THE SPIRIT OF INDIA

Press, Volume LXIX, Issue 20986, 14 October 1933, Page 15

THE SPIRIT OF INDIA

Renascent India, from Ram Mohan Boy to Mohandas Gandhi. By n. C. E. Zacharias. Allen and tarn 304 pp. (10/6 net.) An Anglo-Jew of the Roman Catholic persuasion who, after many years of residence in India, associates himself closely with so liberal an Indian body as the Servants of India (Poona), and is thus in touch with Nationalist feeling and the | activities of political leaders, stands in an almost unique position for observing the growth of the new Indian spirit and interpreting to each other the conflicting ideals of Eastern and Western thought. Dr. Zacharias writes in an easy style with a full command of English and an abundant vocabulary. He describes the successive stages whereby national opinion in India has moved leftwards from one meeting of Congress to another, and is at his best when treating critically such episodes as the union and disunion of Hindus and Moslems in the last decade and the reactions of Amntsar on the divided mind of Mr Gandhi. If however, the author was offered an exceptional opportunity of forming impartial judgments, he has not accepted it. Though a comment on the loose cover states that the book is not partisan, the statement cannot be supported when Dr. Zacharias is speaking of the Indian Government, or—as he prefers to call it—the bureaucracy. The civil administration in India has been guilty of errors and prejudices, as have many other Governments in the world's history, and it is legitimate to argue that their faults are responsible for much of India's unhappiness, but it is neither legitimate nor accurate to assume throughout that they were actuated by mala fides. Save where Lord Ripon is concerned, Dr. Zacharias seldom if ever recedes from this assumption and the whole oi his argument is vitiated thereby. One of the most interesting chapters is that which discusses the various reform movements in Indian society and the outstanding men who set them in motion. Such distinguished persons as Ram Mohan Fvoy and Gokhale are mentioned with well-deserved honour, though Dr. Zacharias perhaps forgets that Ram Mohan Roy was unfavourable to the proposal of prohibiting suttee by law. The high character of Indian thinkers before Gandhi is too little known to the British public— From the Literary Supplement of "The Times."