit of co-operation strong 
in them4 ,so we  find that from the     
beginning of history men had to choose  
between  fighting with one another and  
combining1 between serving their own    
interest or the common interest of all4 
,in our early history1 when the         
geographical limits of each country and 
also the facilities of communication    
were small1 this problem was            
comparatively small in dimension4 ,it   
was sufficient for men to develop  their
 sense of unity within their area of    
segregation4 ,in those days  they       
combined among themselves and fought    
against others4 ,but it was  this moral 
spirit of combination which was the true
 basis of their  greatness1 and this    
fostered their art1 science and         
religion4 ,at that  early time the most 
important fact that man had to take     
count of was the  fact of the members of
 one particular race of men coming in   
close  contact with one another4 ,those 
who truly grasped this fact through     

their higher nature made their mark in  
history4    ,the most important fact of 
the present age is that all the         
different  races of men have come close 
together4 ,and again we are confronted  
with  two alternatives4 ,the problem is 
whether the different groups of peoples 
shall go on fighting with one another or
 find out some true basis of            
reconciliation and mutual help2 whether 
it will be interminable  competition or 
co-operation4    ,i have no hesitation  
in saying that those who are gifted with
 the moral  power of love and vision of 
spiritual unity1 who have the least     
feeling  of enmity against aliens1 and  
the sympathetic insight to place        
themselves in the position of others1   
will be the fittest to take their       
permanent place in the age that is lying
 before us1 and those who are           
constantly developing their instinct of 
fight and intolerance of aliens  will be
 eliminated4 ,for this is the problem   
before us1 and we have to  prove our    

humanity by solving it through the help 
of our higher nature4  ,the gigantic    
organizations for hurting others and    
warding off their  blows1 for making    
money by dragging others back1 will not 
help us4 ,on  the contrary1 by their    
crushing weight1 their enormous cost and
 their  deadening effect upon living    
humanity1 they will seriously impede our
  freedom in the larger life of a higher
 civilization4    ,during the evolution 
of the ,nation the moral culture of     
brotherhood was  limited by geographical
 boundaries1 because at that time those 
boundaries were true4 ,now they have    
become imaginary lines of tradition     
divested of the qualities of real       
obstacles4 ,so the time has come when   
man's moral nature must deal with this  
great fact with all seriousness  or     
perish4 ,the first impulse of this      
change of circumstance has been the     
churning up of man's baser passions of  
greed and cruel hatred4 ,if this        
persists indefinitely1 and armaments go 

on exaggerating themselves to           
unimaginable absurdities1 and machines  
and storehouses envelop this fair  earth
 with their dirt and smoke and ugliness1
 then it will end in a  conflagration of
 suicide4 ,therefore man will have to   
exert all his power  of love and clarity
 of vision to make another great moral  
adjustment  which will comprehend the   
whole world of men and not merely the   
fractional groups of nationality4 ,the  
call has come to every individual  in   
the present age to prepare himself and  
his surroundings for this dawn  of a new
 era1 when man shall discover his soul  
in the spiritual unity of  all human    
beings4    ,if it is given at all to the
 ,west to struggle out of these tangles 
of  the lower slopes to the spiritual   
summit of humanity then ,i cannot but   
think that it is the special mission of 
,america to fulfil this hope of  ,god   
and man4 ,you are the country of        
expectation1 desiring something else    
than what is4 ,europe has her subtle    

habits of mind and her conventions4     
,but ,america1 as yet1 has come to no   
conclusions4 ,i realize how much        
,america is untrammelled by the         
traditions of the past1 and ,i can      
appreciate that experimentalism is a    
sign of ,america's youth4 ,the          
foundation of her glory is in the       
future1 rather than in the past2 and  if
 one is gifted with the power of        
clairvoyance1 one will be able to  love 
the ,america that is to be4    ,america 
is destined to justify ,western         
civilization to the ,east4 ,europe  has 
lost faith in humanity1 and has become  
distrustful and sickly4  ,america1 on   
the other hand1 is not pessimistic or   
blas4 ,you know1 as a  people1 that     
there is such a thing as a better and a 
best2 and that  knowledge drives you on4
 ,there are habits that are not merely  
passive  but aggressively arrogant4     
,they are not like mere walls1 but are  
like  hedges of stinging nettles4       
,europe has been cultivating these      

hedges of  habits for long years1 till  
they have grown round her dense and     
strong  and high4 ,the pride of her     
traditions has sent its roots deep into 
her  heart4 ,i do not wish to contend   
that it is unreasonable4 ,but pride in  
every form breeds blindness at the end4 
,like all artificial stimulants  its    
first effect is a heightening of        
consciousness1 and then with the        
increasing dose it muddles it and brings
 an exultation that is  misleading4     
,europe has gradually grown hardened in 
her pride in all her  outer and inner   
habits4 ,she not only cannot forget that
 she is ,western1  but she takes every  
opportunity to hurl this fact against   
others to  humiliate them4 ,this is why 
she is growing incapable of imparting to
 the  ,east what is best in herself1 and
 of accepting in a right spirit the     
wisdom that the ,east has stored for    
centuries4    ,in ,america national     
habits and traditions have not had time 
to spread  their clutching roots round  

your hearts4 ,you have constantly felt  
and  complained of your disadvantages   
when you compared your nomadic          
restlessness with the settled traditions
 of ,europe--the ,europe which can  show
 her picture of greatness to the best   
advantage because she can fix  it       
against the background of the ,past4    
,but in this present age of  transition1
 when a new era of civilization is      
sending its trumpet-call  to all peoples
 of the world across an unlimited       
future1 this very  freedom of detachment
 will enable you to accept its          
invitation and to  achieve the goal for 
which ,europe began her journey but lost
 herself  midway4 ,for she was tempted  
out of her path by her pride of power   
and  greed of possession4    ,not merely
 your freedom from habits of mind in    
individuals1 but also  the freedom of   
your history from all unclean           
entanglements1 fits you in  your career 
of holding the banner of civilization of
 the future4 ,all the  great nations of 

,europe have their victims in other     
parts of the world4  ,this not only     
deadens their moral sympathy but also   
their intellectual  sympathy1 which is  
so necessary for the understanding of   
races which are  different from one's   
own4 ,englishmen can never truly        
understand ,india1  because their minds 
are not disinterested with regard to    
that country4  ,if you compare ,england 
with ,germany or ,france you will find  
she has  produced the smallest number of
 scholars who have studied ,indian      
literature and philosophy with any      
amount of sympathetic insight or        
thoroughness4 ,this attitude of apathy  
and contempt is natural where the       
relationship is abnormal and founded    
upon national selfishness and  pride4   
,but your history has been              
disinterested1 and that is why you have 
been able to help ,japan in her lessons 
in ,western civilization1 and that  is  
why ,china can look upon you with her   
best confidence in this her  darkest    

period of danger4 ,in fact you are      
carrying all the  responsibility of a   
great future because you are            
untrammelled by the  grasping           
miserliness of a past4 ,therefore of all
 countries of the earth  ,america has to
 be fully conscious of this future1 her 
vision must not be  obscured and her    
faith in humanity must be strong with   
the strength of  youth4    ,a           
parallelism exists between ,america and 
,india--the parallelism of  welding     
together into one body various races4   
,in my country we have been seeking to  
find out something common to all  races1
 which will prove their real unity4 ,no 
nation looking for a mere  political or 
commercial basis of unity will find such
 a solution  sufficient4 ,men of thought
 and power will discover the spiritual  
unity1  will realize it1 and preach it4 
,india has never had a real sense of    
nationalism4 ,even though from          
childhood ,i had been taught that       
idolatry of the ,nation is almost better

  than reverence for ,god and humanity1 
,i believe ,i have outgrown that        
teaching1 and it is my conviction that  
my countrymen will truly gain  their    
,india by fighting against the education
 which teaches them that a  country is  
greater than the ideals of humanity4    
,the educated ,indian at present is     
trying to absorb some lessons from      
history contrary to the lessons of our  
ancestors4 ,the ,east1 in fact1 is      
attempting to take unto itself a history
 which is not the outcome of its  own   
living4 ,japan1 for example1 thinks she 
is getting powerful through  adopting   
,western methods1 but1 after she has    
exhausted her inheritance1  only the    
borrowed weapons of civilization will   
remain to her4 ,she will  not have      
developed herself from within4          
,europe has her past4 ,europe's strength
 therefore lies in her history4  ,we1 in
 ,india1 must make up our minds that we 
cannot borrow other  people's history1  
and that if we stifle our own we are    

committing  suicide4 ,when you borrow   
things that do not belong to your life1 
they  only serve to crush your life4    
,and therefore ,i believe that it does  
,india no good to compete with  ,western
 civilization in its own field4 ,but we 
shall be more than  compensated if1 in  
spite of the insults heaped upon us1 we 
follow our  own destiny4    ,there are  
lessons which impart information or     
train our minds for  intellectual       
pursuits4 ,these are simple and can be  
acquired and used  with advantage4 ,but 
there are others which affect our deeper
 nature and  change our direction of    
life4 ,before we accept them and pay    
their value  by selling our own         
inheritance1 we must pause and think    
deeply4 ,in man's  history there come   
ages of fireworks which dazzle us by    
their force and  movement4 ,they laugh  
not only at our modest household lamps  
but also at  the eternal stars4 ,but let
 us not for that provocation be         
precipitate in  our desire to dismiss   

our lamps4 ,let us patiently bear our   
present  insult and realize that these  
fireworks have splendour but not        
permanence1 because of the extreme      
explosiveness which is the cause of     
their power1 and also of their          
exhaustion4 ,they are spending a fatal  
quantity of energy and substance        
compared to their gain and production4  
,anyhow1 our ideals have been evolved   
through our own history1 and even  if we
 wished we could only make poor         
fireworks of them1 because their        
materials are different from yours1 as  
is also their moral purpose4 ,if  we    
cherish the desire of paying our all to 
buy a political nationality  it will be 
as absurd as if ,switzerland had staked 
her existence on her  ambition to build 
up a navy powerful enough to compete    
with that of  ,england4 ,the mistake    
that we make is in thinking that man's  
channel of  greatness is only one--the  
one which has made itself painfully     
evident  for the time being by its depth

 of insolence4    ,we must know for     
certain that there is a future before us
 and that  future is waiting for those  
who are rich in moral ideals and not in 
mere  things4 ,and it is the privilege  
of man to work for fruits that are      
beyond his immediate reach1 and to      
adjust his life not in slavish          
conformity to the examples of some      
present success or even to his own      
prudent past1 limited in its aspiration1
 but to an infinite future  bearing in  
its heart the ideals of our highest     
expectations4    ,we must recognize that
 it is providential that the ,west has  
come to  ,india4 ,and yet some one must 
show the ,east to the ,west1 and        
convince the  ,west that the ,east has  
her contribution to make to the history 
of  civilization4 ,india is no beggar of
 the ,west4 ,and yet even though the    
,west may think she is1 ,i am not for   
thrusting off ,western civilization  and
 becoming segregated in our             
independence4 ,let us have a deep       

association4 ,if ,providence wants      
,england to be the channel of that      
communication1 of that deeper           
association1 ,i am willing to accept it 
with all humility4 ,i have great faith  
in human nature1 and ,i think the  ,west
 will find its true mission4 ,i speak   
bitterly of ,western  civilization when 
,i am conscious that it is betraying its
 trust and  thwarting its own purpose4  
,the ,west must not make herself a curse
 to the  world by using her power for   
her own selfish needs1 but1 by teaching 
the  ignorant and helping the weak1 she 
should save herself from the worst      
danger that the strong is liable to     
incur by making the feeble acquire      
power enough to resist her intrusion4   
,and also she must not make her         
materialism to be the final thing1 but  
must realize that she is doing a        
service in freeing the spiritual being  
from the tyranny of matter4    ,i am not
 against one nation in particular1 but  
against the general idea  of all        

nations4 ,what is the ,nation8    ,it is
 the aspect of a whole people as an     
organized power4 ,this  organization    
incessantly keeps up the insistence of  
the population on  becoming strong and  
efficient4 ,but this strenuous effort   
after strength  and efficiency drains   
man's energy from his higher nature     
where he is  self-sacrificing and       
creative4 ,for thereby man's power of   
sacrifice is  diverted from his ultimate
 object1 which is moral1 to the         
maintenance of  this organization1 which
 is mechanical4 ,yet in this he feels   
all the  satisfaction of moral          
exaltation and therefore becomes        
supremely  dangerous to humanity4 ,he   
feels relieved of the urging of his     
conscience  when he can transfer his    
responsibility to this machine which is 
the  creation of his intellect and not  
of his complete moral personality4 ,by  
this device the people which loves      
freedom perpetuates slavery in a  large 
portion of the world with the           

comfortable feeling of pride of  having 
done its duty2 men who are naturally    
just can be cruelly unjust  both in     
their act and their thought1 accompanied
 by a feeling that they  are helping the
 world to receive its deserts2 men who  
are honest can  blindly go on robbing   
others of their human rights for        
self-aggrandizement1 all the while      
abusing the deprived for not  deserving 
better treatment4 ,we have seen in our  
everyday life even small  organizations 
of business and profession produce      
callousness of feeling  in men who are  
not naturally bad1 and we can well      
imagine what a moral  havoc it is       
causing in a world where whole peoples  
are furiously  organizing themselves for
 gaining wealth and power4              
,nationalism is a great menace4 ,it is  
the particular thing which for  years   
has been at the bottom of ,india's      
troubles4 ,and inasmuch as we  have been
 ruled and dominated by a nation that is
 strictly political in  its attitude1 we

 have tried to develop within ourselves1
 despite our  inheritance from the past1
 a belief in our eventual political     
destiny4    ,there are different parties
 in ,india1 with different ideals4 ,some
 are  struggling for political          
independence4 ,others think that the    
time has  not arrived for that1 and yet 
believe that ,india should have the     
rights  that the ,english colonies have4
 ,they wish to gain autonomy as far as  
possible4    ,in the beginning of the   
history of political agitation in ,india
 there  was not the conflict between    
parties which there is to-day4 ,at that 
time  there was a party known as the    
,indian ,congress2 it had no real       
programme4 ,they had a few grievances   
for redress by the authorities4  ,they  
wanted larger representation in the     
,council ,house1 and more freedom  in   
,municipal government4 ,they wanted     
scraps of things1 but they had no       
constructive ideal4 ,therefore ,i was   
lacking in enthusiasm for their         

methods4 ,it was my conviction that what
 ,india most needed was  constructive   
work coming from within herself4 ,in    
this work we must take  all risks and go
 on doing the duties which by right are 
ours1 though in  the teeth of           
persecution2 winning moral victory at   
every step1 by our  failure and         
suffering4 ,we must show those who are  
over us that we have  in ourselves the  
strength of moral power1 the power to   
suffer for truth4  ,where we have       
nothing to show1 we have only to beg4   
,it would be  mischievous if the gifts  
we wish for were granted to us at once1 
and ,i  have told my countrymen1 time   
and again1 to combine for the work of   
creating opportunities to give vent to  
our spirit of self-sacrifice1 and  not  
for the purpose of begging4    ,the     
party1 however1 lost power because the  
people soon came to realize  how futile 
was the half policy adopted by them4    
,the party split1 and  there arrived the
 ,extremists1 who advocated independence

 of action1 and  discarded the begging  
method1--the easiest method of relieving
 one's  mind from his responsibility    
towards his country4 ,their ideals were 
based on ,western history4 ,they had no 
sympathy with the special problems  of  
,india4 ,they did not recognize the     
patent fact that there were causes  in  
our social organization which made the  
,indian incapable of coping  with the   
alien4 ,what should we do if1 for any   
reason1 ,england was driven  away8 ,we  
should simply be victims for other      
nations4 ,the same social  weaknesses   
would prevail4 ,the thing we in ,india  
have to think of is  this--to remove    
those social customs and ideals which   
have generated a  want of self-respect  
and a complete dependence on those above
 us1--a  state of affairs which has been
 brought about entirely by the          
domination  in ,india of the caste      
system1 and the blind and lazy habit of 
relying  upon the authority of          
traditions that are incongruous         

anachronisms in  the present age4       
,once again ,i draw your attention to   
the difficulties ,india has had to      
encounter and her struggle to overcome  
them4 ,her problem was the problem  of  
the world in miniature4 ,india is too   
vast in its area and too diverse  in its
 races4 ,it is many countries packed in 
one geographical  receptacle4 ,it is    
just the opposite of what ,europe truly 
is1 namely1 one  country made into many4
 ,thus ,europe in its culture and growth
 has had  the advantage of the strength 
of the many as well as the strength of  
the  one4 ,india1 on the contrary1 being
 naturally many1 yet adventitiously     
one1 has all along suffered from the    
looseness of its diversity and the      
feebleness of its unity4 ,a true unity  
is like a round globe1 it rolls  on1    
carrying its burden easily2 but         
diversity is a many-cornered thing      
which has to be dragged and pushed with 
all force4 ,be it said to the  credit of
 ,india that this diversity was not her 

own creation2 she has  had to accept it 
as a fact from the beginning of her     
history4 ,in ,america  and ,australia1  
,europe has simplified her problem by   
almost exterminating  the original      
population4 ,even in the present age    
this spirit of  extermination is making 
itself manifest1 in the inhospitable    
shutting  out of aliens1 by those who   
themselves were aliens in the lands they
 now  occupy4 ,but ,india tolerated     
difference of races from the first1 and 
that  spirit of toleration has acted all
 through her history4    ,her caste     
system is the outcome of this spirit of 
toleration4 ,for ,india  has all along  
been trying experiments in evolving a   
social unity within  which all the      
different peoples could be held         
together1 while fully  enjoying the     
freedom of maintaining their own        
differences4 ,the tie has  been as loose
 as possible1 yet as close as the       
circumstances permitted4  ,this has     
produced something like a ,united       

,states of a social federation1  whose  
common name is ,hinduism4    ,india had 
felt that diversity of races there must 
be and should be1  whatever may be its  
drawback1 and you can never coerce      
nature into your  narrow limits of      
convenience without paying one day very 
dearly for it4  ,in this ,india was     
right2 but what she failed to realize   
was that in  human beings differences   
are not like the physical barriers of   
mountains1 fixed for ever--they are     
fluid with life's flow1 they are        
changing their courses and their shapes 
and volume4    ,therefore in her caste  
regulations ,india recognized           
differences1 but not  the mutability    
which is the law of life4 ,in trying to 
avoid collisions  she set up boundaries 
of immovable walls1 thus giving to her  
numerous  races the negative benefit of 
peace and order but not the positive    
opportunity of expansion and movement4  
,she accepted nature where it  produces 
diversity1 but ignored it where it uses 

that diversity for its  world-game of   
infinite permutations and combinations4 
,she treated life  in all truth where it
 is manifold1 but insulted it where it  
is ever  moving4 ,therefore ,life       
departed from her social system and in  
its place  she is worshipping with all  
ceremony the magnificent cage of        
countless  compartments that she has    
manufactured4    ,the same thing        
happened where she tried to ward off the
 collisions of  trade interests4 ,she   
associated different trades and         
professions with  different castes4     
,this had the effect of allaying for    
good the  interminable jealousy and     
hatred of competition--the competition  
which  breeds cruelty and makes the     
atmosphere thick with lies and          
deception4  ,in this also ,india laid   
all her emphasis upon the law of        
heredity1  ignoring the law of mutation1
 and thus gradually reduced arts into   
crafts and genius into skill4           
,however1 what ,western observers fail  

to discern is that in her caste  system 
,india in all seriousness accepted her  
responsibility to solve the  race       
problem in such a manner as to avoid all
 friction1 and yet to  afford each race 
freedom within its boundaries4 ,let us  
admit ,india has  not in this achieved a
 full measure of success4 ,but this you 
must also  concede1 that the ,west1     
being more favourably situated as to    
homogeneity  of races1 has never given  
her attention to this problem1 and      
whenever  confronted with it she has    
tried to make it easy by ignoring it    
altogether4 ,and this is the source of  
her anti-,asiatic agitations for        
depriving aliens of their right to earn 
their honest living on these  shores4   
,in most of your colonies you only admit
 them on condition of  their accepting  
the menial position of hewers of wood   
and drawers of  water4 ,either you shut 
your doors against the aliens or reduce 
them into  slavery4 ,and this is your   
solution of the problem of              

race-conflict4  ,whatever may be its    
merits you will have to admit that it   
does not  spring from the higher        
impulses of civilization1 but from the  
lower  passions of greed and hatred4    
,you say this is human nature--and      
,india  also thought she knew human     
nature when she strongly barricaded her 
race  distinctions by the fixed barriers
 of social gradations4 ,but we have     
found out to our cost that human nature 
is not what it seems1 but what  it is in
 truth2 which is in its infinite        
possibilities4 ,and when we in  our     
blindness insult humanity for its ragged
 appearance it sheds its  disguise to   
disclose to us that we have insulted our
 ,god4 ,the  degradation which we cast  
upon others in our pride or             
self-interest  degrades our own         
humanity--and this is the punishment    
which is most  terrible1 because we do  
not detect it till it is too late4      
,not only in your relation with aliens  
but with the different sections of  your

 own society you have not achieved      
harmony of reconciliation4 ,the  spirit 
of conflict and competition is allowed  
the full freedom of its  reckless       
career4 ,and because its genesis is the 
greed of wealth and  power it can never 
come to any other end but to a violent  
death4 ,in  ,india the production of    
commodities was brought under the law of
 social  adjustments4 ,its basis was    
co-operation1 having for its object the 
perfect satisfaction of social needs4   
,but in the ,west it is guided by  the  
impulse of competition1 whose end is the
 gain of wealth for  individuals4 ,but  
the individual is like the geometrical  
line2 it is  length without breadth4 ,it
 has not got the depth to be able to    
hold  anything permanently4 ,therefore  
its greed or gain can never come to     
finality4 ,in its lengthening process of
 growth it can cross other lines  and   
cause entanglements1 but will ever go on
 missing the ideal of  completeness in  
its thinness of isolation4    ,in all   

our physical appetites we recognize a   
limit4 ,we know that to  exceed that    
limit is to exceed the limit of health4 
,but has this lust  for wealth and power
 no bounds beyond which is death's      
dominion8 ,in  these national carnivals 
of materialism are not the ,western     
peoples  spending most of their vital   
energy in merely producing things and   
neglecting the creation of ideals8 ,and 
can a civilization ignore the law  of   
moral health and go on in its endless   
process of inflation by gorging  upon   
material things8 ,man in his social     
ideals naturally tries to  regulate his 
appetites1 subordinating them to the    
higher purpose of his  nature4 ,but in  
the economic world our appetites follow 
no other  restrictions but those of     
supply and demand which can be          
artificially  fostered1 affording       
individuals opportunities for indulgence
 in an  endless feast of grossness4 ,in 
,india our social instincts imposed     
restrictions upon our appetites1--maybe 

it went to the extreme of               
repression1--but in the ,west the spirit
 of economic organization with no  moral
 purpose goads the people into the      
perpetual pursuit of wealth2 but  has   
this no wholesome limit8    ,the ideals 
that strive to take form in social      
institutions have two  objects4 ,one is 
to regulate our passions and appetites  
for the  harmonious development of man1 
and the other is to help him to         
cultivate  disinterested love for his   
fellow-creatures4 ,therefore society is 
the  expression of those moral and      
spiritual aspirations of man which      
belong  to his higher nature4    ,our   
food is creative1 it builds our body2   
but not so wine1 which  stimulates4 ,our
 social ideals create the human world1  
but when our mind  is diverted from them
 to greed of power then in that state of
  intoxication we live in a world of    
abnormality where our strength is not   
health and our liberty is not freedom4  
,therefore political freedom does  not  

give us freedom when our mind is not    
free4 ,an automobile does not  create   
freedom of movement1 because it is a    
mere machine4 ,when ,i myself  am free  
,i can use the automobile for the       
purpose of my freedom4    ,we must never
 forget in the present day that those   
people who have got  their political    
freedom are not necessarily free1 they  
are merely  powerful4 ,the passions     
which are unbridled in them are creating
 huge  organizations of slavery in the  
disguise of freedom4 ,those who have    
made  the gain of money their highest   
end are unconsciously selling their life
  and soul to rich persons or to the    
combinations that represent money4      
,those who are enamoured of their       
political power and gloat over their    
extension of dominion over foreign races
 gradually surrender their own  freedom 
and humanity to the organizations       
necessary for holding other  peoples in 
slavery4 ,in the so-called free         
countries the majority of the  people   

are not free1 they are driven by the    
minority to a goal which is  not even   
known to them4 ,this becomes possible   
only because people do not  acknowledge 
moral and spiritual freedom as their    
object4 ,they create  huge eddies with  
their passions1 and they feel dizzily   
inebriated with  the mere velocity of   
their whirling movement1 taking that to 
be freedom4  ,but the doom which is     
waiting to overtake them is as certain  
as  death--for man's truth is moral     
truth and his emancipation is in the    
spiritual life4    ,the general opinion 
of the majority of the present-day      
nationalists in  ,india is that we have 
come to a final completeness in our     
social and  spiritual ideals1 the task  
of the constructive work of society     
having  been done several thousand years
 before we were born1 and that now we   
are free to employ all our activities in
 the political direction4 ,we  never    
dream of blaming our social inadequacy  
as the origin of our  present           

helplessness1 for we have accepted as   
the creed of our  nationalism that this 
social system has been perfected for all
 time to  come by our ancestors1 who had
 the superhuman vision of all eternity  
and  supernatural power for making      
infinite provision for future ages4     
,therefore1 for all our miseries and    
shortcomings1 we hold responsible  the  
historical surprises that burst upon us 
from outside4 ,this is the  reason why  
we think that our one task is to build a
 political miracle of  freedom upon the 
quicksand of social slavery4 ,in fact we
 want to dam up  the true course of our 
own historical stream1 and only borrow  
power from  the sources of other        
peoples' history4    ,those of us in    
,india who have come under the delusion 
that mere  political freedom will make  
us free have accepted their lessons from
 the  ,west as the gospel truth and lost
 their faith in humanity4 ,we must      
remember whatever weakness we cherish in
 our society will become the  source of 

danger in politics4 ,the same inertia   
which leads us to our  idolatry of dead 
forms in social institutions will create
 in our  politics prison-houses with    
immovable walls4 ,the narrowness of     
sympathy  which makes it possible for us
 to impose upon a considerable portion  
of  humanity the galling yoke of        
inferiority will assert itself in our   
politics in creating the tyranny of     
injustice4    ,when our nationalists    
talk about ideals they forget that the  
basis of  nationalism is wanting4 ,the  
very people who are upholding these     
ideals  are themselves the most         
conservative in their social practice4  
,nationalists say1 for example1 look at 
,switzerland where1 in spite of  race   
differences1 the peoples have solidified
 into a nation4 ,yet1  remember that in 
,switzerland the races can mingle1 they 
can intermarry1  because they are of the
 same blood4 ,in ,india there is no     
common  birthright4 ,and when we talk of
 ,western ,nationality we forget that   

the  nations there do not have that     
physical repulsion1 one for the other1  
that we have between different castes4  
,have we an instance in the whole  world
 where a people who are not allowed to  
mingle their blood shed  their blood for
 one another except by coercion or for  
mercenary  purposes8 ,and can we ever   
hope that these moral barriers against  
our  race amalgamation will not stand in
 the way of our political unity8        
,then again we must give full           
recognition to this fact that our social
  restrictions are still tyrannical1 so 
much so as to make men cowards4 ,if  a  
man tells me he has heterodox ideas1 but
 that he cannot follow them  because he 
would be socially ostracized1 ,i excuse 
him for having to live  a life of       
untruth1 in order to live at all4 ,the  
social habit of mind  which impels us to
 make the life of our fellow-beings a   
burden to them  where they differ from  
us even in such a thing as their choice 
of food1  is sure to persist in our     

political organization and result in    
creating  engines of coercion to crush  
every rational difference which is the  
sign  of life4 ,and tyranny will only   
add to the inevitable lies and hypocrisy
  in our political life4 ,is the mere   
name of freedom so valuable that we     
should be willing to sacrifice for its  
sake our moral freedom8    ,the         
intemperance of our habits does not     
immediately show its effects  when we   
are in the vigour of our youth4 ,but it 
gradually consumes that  vigour1 and    
when the period of decline sets in then 
we have to settle  accounts and pay off 
our debts1 which leads us to insolvency4
 ,in the  ,west you are still able to   
carry your head high1 though your       
humanity is  suffering every moment from
 its dipsomania of organizing power4    
,india  also in the heyday of her youth 
could carry in her vital organs the dead
  weight of her social organizations    
stiffened to rigid perfection1 but it   
has been fatal to her1 and has produced 

a gradual paralysis of her  living      
nature4 ,and this is the reason why the 
educated community of  ,india has become
 insensible of her social needs4 ,they  
are taking the  very immobility of our  
social structures as the sign of their  
perfection1--and because the healthy    
feeling of pain is dead in the  limbs of
 our social organism they delude        
themselves into thinking that  it needs 
no ministration4 ,therefore they think  
that all their energies  need their only
 scope in the political field4 ,it is   
like a man whose  legs have become      
shrivelled and useless1 trying to delude
 himself that  these limbs have grown   
still because they have attained their  
ultimate  salvation1 and all that is    
wrong about him is the shortness of his 
sticks4    ,so much for the social and  
the political regeneration of ,india4   
,now we  come to her industries1 and ,i 
am very often asked whether there is in 
,india any industrial regeneration since
 the advent of the ,british             

,government4 ,it must be remembered that
 at the beginning of the ,british  rule 
in ,india our industries were           
suppressed1 and since then we have not  
met with any real help or encouragement 
to enable us to make a stand  against   
the monster commercial organizations of 
the world4 ,the nations  have decreed   
that we must remain purely an           
agricultural people1 even  forgetting   
the use of arms for all time to come4   
,thus ,india is being  turned into so   
many predigested morsels of food ready  
to be swallowed at  any moment by any   
nation which has even the most          
rudimentary set of  teeth in its head4  
,india therefore has very little outlet 
for her industrial originality4 ,i      
personally do not believe in the        
unwieldy organizations of the present   
day4 ,the very fact that they are ugly  
shows that they are in discordance  with
 the whole creation4 ,the vast powers of
 nature do not reveal their  truth in   
hideousness1 but in beauty4 ,beauty is  

the signature which the  ,creator stamps
 upon ,his works when ,he is satisfied  
with them4 ,all our  products that      
insolently ignore the laws of perfection
 and are unashamed  in their display of 
ungainliness bear the perpetual weight  
of ,god's  displeasure4 ,so far as your 
commerce lacks the dignity of grace it  
is  untrue4 ,beauty and her twin brother
 ,truth require leisure and             
self-control for their growth4 ,but the 
greed of gain has no time or  limit to  
its capaciousness4 ,its one object is to
 produce and consume4 ,it  has pity     
neither for beautiful nature nor for    
living human beings4 ,it is  ruthlessly 
ready without a moment's hesitation to  
crush beauty and life  out of them1     
moulding them into money4 ,it is this   
ugly vulgarity of  commerce which       
brought upon it the censure of contempt 
in our earlier  days1 when men had      
leisure to have an unclouded vision of  
perfection in  humanity4 ,men in those  
times were rightly ashamed of the       

instinct of  mere money-making4 ,but in 
this scientific age money1 by its very  
abnormal bulk1 has won its throne4 ,and 
when from its eminence of  piled-up     
things it insults the higher instincts  
of man1 banishing beauty  and noble     
sentiments from its surroundings1 we    
submit4 ,for we in our  meanness have   
accepted bribes from its hands and our  
imagination has  grovelled in the dust  
before its immensity of flesh4    ,but  
its very unwieldiness and its endless   
complexities are its true  signs of     
failure4 ,the swimmer who is an expert  
does not exhibit his  muscular force by 
violent movements1 but exhibits some    
power which is  invisible and which     
shows itself in perfect grace and       
reposefulness4 ,the  true distinction of
 man from animals is in his power and   
worth which are  inner and invisible4   
,but the present-day commercial         
civilization of man  is not only taking 
too much time and space but killing time
 and space4  ,its movements are violent1

 its noise is discordantly loud4 ,it is 
carrying its own damnation because it is
 trampling into distortion the  humanity
 upon which it stands4 ,it is           
strenuously turning out money at  the   
cost of happiness4 ,man is reducing     
himself to his minimum in order  to be  
able to make amplest room for his       
organizations4 ,he is deriding  his     
human sentiments into shame because they
 are apt to stand in the way  of his    
machines4    ,in our mythology we have  
the legend that the man who performs    
penances  for attaining immortality has 
to meet with temptations sent by ,indra1
  the ,lord of the immortals4 ,if he is 
lured by them he is lost4 ,the ,west    
has been striving for centuries after   
its goal of immortality4 ,indra has     
sent her the temptation to try her4 ,it 
is the gorgeous temptation of  wealth4  
,she has accepted it1 and her           
civilization of humanity has lost  its  
path in the wilderness of machinery4    
,this commercialism with its barbarity  

of ugly decorations is a terrible       
menace to all humanity1 because it is   
setting up the ideal of power over  that
 of perfection4 ,it is making the cult  
of self-seeking exult in its  naked     
shamelessness4 ,our nerves are more     
delicate than our muscles4  ,things that
 are the most precious in us are        
helpless as babes when we  take away    
from them the careful protection which  
they claim from us for  their very      
preciousness4 ,therefore1 when the      
callous rudeness of power  runs amuck in
 the broad-way of humanity it scares    
away by its grossness  the ideals which 
we have cherished with the martyrdom of 
centuries4    ,the temptation which is  
fatal for the strong is still more so   
for the  weak4 ,and ,i do not welcome it
 in our ,indian life1 even though it be 
sent  by the lord of the ,immortals4    
,let our life be simple in its outer    
aspect  and rich in its inner gain4 ,let
 our civilization take its firm stand   
upon its basis of social co-operation   

and not upon that of economic           
exploitation and conflict4 ,how to do it
 in the teeth of the drainage of  our   
life-blood by the economic dragons is   
the task set before the  thinkers of all
 oriental nations who have faith in the 
human soul4 ,it is  a sign of laziness  
and impotency to accept conditions      
imposed upon us by  others who have     
other ideals than ours4 ,we should      
actively try to adapt  the world powers 
to guide our history to its own perfect 
end4    ,from the above you will know   
that ,i am not an economist4 ,i am      
willing to  acknowledge that there is a 
law of demand and supply and an         
infatuation  of man for more things than
 are good for him4 ,and yet ,i will     
persist in  believing that there is such
 a thing as the harmony of completeness 
in  humanity1 where poverty does not    
take away his riches1 where defeat may  
lead him to victory1 death to           
immortality1 and where in the           
compensation  of ,eternal ,justice those

 who are the last may yet have their    
insult  transmuted into a golden        
triumph4          ,,the ,,sunset ,,of   
,,the ,,century    7,written in the     
,bengali on the last day of last        
century7      #a         ,the last sun  
of the century sets amidst the blood-red
 clouds of the         ,west and the    
whirlwind of hatred4       ,the naked   
passion of self-love of ,nations1 in its
 drunken delirium         of greed1 is  
dancing to the clash of steel and the   
howling verses         of vengeance4    
#b         ,the hungry self of the      
,nation shall burst in a violence of    
fury from         its own shameless     
feeding4       ,for it has made the     
world its food1       ,and licking it1  
crunching it and swallowing it in big   
morsels1               ,it swells and   
swells       ,till in the midst of its  
unholy feast descends the sudden shaft  
of         heaven piercing its heart of 
grossness4      #c         ,the crimson 
glow of light on the horizon is not the 

light of thy         dawn of peace1 my  
,motherland4       ,it is the glimmer of
 the funeral pyre burning to ashes the  
vast         flesh1--the self-love of   
the ,nation--dead under its own excess4 
,thy morning waits behind the patient   
dark of the ,east1               ,meek  
and silent4      #d         ,keep watch1
 ,india4       ,bring your offerings of 
worship for that sacred sunrise4        
,let the first hymn of its welcome sound
 in your voice and sing       ,come1    
,peace1 thou daughter of ,god's own     
great suffering4       ,come with thy   
treasure of contentment1 the sword of   
fortitude1               ,and meekness  
crowning thy forehead4      #e          
,be not ashamed1 my brothers1 to stand  
before the proud and the                
powerful               ,with your white 
robe of simpleness4       ,let your     
crown be of humility1 your freedom the  
freedom of the         soul4            
,build ,god's throne daily upon the     
ample bareness of your poverty          

,and know that what is huge is not great
 and pride is not         everlasting4  
,,the ,,end      ,printed by ,r4  ,r4   
,,clark1 ,,limited1 ,edinburgh4