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return to the subject under discussion, independence, accompanied by
partition, removed two constraints - British control and Muslim
intrangience - blocking our march forward and, in objective terms,
therefore, paved the way for the re-emergence of Hindu India in
civilizational, and not just in physical, terms. In physical terms,
independent India has been Hindu India. But a civilizational India
has yet to emerge.
As I see it, several obstacles have
blocked this process. First, as a rule, without any exception, for
decades, to the best of my knowledge, we Hindus have viewed our
civilization in parochial terms; even those of us who have related
it to other pre-Judaic faiths have not realized that the West has
achieved what we are struggling to achieve; that the Europeans, in
plain terms, have successfully resurrected and renewed an ancient
civilization by way of a series of movements beginning with the
Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century. Instead of seeing it
as a sister civilization in view of its emphasis on reason, rule of
law and spirit of inquiry, we have condemned the West on the ground
that it was materialistic, as if material well-being was not one of
the principal concerns of our forefathers.
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