Indian Civilization and Culture

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948), affectionately known as Bapu or the Father of the Nation, was a spiritual leader and statesman who successfully used Truth and Non-violence as his chief weapons against British rule. In this essay from Rainbow Part-II he asserts that the civilization India has evolved is unmatched and cannot be beaten anywhere in the world.

India remains sound at the foundation

Gandhi points out that while other ancient, powerful civilizations have crumbled or fallen away, India has remained steady. The mighty Roman Empire fell, ancient Greece shared the same fate, the power of the Pharaohs of Egypt was broken, Japan became completely Westernised, and China lost its ancient path. Yet, despite all these global shifts, India remains 'sound at the foundation'.

He critiques the people of Europe, who learn their modern lessons from the writings of Greece and Rome which no longer exist in their former glory. In trying to learn from these dead civilizations, Europeans falsely imagine they can avoid their historic mistakes, a belief Gandhi describes as their 'pitiable condition'. Western nations charge India with being backward, stolid and uncivilized, but Gandhi argues that this charge is actually a charge against our merit: what we have tested and found true on the 'anvil of experience', we dare not change.

Civilization as the path of duty

Gandhi defines civilization as that 'mode of conduct which points out to man the path of duty'. Observing morality and performing duty are convertible terms; to observe morality is to attain absolute mastery over our minds and our passions, and by doing so we learn to know ourselves. In the Gujarati language, the literal equivalent for civilization means 'good conduct'.

He describes the human mind as a 'restless bird', the more it gets, the more it wants, and still it remains completely unsatisfied. Our desires are insatiable; the more we indulge our passions, the more unbridled they become. Our ancestors recognized this psychological truth and wisely set a strict limit to our indulgences, seeing that real happiness was largely a mental condition, not a material one. A person is not necessarily happy because they are rich, or unhappy because they are poor.

The wisdom of simple village life

For thousands of years, Indians managed with the same kind of agricultural plough and lived in the same traditional cottages, with no system of life-corroding, aggressive competition. Each person followed their own traditional occupation and charged a regular, honest wage. It was not that our ancestors did not know how to invent complex machinery; they knew that setting our hearts after such material things would make us moral slaves and cost us our 'moral fibre'.

Our ancestors also saw that large cities were nothing but 'snares and useless encumbrances', breeding thieves, robbers, prostitution and vice, where poor honest men are constantly robbed by the wealthy. For this reason they were satisfied to live in small, self-contained villages. They held kings and their physical swords to be far inferior to the 'sword of ethics', and the sovereign rulers of the earth inferior to the spiritual Rishis and Fakirs.

A warning against Western materialism

Gandhi warns his countrymen that copying Western civilization will mean absolute 'ruin for India'. European civilization is undoubtedly suited for the Europeans, but it cannot be transplanted to India without causing moral decay. Modern Western civilization is characterized by the worship of the material and the 'brute in us', it is unadulterated, godless materialism, whereas ancient Indian civilization is based on a deep 'belief in God' and the elevation of the moral being.

He therefore urges Indians to shun modern civilization at all costs, clinging to their ancient culture just as a child clings to its mother's breast.