Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1916-12-03
INDIA FINDS
INSPIRATION
Era of Passionate Literature
Has Gone With Growth
Of Western Ideas.
REVIVAL OF RACIAL SPIRIT
New Light Has Come From
the West to Land Of
Mystics.

tcopyrlght 1915 by The Associated prcss.)
SfMLA, India, Dec. 2.-Sardar
Jogendra Singh, the Indian poet,
! philosopher and novelist, talking with
. correspondent Of the Associated
Press discussed the meaning OF the
changes that have marked the works
of the more recent writers of this
country. The sardar. member Of
the modern school of Indian literary
men and women who have, to n large
extent, adopted the English language
as the vehicle for their thots, declared
that he could SEQ the dawn of n new
literature breaking over india. Tho
influence that was ushering in this
era. he added, was eminating not from
the east but from the west.
The sardar deVotes most of his timo
to writing or to studying the problems
of life. Eight months of tho year he
spends travelling about the Punjab
and other provinces, partly for the
purpose Of looking over his estates
but principally to add to his knowl-
edge Of humanity. for on these trips
he lives among the laboring people.
During the summer he Is here in
Simla, India's hot weather capital.
His home is built high up on the side
of one OF the myriad mountains of
this region, overlooking ravine-llke
y u
colored hills which are typical OF the
Himalayas, Here he dreams and
writes. utilizing the information that
he has gathered thru the season
passed.
Interested In Things American.
A keen student Of western methods
an ideals, the sardar takes particular
interest in the United States. a coun-
try which he has not yet visited. Nat
urally. as writer his thots turn
most often to literature, and there is
scarcely one of the well known Amer
lean authors whose works he has not
read. He finds great delight in these
books because. as he says, so many
of them are based on the actualities
of life He was curious to know
whether Americans cared for oriental
poetry such as produced by Omar
khayyam, Il favorite with him. When
told that not only was the Persian
poet widely read in the United States
but that many people knew much OF
his verse by heart he was greatly
pleased.
When the sardar was asked to ex-
press for publication his views on In
dian literature and its future he was
requested to do so in the form of a
written statement. This he consented
TO, and gave the correspondent an
dIlltlt WUltn NOT OnlN presents tut
sardar's beliefs but shows something
of the new style OF writing developed
In the east. Here is what the sardar
wrote.
Literature Shows National Life.
'You have asked me difficult
question. The growth of literature is
the growth of a nation; its painted
story, set in relief by high and low
lights of Imagination. After long ages
India is awakening from a heavy
slumber, seeking freedom from va
poury dreams. II is not from the east
this time but from the west that the
light has come and touched the eye
lids of the sleeper. 1t has awakened
once more national emotions and a
passion for high matters of human
progress. With the awakening has
come the dawn of new literature.
THE days that are gone were bank
rupt of any inspiring conceptions OF
human progress, and dreaFlly COM
monplace, The spiritual realm be-
yond the bounds Of phenomena was
only real to the elect and vaguely in
definite to the many. Life was not to
be lived as n JOY forever. but to be
regarded as a dolusion. What we saw
and heard with our eyes and ears was
unreal utterly Incomplete and use
less. The impulse of passion must he
crushed to reach the realm OF reality.
Men burning with high emotions
turned their thots to the inner world,
and all literary effort was confined
to the writing Of commentaries. The
soul of the country found expression
in common village songs-soul. emo
tiCns that In a moment OF piercing
passion passed the lips and shaped
irto sweet sad. swooning refrains,
that rise and fall. echo and re-echo,
in the silent hills or the solitary wide
spread plains:
'Khujva Tairi Mairi Hansa di Juri!
: q w6nderer. thou and
Make n wonderous pair Of swans
india In decadeuce was not alto
gether without tho consolidation of
high thots Tulsi Dass, whose tender
melodies are on the lips Of almost
every one discovered n new way for
the ardent spirits to lose self IN tho
love Of God and gain immortal self.
He did not try to reason out faith, or
hind the absolute into intellectual con-
ceptions. He opened out fresh foun-
tains OF faith to sweep away all mis-
givings. He spoke with a sweetness
and spirituality at once beautiful and
ter der, which seems 20 transmuta tho
finite universe OF light and shadows
into endless reality,
Lights of a Bygonc Era.
THE Mohammedan period had its
d8Vs OF glory Mon like Abul FnZnl