Hindu Ethos

This is the age of the economic man. In Western countries the industrial age was ushered in by the Renaissance and the Reformation, by then Indian civilization, after its early rapid advance, had already been stagnant for a over a thousand years. Now, the fruits of Western industrialization are offered to India. But to what extent will her ethos, her hidebound traditions, her sense of the spiritual, prevent her from grasping these fruits?

The military defeats India suffered at the hands of innumerable foreign invaders are often blamed for the lack of progress. But these very defeats were the result of lack of innovation, inability to adapt to changing environment, and the rigidity of closed mind. The causes of these defeats he deeper, and can be traced back even to her period of early grandeur. The same traits which encouraged stability and the cultural growth of early grandeur. The same traits which encouraged stability and the cultural growth of philosophy, astronomy, mathematics and medical lore led in turn to stagnation and introversion. The military defeats added a feeling of insecurity and inferiority, and a further tightening of the hold of tradition.

As independent India is attempting to compress in a few decades what took the West centuries, it is essential to examine the traditional culture and ethos. A successful industrial revolution requires cultural preparation and social regeneration. Above all, it requires an open mind, and ability to innovate and a spirit of free inquiry.

The thoroughly revised edition of this controversial book will be highly applauded or indignantly denounced. Traditions and habits that have for ling been taken for granted will be examined anew. It is possible that India can build an industrial revolution on the stones of her past avoiding the anomie that has overtaken the West.