New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-21
India: Paradise Of the
Imaginative Story Teller
Talbot Mundy, Explaining Why He Wrote Guns
of the Gods, Describes Eastern Land as
Treasure House of Romance

ouC us lndlan adherentS. That is one
side Of the medal. On the other, from
the time when the first words of his
tory were written down to this minute.
there never has been a deed of heroism
elsewhere that India could not rival ten
times over, or on occasion surpass.
Because we are SO close to our own.
our lntrigues and heroisms have wav
of looking drab and commonplace: we
nave forgotten or deliberately sloughed
the art of being picturesque, and we
are hardly ever consciously romantic
for fear some one may laugh at us Cor
the censor intervene). But thank
heaven, we can still appreciate
romance; and because enjoyment of
the picturesque has not yet all been
tutored out of us by our self-elected
high priests of efficiency and imposers
of reach me down morals, most of US
are conscious in degree of sometime
lacking in our western scheme of
things, splendid though it's trappings
are.
That which is lacking India can sup
ply in inexhaustible profusion. The
whole of the East. from China TO
Jerusalem, is far from satisfied that
the West has much to teach worth
learning; and India, for instance, Just
now staggering in the first efforts at
constitutional self government. is
quite sure she can teach us a lot. if
only of the art of being entertaining.
Her treasures Of romance are almost
unexpected, and look out for the neo-
ole that is nurturcd on romance,
The chief cause underlvinr tho COL
cred mystery of India is that, whereas
her men have been in the public eve
and have taken all credit for accom-
pllshment, they have really been rather
ike marionettes controlled by the wom
en- from behind the screens that hide
the wires they pull. There could be no
greatest mistake than to suppose that
the harem and zenana-the purdah as
they gall it-have done anything but
multiply the women's power while
partly suppressing their personal lib
erty That is always the way suppress
sion works.
Those women are better versed in
intrigue and better able to see through
the unwise pretenses of the so-called
stronger sex, than any other stratum
of the worlds inhabitants. Little bv
little they are beginning to force their
way out past the veil now, armed with
all their store Of understanding. lack
ing nothing but the mechanical trap
pings of modern education, which anv
fool can learn. They are going to show
us few things presently that will
make our most wise men (and women)
stand and gasp.
SO Guns of the Gods cot writ
ten. Being a lover of India, even lin
her tantrums, which are womanlike
and fierce and swiftly over, | have
written story without moral (be-
cause Wcsterners don't understand
Eastern morals> simply to provide
'Nti'c SHccl ointment IN an Indian TO
mantle setting. The royal heroine of
il has appraised the West with mer-
rily discerning eye; she is awake to
opportunity year or two, perhaps
ahead of time, and convinced in her
heart of hearts of three things: that
woman is wiser than man, that the
East knows more than the West will
be able to learn in thousand wears
and that life without its proper bloom
of derring-do and chivalry is a fraud
and an imposition.
have set the story few years back
lr order to avoid the risk of holding
up any man alive to ridicule. and with
the deliberate purpose of writing moth
ing that could be twisted into propa-
ganda, with which our latter dav is
cursed; but not far enough back to be
out Of focus through the tense Of 1921