Evening star., 1937-11-07
INDIA ADOPTS MACHINES
BUT STAYS THEIR MASTER
Western Innovations Found Useful and
Even Necessary, but They Don't Dis.
turb the Calmness of Life.


minded Of their own cantonments in
India.
Nonetheless, they. are quick to use
any inventions which conform with
their customs or simplify them. Right
across Moslem India the rising of the
new moon that marks the end of the
four-week fast Of Ramadan Is reported
by radio.
Progress Is a word like any other in
India, and think my servant doubted
whether, with all our getting in the
West, We have gotten inner wisdom.
Sometimes I doubt it myself. The
civilization of India is much older
than our own and has different sense
Of values-someti1nes a truer sense of
values.
Indian cinema stars, for instance.
enjoy privacy denied to the con-
stellations Of Hollywood. Gossip
writers are almost unknown, and it
would be impossible to aruose public
INTEREST," in the private life OF an
actress. Parents, however, are begin
ming to fear this influence from the
West on their children II have no.
ticed screen love-making between two
tiny tots in my home," wrote Bombay
parent to daily paper, land I shud-
der to think what these children will
do when they grow up and have more
opportunities to visit the cinema"
Personally think these shudders
are misplaced The stage-struck shop
girl is a phenomenon confined to Eu-
rope and America. Asia is closer to
realities, less involved in dangerous
complexes.
Actresses in India.
Mrs. Himansu Raj the lovely and
accomplished star of Bombay talkies,
whose stage name is Devi-ka-rani
Queen of the Goddesses), has made
some delicious studies of modern life,
as well as Of the mythical characters
OF the old Hindu epics. For many
years the Indian screen will show these
ancient stories of the gods coming
down to love the daughters OF men or
to attack the money-demons Of Ceylon,
in preference to boys meeting girls.
But the gods and the demons will be
transferred from their heaven to the
screen by means of the most modern
equipment. I visited the laboratories
of the Bombay talkies and found there
young Indians dealing with sound
track synchronizers, cutting machines,
professors and other highly technical
apparatus, with the same skill, the
co me CT af r
had found in the Bose Institute or the
Kohat Pass.
There is no doubt that India Is
being modernized and industrialized,
but it is happening quite casually.
Sometimes it seems to me as if the
West had spent itself in giving birth
to our marvellous inventions, and now
had no psychic energy left to direct
and control them, so that one day they
may destroy us.
India. on the contrary, has adopted
mass production in the cotton mills of
Bombay, the jute factories Of CAL
cutta and the Tata steel works almost
in her sleep. There are things on her
horizon infinitely more important
than production lines and looms and
annealing presses. Nowhere will you
see the tired business man, the quick
lunch counter, the scurry and rush of
our great, proud, cruel slightly insane
cities. India refuses to take our
civilization seriously.
When Sir Anand Sarup, the leader
of the Radhasoamis, determined to
industrialize Dayalbagh he enjoined
his followers (who now number two
thonsand) to abstain from idle polit-
ical discussion and to get to work
along Western lines. God meant us
to use machines, he preached-God
means us to make the world a gar
den and to live happily in it, making
by our brows' sweat continual prom
Use of increase. The results have been |
amazing.
Here in Dayalbagh Is the answer
to what machines can do for India. |
Where there was waste land and |
misery 20 years ago there is now |
a flourishing community, we'll fed,
well housed and at peace with itself |
and its neighbors. And Sir Amand |
intends to extend his range. Radio is
still In its infancy in India. but it has
enormous possibilities. One day Day.
albagh may have its own transmitting
station and will surely be turning out
receivers by the hundred thousand.
The Radhasoamis are doing much |
more than proving that the Indian is
q capable and versatile craftsman, |
for We knew that already; they are,
I believe in all seriousness, showing |
the world a new way of life. /