Sunday, January 11, 2015

ALCOHOL AND THE HUMAN BODY.

    The recent admirable presentation of this theme by Sir Victor Horsley, forms the basis for the following remarks. New and surprising discoveries have been made within recent years as to alcohol and its effects upon the human body. There is today an abundance of indisputable experimental and statistical evidence proving that alcohol, instead of aiding the human economy, as at first supposed, does actual harm to the structure and functions of the different organs of the body. The decrease in the use of alcohol by medical practitioners is indicated by the following fact: - The statistics of seven large London Hospitals in 1852 show that nearly £8,000 were spent on alcohol and only £3,000 on milk; but on 1902 less than £3,000 were spent on alcohol and more than £8,000 on milk.

THE NATURE OF ALCOHOL.

    In pharmacology alcohol is classed as poison. It belongs to the same class as carbolic acid and creosote Carbolic acid only differs from ethylic alcohol or wine spirit by containing four more atoms of carbon. Alcohol is obtained by the distillation of fermented liquids and may be said to be the waste product of the yeast plant. This micro-organism, which exists in the air, produces a ferment which acts upon certain sugars splitting them up into water, alcohol and carbonic acid gas. Strange to say, the growth and multiplication of the yeast plant ceases when the alcohol in the solution reaches 18 percent. The effect to alcohol on the human body is due largely to properties it possesses as a physical and chemical agent. In relation to organized bodies it may be said to be irritant, stimulant, narcotic and anesthetic. Even a dilute solution will produce intense inflammation when dropped on a raw surface. An eminent English scientist says: - "Alcohol, as a stimulant, is something which takes strength out of a man instead of putting it in him." The first seeming exhilaration is followed by a depressant effect. Its properties as a desiccant may be shown by the following experiment: - "Place in a goblet the whites of two or three eggs from which the yolks have been carefully removed. Now add two or three tablespoonful's of strong alcohol. In a minute or two the colorless, transparent albumen will become a white, opaque and hard." It is due in part, to this drying property that alcohol does its harmful work, and this is the reason that alcoholic drinks instead of allaying thirst, usually create a thirst for more.

    Alcoholic beverages may de divided into three classes: - (1) Beers – ale, beer, stout and porter – containing from 4 to 7 percent of alcohol; (2) Wines, including some fifty varieties: - containing from 9 to 22 percent; (3) Spirits – gin, brandy, whisky and rum – containing from 40 to 56 percent of strong alcohol. All animals do their work without the aid of these artificial drinks which are opposed to the first desires of man and which contain necessary to the up building of the body. The natural drinks are quite sufficient. In milk, 12 parts in 100 are solid, providing saline substances for the skeleton, butter and sugar for the heat and power, and casein for the muscle and new structures.


 


 

Action of Alcohol on the Body.

    In considering the action of alcohol on the body we must learn to think in terms of protoplasm, of which the cells constituting the ultimate basis of human life are actually made. The living protoplasm implies the power of life, vitality and change. It is the name given to the elemental material out of which all living animal and vegetable matter is formed and which is composed of albuminous substances, salts and water. The aggregate cell action is important. As the working people of a nation are gathered together into factories, so the cells of the body are packed into organs, and these do their work well or badly according to the condition of the individual cells, whether these are healthy or more or less exhausted, degenerated or poisoned. The health of the cells depends wholly upon the condition of the protoplasm and nuclei of which the cell consists. Now alcohol has been proved to be a definite protoplasmic poison. By seizing upon the oxygen of the blood it interferes with the breathing function of the living protoplasm. It causes the cells to shrink and to become mottled, preventing them from taking in the required oxygen. The necessary oxidization of the fats and starches taken into the body is therefore lessened, causing very serious fatty degeneration and other maladies. Even very dilute solutions of alcohol exert an inhibitory and, indeed, fatal influence on the processes of life. It was found that one part of alcohol in a hundred of water actually killed the cress seeds; one part in one thousand was fatal to the Medusa, the fresh water jelly-fish. Rauber found that a 10 percent solution of alcohol acted as a definite protoplasmic poison to all forms of cell-life with which he experimented, including the hydra tapeworms, earthworms, leeches, cray=fish and mammals, as well as the human subject.

    The stomach, being a hollow muscle, is more easily examined. Alexis St. Martin's stomach was perforated by a gun-shot. It healed so that a permanent opening was made. He lived to a good old age and enjoyed excellent health. This man was employed for years by Dr. Beaumont, who watched the effect of alcoholic drinks upon the stomach. It was found that even small doses would cause the blood-vessels to appear, denoting inflammation and congestion. When alcoholic drinks were given daily in large quantities, in addition to the dilatation of the blood-vessels, large bluish patches appeared indication stagnation of the blood, likely to cause death of the tissues and ulceration. Even small quantities of alcohol have been proved to be hurtful to the processes of digestion. Dr. Munroe of Hull, placed in three bottles nely minced beef together with the gastric juice from the stomach of a calf. In one he poured water, in another alcohol, and in another pale ale. The temperature was kept at 100 degrees and the contents churned in imitation of the natural movements of the stomach. After four hours it was found that beef in the first bottle was digesting and separating, that in the second was still unchanged, while that in the third seemed to be covered with a fur. After ten hours the beef in the first was dissolved like soup that in the second was still solid, while that in third was not digested and pepsin was precipitated.

THE MUSCLE.

    Under the microscope nothing is more beautiful than healthy muscular fiber; but under the influence of alcohol the sharp lines become obliterated, globules of fat appear and the muscle becomes soft and flabby. Dr. Parkes experimented as follows: - A number of soldiers of the same age, type of constitution and living under the same circumstances were divided into an alcoholic and non-alcoholic gang. They were paid according to the amount of work accomplished. At the end of a few days the beer-drinking men begged to be transferred to the non-alcoholic gang. In the Boer War it is stated that the wonderful power and endurance of the Boers were largely due to their total abstinence from spirituous drinks. In reference to Ladysmith Sir Frederick Treves said: - "In that enormous column of 80,00 the first men who dropped out were not the tall men or short men, the big men or little men – they were the drinkers, and they dropped out as clearly as if they had been labelled with big letters on their backs." Alcohol being a narcotic poison not only lessens the quantity of work but injures the quality. Total abstainers are the best athletes, the best marksmen and the most enduring workmen in the world.

THE BRAIN.

    It has always been deemed that alcohol quickens thought but there is today abundant proof that it influences adversely the fine brain cells and centers of highest intellectual development. By testing type-setters with and without alcohol it was found that in the former condition the loss of working power was 8-7 percent. Mental processes of a somewhat complicated character have been tested as follows: - The subject would place each hand on a telegraph key at right and left. One key or the other was to be pressed promptly according as a red or white light appeared. It was necessary, therefore to recognize the color of the light and to recall which hand was to be moved at that particular signal; that is to make a choice not unlike that which an engineer is required to make when he encounters an unexpected signal light. The tests showed that after taking a small quantity of alcohol – say a glass of beer – there was a marked disturbance in the mental processes. On the average this keys were released more rapidly but the wrong key was much more frequently released than under normal circumstances. Speed was attained at the cost of correct judgment. As Dr. Steer remarks, 'the experiment reveals the elements of two of the most persistent effects of alcohol, namely, the vitiating of mental processes and the increased tendency to hasty or in coordinate movements. A levelling down process is involved whereby the higher function is dulled and the lower function accentuated.'

    Sir Victor Horsley, in addition to the diseases due to alcohol alone, enumerates some thirty diseases of which alcohol is frequently a determining or contributing cause. Among these are mentioned chronic dyspepsia, consumption, catarrh, out, paralysis, epilepsy, imbecility, insanity, hysteria, and melancholia. Infectious diseases, such as cholera, diphtheria, etc., are less liable to be cured if the patient has been accustomed to the free use of alcoholic beverages. Dr. Arthur Newsholme has forcibly shown that alcohol is the greatest enemy to national health and well beings. It is the cause of 50 percent of the insanity and pauperism and 75 percent of the crime, and is a great shortener of life. All who have seriously considered this subject agree that it is dreadful thing to give alcoholic beverages to children, as they tend to blunt the intellect, deaden the conscience, diminish the will-power, lessen vigor and excite the animal instincts. The late Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, F. R. S, M. D., said: - "The use of alcohol as a beverage produces an infinity of evil for which there is no compensation and no human cure." In view of the facts, is there not a little wisdom in Shakespeare's injunction to "beware of putting an enemy in your mouth to steal away your brain." – M. M.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

THE TEACHER'S OUTLOOK IN INDIA.

    According to common belief certain professions are useful, some are paying and certain others are dignified. It is held that professions which involve technical knowledge of use for the industrial regeneration of the country, that of law paying, that of medicine of great utility and good and those under the Government dignified. But the avocation of the teacher is, not supposed to be worth speaking of. Anybody is considered to be good enough to drill boys through reading and writing. The significance of the teacher's function of training the intellect, directing the emotions and shaping the character is not, recognized. In our anxiety to get on in life we lose sight of the fact that education is much more than filling the mind with knowledge. For what after all is the end in life as it presents itself before the national mind, but the acquisition of a certain amount of knowledge which will enable the people to live well or ill? It was not thought so in the ancient days. Learning, and enlightenment were esteemed above everything else. Brihaspati was the preceptor of the gods. The gods consulted him and acted as he dictated. When the Asuras schemed against the celestials and even Indra's wisdom was perplexed, it was the teacher's insight that led the gods to victory. In the councils of Indra none was deemed wiser than he. The kings bowed before the superior wisdom of the Rishis. The sages, poor but in the wealth of wisdom dictated the policies of states, guided and controlled the destinies of the people. In Ancient India, it was recognized beyond the shadow of doubt, that the function of the teacher was greater than even that of the ruler. India did not know of a monarch too proud to do homage to the wise man. It was not the purely religious teacher alone that received this veneration. The secular teacher was no less respected. Greater respect was paid to none other than to Drona and Bhishma.

    But with the decadence of national power in this country, there has resulted a famishing of the national mind. The people having lost sight of a national objective have ignored the importance of the function which its teachers have to discharge in directing and shaping the national life. They are not aware of the full measure of the power of the teacher in the working out of their salvation. It is true that a country attains its salvation through economic, development, social amelioration and political regeneration; but who is most capable of directing the energies of the country except the teacher into whose charge the shaping of the minds of the youth is entrusted? It is therefore a sacred trust, this shaping of the minds of the youth who constitute the future nation. He is a poor teacher indeed who does not feel this impulse. He does not see far ahead. He lacks the vision to see the glorious culmination of his work. He is wanting in hope, in a faith in Providence who intends and ordains all things for good. The practical difficulties and the petty details that belong to the exercise of the function will not cloud his eyes, if there is present in him the consciousness of the promise and the divine nature of his avocation.

    The teacher's outlook then is the regeneration of the country. If he lives in a faith in his mission and draws his inspiration from it, then he needs no other incentive to call forth all the strength he is capable of.

    A people live their life usefully, only when they have manifested and realized among themselves, the highest power for good which human nature is capable of developing. They do not do it unless their religious belief and moral conduct reflect however feebly the wisdom and benevolence of God. They do not do it, unless they realize and work out in their relations of one to another, a measure of the power and freedom of the soul. The problems that confront the teacher are therefore religious, social and those that concern the common life of the people as a whole.

    The religio-national problem in India is at least as old as Buddha. The superficial observer sees only diversity and strife among the innumerable faiths of India. It is true that there must be a certain amount of diversity, for India is a continent and her people number millions. But in this diversity however there is the promise of a unity. From the hills and valleys of India, from the myriad throats, one voice is raised to the skies "Unify us, O Lord, that we might be a power, and that Thy glory might be fulfilled." The central note of the evolution of religious thought in India has been a striving after unity. From the days of Vignana Bhikshu the great philosopher who established that the six systems of Indian philosophy had a common platform, down to the days of Sree Ramakrishna, the prophet of modern India the spirit has been the same. The Blessed Buddha, the first great prophet and religious reformer of the world breathed this unifying spirit into Indian thought. He declared was against the life-less formation of old and proclaimed that spirituality was not the special heritage of a hierarchy but belonged to all men alike. He it was that first saw that salvation of India should come through the masses. He preached therefore a religion of kindness and humanity. Buddhism was essentially a religion for the down-trodden and the helpless. Buddha was the first to conceive and introduce into religion, the idea of conversion and in those days, conversion largely meant the uplifting of the lower classes. This religion of love spread far and wide and illumined the dark corners of India. It filled the proud Aryans with love for the dark aborigines and they looked upon them as brothers. Buddhism was thus the first contribution of Indian thought to an idea of nationality. The general awakening that followed in the wake of the propagation of Gautama's Dharma resulted in a corresponding quickening of all the activities of national life under the Emperor Asoka and his successors. Buddhism sent into the Indian world the first impulse to weld the different races into one. The teachings of every other religious teacher who came after Lord Buddha have also tended to unify the religious consciousness of the people. Sree Sankara's great philosophy which taught the identity of the whole existence with Iswara, gives real life to the idea of national unity, for from that stand-point the whole nations is an incarnation of God. The keynote of the Adwaita philosophy is that the Pariah and the Brahman are essentially one. Mahadeva is said to have proved it to Sree Sankara at the seat of Hindu Sanctity – Benares by revealing himself through a despised Chandala. The same spirit is seen in the cosmopolitanism of Sree Ramanuja, Sree Madhwa, Sree Chaitanya and others of blessed memory viz Nanak, Tukaram and Ram Mohan Roy.    

    The duty of the teacher, therefore is to develop and foster this sense of religious unity. The religious education of the present should bot perpetuate ritualism which will only tend to accentuate the already existing differences, but foster the consciousness of the divine immanence in man. The people must realize their one-ness. This consciousness of the unity of all men in the supreme, is the contribution of Hinduism to world's religious thought and it shall finally solve the religious problem of the world.

    Other religious systems have also supplied as with certain ideals. Islam presents us with an ideal of aggressiveness. But our national ideal of aggressiveness should not be one whose path is devastated by fire and sword, but one whose track will be paved with the love of God and love of man. The great religion of Lord Jesus Christ presents before us the ideal of suffering. There could have been no resurrection but for the crucifixion. Suffering has to be endured in the achievement of all ends. India has to draw upon these lessons as well in the working out of her destiny.

    The teacher in presenting these truths before his people must in no way dogmatize. Reason must be appealed to, but authority should not be allowed to stifle one's own judgment. The teaching of the Vedanta is that the self should be developed and the self cannot be developed if freedom of thought and action are denied to the individual in religion. The working out of the idea of personal freedom in religion will also solve the social problem in India. The one thing which is at the bottom of caste of the denying of education to women and of the anomalous way of our contracting the marriage relationship is a negation of this freedom of the individual.

    The institution of caste with its unmeaning and unreasonable restrictions does not afford any scope for the exercise of personal judgment and individual freedom. Life under such conditions produces a set in whom thought and action do not bear any relation to each other; such men may have brilliant ideas and good convictions, but can never translate them into action. This characteristic crystallizes into a racial habit of ineptitude for action.

    The denial of the right of personal judgment freedom to woman has a pervicians effect upon society as a whole. Our incapacity to our as we think is to be traced to the stifling of personality in our institutions and the primary relations of life. The absence of a desire to assert ourselves in life is the direct out come of the educational methods that have been in vogue in our country from time immemorial.

    A reference to some of the smritis e.g. the Apastamba Dharma Sutras will reveal the extreme rigorous nature of educational discipline. Hard and fast rules of discipline are good; but utter self-abnegation is not always conducive to the development of virtue. In the ancient ideal there was a complete surrender of the will and judgment of the discipline in favor of the will and judgment of the Guru. Throughout the whole course of education the discipline had to submit to outside direction in which his own will and judgment had no share.

    In the sphere of Hindu philosophy mere authority of an individual this however great was not acknowledged. The Hindu as a thinker could propound the most heretical views; but as a member of the particular community be had most slavishly to observe the customary ritual. Freedom was acknowledged in thought, but freedom in action was never dreamt of.

    As even today, teachers and parents have not ceased to believe in the efficacy of blind reverence and still insist, on unreasoning obedience on the part of the young a few words on obedience required of the youth will not be out of place.

    In obedience after all a great virtue? A virtue, in the human race is the quality which is held beneficial to it at a particular stage of its evolution. Obedience involves the surrender of both judgment and will. Is this submission to outside direction of sufficient value to the human race to be called a virtue? Assuredly it is, sometimes, when corporate action is required as in the case of soldiers and sailors. When this virtue is inculcated to the young, it is always an element of danger that is thought of; and stories of young animals are designed to show that the disobedient little beast is always exposed to danger and the obedient saved.

    This indicates the real basis of our respect for obedience. In the case of soldiers and sailors, obedience is necessary, because military and nautical action are essentially collective and instantaneous and too intricate for that easy understanding which would allow of swift common action on individual initiative. Under such circumstances, obedience is, indeed, a virtue, and disobedience the unpardonable sin.

    And in the case of animals, we have a case where the young are to act on stunhi which are perceptible to the mother, but not to the young. The mother cannot explain. There is not the power of speech, even if there were time. A sudden silent danger requires a sudden silent escape. Under the pressure of such conditions is evolved in the animals a degree of absolutely instinctive and automatic obedience as is shown in the beautiful story of the little partridges flattening themselves into effacement on a warning signal from their mother.

    In the absence of intelligence to give or receive explanation such a state of matters is conducive to good and necessary. But is this quality which is so essential in the rearing of young animals equally necessary in human education? Teachers and parents will of course urge that their task of training and education the young would become simply impossible unless obedience is exacted from the young. But they seem to ignore that there is inherent in human nature a willingness to defer to a superior intelligence as there is a desire in it to command. Human children have a consideration for those who are superior to them in age and wisdom; obedience may be insisted on in extreme cases of willful refractoriness; but an insistence upon on no account be made altogether arbitrary and whimsical. Obedience must not be set up as Fetish. The deification of obedience and the unreasoning worship accorded to authority in all our ancient methods of education are responsible for the racial habit of incapacity to do what we think.

    So in education, the teacher has to direct his special attention to the training and developing of a sense of personal freedom and a capacity to exercise individual judgment; for on a cultivation of these virtues will depend in a great measure the solution of our religious and social problems.

    The end of religion is the attainment of salvation for the soul; but its test of goodness on the earth is that it enables a man to live a life of the highest utility to himself and to the society of which he is a member. Religion is not a set of rules which have no bearing on actual life. If the views of the life hereafter which a nation entertains do not enable it to live this life now and on this earth properly then the religion which inculcates such views fails to satisfy the condition that every religion ought to satisfy. Hence the connection between religion and human affairs is intimate. Spirituality is the great motive force of all effort and conduct. There can be no real social progress unless Heaven lights up our path thereto. Hence religion has to permeate and infuse life into all our social relations.

    Our social amelioration is on the other hand not for its own sake. If we are not a nation and if we have not a destiny to work out then our efforts at improving our institutions are meaningless and in vain. Hence it is also incumbent on the teacher to strive after a development of the national consciousness. It is a faith in the unity and common interest of the Indian races. What is national consciousness? This teacher has to develop it, by cultivating a sympathy in the minds of the young for suffering endured by people in a distant part of the country and joy at the achievements of a certain province. Now it may be devastation by earthquake or a dire disease in a particular province for which the body's sympathies are quickened and at another time the achievement of a province for which the boy's admiration and rejoicing are called forth. This is essential for provinciation must disappear before the Indian races can be welded into a single nation. Is it after all difficult? Do we not worship the same gods and are not our sacred heroes the same? Does not the whole of India weep at the woes of Rama and Sita? Our religions heritage is the same, the inner current of our social life is the same and our aspirations are cast in the same mould. Why then should it be difficult to rouse a national consciousness?

    The elements that constitute it are love of the country and faith in the power of the nation to workout its destiny.

    Love of country, implies love for the ignorant masses of the country primarily. Can there be a greater privilege than to love one's fellowmen. It enlarges the heart and fills the soul with glory which can only come from God. To think of their welfare and contribute one's little share towards their betterment is complete education for one's soul. When one realizes the sacred nature of one's duty, how can there be a lack of strength. Heaven strengthens those that strive after the good and the true. How then can a nation be too weak to better its own conditions? There must be developed a faith in ourselves as men and faith in the capability of the nation to achieve its ends and fulfill its mission. When the nation's religious consciousness is roused, its social institutions perfected to serve national ends, then shall a glorious future dawn on India. Such is the outlook of the teacher as he beholds it from the white mountain of hope.

R. KULASEKHARAM.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

ENGLISH LITERATURE BY INDIANS.

    "At a time when the spirit of research in the West is extending to the Philosophies of the East, when a Hindu Sanyasin lecturing in New York is listened to with rapt attention," it may not be out of place to offer a few general remarks on this interesting subject. The importance of the subject is heightened by the consideration that India has already produced English writers of great merit and still greater promise. When in 1854 Lord Macaulay penned his famous Educational Minute laying down that the English Language be introduced in India as the sole medium for the study of Western Literature and Science, he little thought he was laying the foundation for an Indian-English Literature in India. That day was a red-letter day in the annals of Indian History. By that minute the gates of western knowledge were at once thrown open to the admiring gaze of the Indian people. At first, they were a little dazzled by the sight. But soon they grew accustomed to it and began to appreciate it. Fifty years of English education have not been in vain. English ideals, ways of thought, manners and customs have indelibly impressed themselves on the Indian mind, in some cases wholly altering its nature. With the advance of Western civilization and science the Indian's views of life have changed, the simple, contemplative life of his forefathers giving place to an apish imitation of Western manners, dress etc., a desire for wasteful show and luxury and other ugly features of Western civilization. The change in many ways is regrettable, and it is because the writer of this article sees in the change anything but a welcome sign of the times's that he has taken up the pen by way of protest. The subject may be viewed under three distinct heads, viz., Literature, History and Journalism.

LITERATURE.

    No one who has watched the events of the last two or three years in India carefully can deny that a great awakening is taking place all over the country social, political, moral, intellectual, spiritual and what not? On all sides we are confronted by visible signs of this change. Giant forces are at work leavening the current of National Life, stirring it to its very depths. Before our very eyes a Renaissance is taking place which will ere long find expression in a splendid outburst of song and eloquence more glorious than ever. A new impulse is stirring India and new aspirations are moving her. She is waking up from her age-long sleep, rousing herself to the consciousness of a new Destiny and marching with giant strides towards her destined goal. The English language which has been a most potent factor in bringing about this result, is becoming more and more the common language of the educated classes. Indian writers like Mr. Dutt have made it the vehicle of their own rich thoughts. A new literature is springing up which promises in the new future to bring about most happy results. Mr. Dutt and Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, Mr. Malabari and Sarath Kumar Ghosh are the morning stars in this great movement heralding the dawn of the new day. We have produced orators like Babu Surendranath Banerjea, Mr. Lal Mohan Ghose, Babu Bepin Chandra Pal, men whose command over the English language is wonderful. We can go on adding to the list. But enough. Attempts have been and will be made by Indians in the field of English Drama but with little chance of success. It is in the domain of English prose, if anywhere, that Indians can do something. Nor are they wanting in materials. India with her gigantic mountains, her mighty rivers, her tremendous forests, her beautiful lakes, her delightful sanitariums, her enchanting valleys like the vale of Kashmir, her splendid cities her magnificent remains of Architectural and Archaeological interest – presents such a wealth of picturesque, beautiful and inspiring scenery as can hardly be exhausted in a lifetime. Her romance, her mystery, her glimmer, her indefinable charm, her throbbing life, her endless diversity of races and religions await only the touch of a consummate artist to wake up to immortal life. If India ever stood in need of a great writer, it is now. Already we see a faint glimmer heralding the dawn of a brighter and more glorious day on the Indian horizon. Before this century is over, India will produce one supremely great man, one International Figure that shall tower above his contemporaries as the giant in Brobdingnag over the pigmies of Lilliput. The forces are there, the materials are there. Only the man of genius is needed to apply the vital spark and infuse the breath of life. Let us all welcome the day when a great English writer from India shall command the homage of the English speaking world.

HISTORY.

    Turning to History, it is my firm belief, a belief shared by many of my educated countrymen that the History of India has yet to be written, particularly that portion which relates to the pre-British period. A thorough, comprehensive and impartial history of India in the strictest sense of the term, we have not. Most of the works by European authors although they bear the stamp of much valuable original research and high critical scholarship, are highly colored by exaggeration, by prejudice. Hence they are unsafe guides in judging of India and her peoples. In this connection the researches of our own countrymen like the late Mr. M. G. Ranade, K. T. Telang, Mr. R. C. Dutt, Mr. B. G. Tilak, Professor Jadunath Sarkar, Mr. C. Hayavadana Rao and other workers in the same field are noteworthy. One defect in the method of teaching in our schools and colleges is that history is not properly taught to our boys. Indian boys know more of Lord Clive and Lord Nelson than they know of Akbar the Great or Sivaji. The great men of their own land, like Sri Rama and Sri Krishna, grand Homeric characters like Lakshman and Arjun, historic personages like Vikramaditya and Asoka are neglected. This has a most pernicious effect on their youthful minds. It creates in them a disrespect for antiquity, an utter want of regard for their elders, and a sense of aloofness which are much to be deplored. An attempt should be made to reform the teaching of history and bring it on more national and intelligent lines. Some of the brightest men of our Universities would be doing valuable work if they were to devote themselves to the task of re-writing the history of India on the lines of the latest scientific research and critical scholarship. In the Sanskrit and Tamil languages in particular we have a priceless heritage bequeathed to us by our ancestors. In the Upanishads the two national Epics, the Puranas and in the works of such latter-day writers as Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, Chanakya, etc., in Sanskrit, in the Kavyas and classics in Tamil, and in the accounts of contemporary Greek and Chinese travelers who visited India for various reasons about the state of the country and its progress in civilization at the time of their visit, we have the history of India for more than two thousand years pregnant with the lessons to posterity. Such a stupendous mass of material may well nigh bewilder the acutest intellect. They present a truer and more vivid picture of Indian life and manners than many of the so-called books, on Indian History. If you care to know the inner life of the Indian people, their hopes, their fears, their cherished ideals, their national peculiarities, you must dive deep into that vast ocean of Literature and extract the Pearls of Wisdom as it were by sheer diligence, ceaseless effort. The labors of the Archaeological Department in this direction are deserving of the highest praise and it is our earnest wish that more and more of our graduate should enter that vast and unexplored field which reveals traces of a mighty civilization extending from near Khandahar to Java and which is so full of possibilities for the future. Here at least there is ample material to work upon.

JOURNALISM.

    Journalism in India has not the same attraction to the man of genius as it has in England or America. Although it is an admitted fact that newspaper-reading and magazine-reading are extending in India, the Press (with some notorious exceptions) is not such a power in the land as is the case in England and other countries. There the Press educates, guides and controls public opinion. It is master of the situation. In England it has become so powerful as to be recognized as a Fourth Estate in the realm. In India the reverse is the case. The reason is not far to seek. We have to take into consideration, first, the extreme poverty of the people, second the low percentage of educated men and especially English educated men and the last but not least the recent measures of Government curtailing freedom of speech and writing.

    When the reader takes up his morning newspaper he seems hardly to realize that he is reading the history of the whole world, that the events of the past twenty-four hours all over the world have been condensed for him and presented in the compass of a single newspaper. It is often the case here that for every one man that Subscribes or a newspaper or Journal there are ten men to read. At present Journals are regarded as more in the nature of a luxury to be indulged in only by the rich than a necessity. By this we do not mean that their necessity is not felt, but not to an extent commensurate with the great extent of the country and the population. The great majority of the people, the peasantry who form the backbone of the nation, are still content to pass their days in utter ignorance of the affairs of the great outside world beyond their own narrow sphere. When education becomes more general and as a result the people begin to take a more intelligent interest in public affairs we can expect a revolution in Journalism, and then, and not until then will the Press become a real power in the land as voicing the collective opinion of the millions of the Indian continent. Whether Journalism will be easier twenty years hence we cannot pretend to guess, but this much can be said with truth that the Journalist of today must bring to bear upon his task, a fearless regard for truth, an impartial and mature judgment, an almost indescribable patience and perseverance in the discharge of his duties, a bold advocacy of the cause of right, a due sense of his responsibilities as the spokesman of the people and the interpreter of the popular will to the Government and a realization, not a day too soon, of the nobility and sacredness of his calling and these are some of the attributes without which he cannot hope for success.


 

CONCLUSION.

    Human nature is pretty much the same in the West as in the East. The complex passions that agitate the human breast, love, jealousy, anger, hatred are no less fierce in their intensity in the West than in the East. The eternal problems that a wait the most noteworthy human solution, the problems of Life and Death are today as much engaging the attention of the ablest minds of the West as of the East. The task of the writer and the journalist therefore in India, should be to present such a picture of Indian life and manners as will enable our English rulers to understand us thoroughly and extend some measure of that sympathy which was so eloquently pleaded for by His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales in his Guildhall speech soon after his return from his Indian tour. For, sympathy is the keynote of success in administration as in everything else. At the same time, such a literature will be aglow with all the warmth and color of the East, a faithful mirror of Indian life and Indian ideals, and if it helps to a sympathetic understanding of us the task of Government will. I am sure, be very much simplified. I look forward hopefully to the future, strong in my conviction, firm in my faith of India's ultimate Destiny. I look forward to a yet more glorious future for my motherland, a future that will find her occupying the proudest position, among the nations of the world.

T. V.