blogzsunder.27

This brown earth of India and her blue skies are tempting; their lure is like the lure of the Dhatura flowers, at once exquisite and enslaving. Whoever shares the life of India ceases to be human and humane. He may become a god (a wonderful sight); he may more often turn into a devil (an interesting phenomenon); but the warm pulsating blood of man dries up in his veins.
An Indian is above or below man; he is rarely just man. To deal with him, we have to deal with a new species.
An Indian may be a god or devil, I have said, but he is definitely not a plain human being. Well, what makes him tick?
It is not my intention to juggle with words. I am going to call a spade a spade.
The Indian is said to be the most spiritual man on earth. This is worse than clotted nonsense. We have propagated the myth because we need something to boast about. Why should we not have a quality that the West is supposed not to possess? Our inferiority in many domains has compelled us to credit ourselves with wings.
The fact is, and I had better be started without beating about the bush, we are the most materialistic people in the world. Matter and spirit may or may not be indivisible (let thinkers dispute about this), but our Indian know that matter takes precedence over spirit.
An American lady, wishing to come over to India during the lean days of 1950, enquired of American officials as to what she should take with her to alleviate in some measure the miseries of the people. “Shall I take rice,” she asked, “or what, or canned foods, or medicines?”
The man in charge listened to her patiently, grinned, and said: “Lady, what Indian need most is CASH.”
CASH! That certainly is what Indian welcome most. I am afraid we are, have been, and will long remain worshippers of what D.H.Lawrence rudely called the Bitch-Goddess. For s she is a shining deity.
Best wishes,sunder thadani from Mumbai.