Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-09

were suspicious, DuC LflaC was crltlCdl
period and they were suspicious of
everything, but lately successive gov
errors of the province have visited my
institution and the viceroy too has been
there and they were favorably i'm
pressed by the work that was being
done there.
Talking about suspicious, Mr. Gour-
ley, who was the private secretary to
the government of Bengal, told me
that he saw in the Japanese papers
reports from America that I was re-
ceiving German money and was carry
ing on an anti-allied propaganda in
the guise of idealism.
1T was during the war that also
America in which I was accused of
presuming upon the generosity of
Americans and of misusing their hos
pitality. I sent q long cable to Presi-
dent Wilson, but had no acknowl-
edgment of it."
Finds Widespread Misery.
do you think that the poverty Of
India is due to a lack OF organization
or to obsolete methods of production or
to overproduction?"
II think overpopulation is greatly re-
sponsible for the poverty, but it seems
to me that the fundamental cause of
poverty is the dislocation of ancient
resources, which were the villages. A
spontaneous adjustment is essential,
but 1t must be a living and not a
mechanical thing. The people have lost
their center of balance, due to the
breakup of the old system. There is
unbelievable misery in the villages.
Boys of my institution have reported
to me some of the things they have
seen in their excurSionS-ruined vii
lagos, ravages of malaria and the in
describable poverty of the people.
They have lost their Zest for life,
and thus fall easy victims to anything
that comes along-famine, cholera,
malaria, influenza. They passively
government has begun to realize the
truth of what I have said. The Royal
Commission of Agriculture and such
like movements are only visible signs
of their awakening In my opinion
the only problem before us is to find
again the ancient life stream of the
villages. I have started to try and find
a solution to the problem in my own
small way at my institution"
us the dislocation due to the coming
of the British?"
Discomfort Spreading.
"The dissolution of the village system
is coincidental with the coming of the
Westerners. The change in the eco
nomic system dislocated the whole
structure. At first this was not so
apparent, but every day the sign of
decay is becoming more and more EVIL
dent and discomfort is spreading The
present discomfort in India has an
economic basis, and it is due to the
dislocation of the ancient system"
do you foresee India as an inde-
pendent nation?"
1T is a truism to say that we want
We should all want it.
But the real problem Is how to have
it. do not quite understand what
the Indian National Congress meant by
the resolution it passed this year de-
independence within the year.
Unfortunately independence cannot be
had by unanimous vote of the Con-
greSs. sometimes think that when
they were about 1t they we're too
modest. They might have demanded
the subsection of England. You cannot
have independence Immediately unless
things change.
india has a unique problem, which
is really the world problem of today
in miniature. No other country has
ohNAA q FdAACby Va PNOPACoS dAAA
languages as India. Europe had the
class problem, but never the race prob
lem. They have got over the class
problem through revolutions, but the
race problem is the problem of the
world today. We have to think deeply
how to find a solution to it. For I'M
less we solve it we shall be miserable
failures. In India all great minds have
been thinking on this problem through
the centuries.
1.-THE history of Western nations is
merely political history, while the his
tory of India with all its problems
is mainly social. A chain of great
through the ages from Nanak,
Dadu, Kavir, Rommohan Roy, Ranade
have all tackled this problem Of race,
but it has only lately been interpreted
by schoolboys training in European
schools who would copy the history of
other countries. But our own history
is totally different, and the really great
man tries to bring about reconciliation
Of the divergent races"
Foreign Music Hard to Understand.
What do you think of Western
1T seems to me very strange that
the language Of music Is not universal.
It is always very difficult to appreciate
foreign music. You yourselves, though
you may have some particular favoriteS
among the composers, understand
Western music. But Oriental music
has no real appeal for you. The same
is true about Western music to most
of us. When I first went to Europe IN
the '70s I heard a prima donna sing at
Brighton. think it was Mime. Nilsson.
/ felt that the music had some great
quality, otherwise 1t could not move
deeply so many intelligent people, so
I kept my mind absolutely neutral, but
could not understand it.
Mime. Nelson's songs had something
to do with the nightingale, and there
was mimicry of the nightingales notes
in it. 1t seemed to me funny that you
should show your appreciation OF bro
song by trying to initiate it, But by
hearing more of European music came
to appreciate it, though my apprecla-
ton may not always be correct, accord
ing to European standards. When 1
was in Europe some time ago young
Hungarian girl, who is now giving re-
citalS in New York, / am told, played
the violin for me. I was very deeply
moved. 1t was great music, with great
power and beauty. cannot understand
Chinese music. 1t seems beyond me"
Terms Civilization Cannibalistic.
els not the drift from the village to
the cities found all over the world. We
have it in the States, especially in the
Southern States?"
but aren't YOU afraid of it. I think
civilization is cannibalistic. Villages
are being eaten up by the cities. That
is what happened in Greece and Rome.
Towns are too eXtortionate. The
enormous resources of the earth are
being utterly wasted by spendthrift
way of living. 1 fear some day the
earth will be like the moon-barren
and lifeless. I sometimes think that
the moon was inhabited by race OF
very intelligent people who dug deep
into the soil, cut down the forest and
exploited recklessly the resources until
it became mere hulk, unable to sup
port any life"