"SWADESHI" IN LITERATURE.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 259, 25 July 1908, Page 12

"SWADESHI" IN LITERATURE.

The literature of a country, like tlid pearl of tho oyster, is tho internal 'result of'a'n external irritation. Had Edward I. conquered Scotland, Britain might have added three hundred years to tho period of. her internal peaeo and prosperity; but Scotland would, nave been without tho Border ballads,' and therefore : without • tho whole of Scott and tho best of Biiriiß. The plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries are, in a certain sonso, tho literary expression of tho national spirit.-aroused in England by tho aggrqssivo - domination of Spain. On tho other hand, had tho' inert- nationalism -of China'been acted upon from, without by. an alien influenco too powerful to be assimilated and yet not too powerful to bo eventually resisted a.nd overcome, the' literature of China would not havo consisted merely of a collection, of didactic stories, dry histories, and unpoctieal vorse. .Tho Chinese oyster will produce its pearl in good time.; The nucleus of the Indian pearl is already visible. Needless to say. we do not refer to the various bibles , of the Indian religions, though these must form the matrix of the pearl—nor to tho languid echoes of 'the Greek drama which haunt certain mediaeval periods of Indian literature—nor to the interminable metrical epics and romances, of tho Scudery type, which • lull tho ennui of the zenana—nor oven to tho charming fairy stories ajid allegories with which Indian mothers soothe thoir children - and -Indian schoolmasters instruct their scholars,, though from these tho pearl must receivo its texture aud its colour.' All those are only tho diffuse and scattered dements which-are being assimilatod, conccntrated, transmuted, and vivified by tho new national spirit of which tho Swadeshi movement is tho political manifestation. Of this new spirit in Indian literature tho newly published 'report by tho India Otlicc supplies some: striking instances. Tho publication of books and papers in the vernacular languages increases steadily voar by year. Tito best English authors . are being translated into tho principnl Indian tongues; a Madras Bcholar has elaborated a new and surprising intcrpreta-

tion of "Othello"; Burke and Spencer have appeared in Oriental'dress. All this, however, is only part of tho external action; the intornal reaction •is still moro striking. Tho history of tho British conquest is being rewritten from an Indian point of viow; Suraj-ud-daula is boing vigorously whitewashed, and now light is penetrating tho Black Holo of Calcutta. Tho Swadeshi spirit hag breathed now lifo into tho moribund forms of tho ancient drama, and tho economic condition of tho Indian proletariat is boing portrayed in plays of almost Hauptmannesquo power and realism. Tho enormous mass of legendary and didactic poetry is boing permeated _ with an activo leaveno' of national aspiration. And, most significant of all, a new fifction has sprung up, in which tho idiosyncrasios both of tho AngloSaxon rulers and of the wealthier Indians aro sot forth-,in, tho manner of Dickons, Thackeray,and £MK Upton Sinclair. Even' tho many of thoso new Indian iiovels of mental and emotional; activity_ jyas, any. ago' ever so indecent as-tho Mizsibethan ? India has apparently attained ono of tho two essentials of a groat literature, consciousness of national life. What is before" her now is a long fight for supremacy among the fivo or six principal tongues in which tho best of her current literature is-writton. 'From a casual glance at publishing roturns, it would seem as if Sanskrit" wo.itld becomo tho literary languago. Bjit-a-literary 'language must bo a living language :;;Sanskrit' is to India today what Latin" 'was to mediaeval Europe. If one could venture any prophecy in a matter so uncertain;'it would be that Bengali is fated to bo tho Tuscan of India:— "Glasgow HeraM." ; ,•