INTEGRATION

The problem of integration is nearly as old as man. Within the tribe it was, perhaps, more easily solved. The authority of the chief and his divinity ensured not merely implicit obedience but oneness of thought and feeling i.e. in modern phraseology, cultural and emotional integration.

When tribe met tribe problems arose. They were solved by the extermination of one of the two tribes or by its defeat and swift and complete integration with the winner's. It is true that there were not many vital cultural or emotional differences to be harmonized then.

When wandering tribes eventually settled down as agriculturists there were adjustments to be made, between the settling tribes, and also the hardy wandering ones often chose to attack and plunder the settled ones. Men fairly successfully achieved these and survived.

With the establishment of 'states' and the sooner or later following attempt, to establish hegemony, the problem of cultural integration, as we know it, began.

It was with caste that, in India, a fairly successful kind of integration was achieved. "Out of the conflict and interaction of races arose the caste system. It was an attempt at social organization of different races, a rationalization of the facts as existed, at the time". "It was far from total integration. 'One out of many', 'unity through diversity', 'integration based on recognition of differences', was the basis of caste system. Even today this is, perhaps, one of the valid and workable foundations for integration, in nations and in a future United Nations State as well. It can be argued that this was not integration at all but a perpetuation of differences. But the caste system worked for thousands of years. All the later invaders of India accepted the position and became themselves a new caste. Indian religions too accepted it and soon caste system became one of its essential principles. Countries outside India had their own fairly strict caste system, but they called it by another name: class. Caste and class are both dead in theory, but continue in practice in politics, in marriage, and in the matter of employment. But it is on the way out, thanks to the work of Vivekananda, Gandhi, and in the south Shri Narayana Guru.

Total and complete integration, the achievement, of oneness, sameness, cultural and emotional, is what unrealistic and ignorant 'idealists' desire. 'All men to be equal' in thought, feeling, conduct, action, is not only unrealisable but undersirable. This would make machine made puppets of men. Men must differ, and agree to differ. Out of differences must arise a rich heterogeneous and truly worth-while unity. This alone would make a heaven of earth. The harmony of man, even the divinity of man, arises from the fact that he is made up of diverse and distinct types of cells, tissues, organs, capacities, thoughts, emotions, but all working in harmony to produce man, his body and soul.

This brings us to a topic that is most relevant for us: the problem of linguistic and cultural minorities. These have always been there, in border areas, in centres of trade and commerce, and to a certain extent in the capitals of states. There has seldom been a total merger, a complete giving up of identity of language, customs manners. The language of the area the minority has always accepted, learnt, respected. Individuals have often contributed to the enrichment of the literature, the scholarship of the area and the majority language. But this has been done without their giving up their own language which they continued to use at home and in their own group. This, I believe was true integration and integration that did not destroy the part in the interests of the whole. This I feel should be the ideal for the present and future as it was for the past. The same principle should hold good in the matter of customs, beliefs. Adaptations modifications, synthesis are inevitable and ought take place. Evolution and not revolution is the ideal.

There are many, among the highly 'educated' in English, and their understanding admirers and imitators, who believe in, and propagate, the theory that the universal acceptance of English as medium of administration and communication will make integration easy, quick and so spontaneous as to be a pleasure rather than a pain. Catering to the theories and aspirations of these people a large number of Nursery Schools have sprung up in which Indian boys and girls learn everything, through English rhymes and then in higher classes songs on English life. The result of this is that the boys and girls of these schools are ready to sail or to fly to England or America but are unfit for home and India. This type of education is, moreover creating a new caste, higher than the brahmin caste of the past. It is also making it virtually impossible for its victims to understand the mind and heart of the ordinary people of India. They do not have a language to communicate even with their parents. The gap between these and the Indian-language-educated is becoming wider and wider, unbridgeable. This is perhaps the greatest tragedy of modern education: we have in India some who are already in America in spirit, and so are naturally discontented with their bodies that obstinately remain in India and equally naturally resent their Indian citizenship, their Indian blood, and their Indian jobs and relatives.

Some of us believe that India must remain India and Indians remain Indians India, ever young and ever old can remain vigorously India only if her children, ever young and ever old like her lavish their loving care and skill in nursing her varied and various, (though at heart one) cultures beliefs, languages. Let me quote in conclusion Gandhiji" I would not have a single Indian to forget, neglect or be ashamed of his mother-tongue or to feel that he or she cannot think or express the best thoughts in his or her own vernacular. It is a self demonstrated proposition that the youth of a nation cannot keep or establish a living contact with the masses unless their knowledge is received and assimilated through a medium understood by the people."

FIRST FRUITS OF FREEDOM

Many years after independence there are people among us who say, ''We have not gained, we have lost.' There are braver people who proclaim, "we have been betrayed!'

And they are all honourable men. Our food problem remains; our housing shortage endures; cloth is as scarce as ever, and so is almost everything, though we are trying to make them plentiful at home and abroad with our strikes.

The labour and the wounds are vain, as things have been they remain. Foolish to ask, are they vain, do they remain? The tired waves of nationalism vainly breaking? seem to gain no inch, but examine the creeks and the inlets, there is certainly activity in these unobstrusive regions, and may be, some little progress.

Turn over the pages of any newspaper admiring the advertisements, Is there no change? True, still women dominate. They always do, don't they? They grin, they smoke, they meditate; but they are all in saris even though boosting soaps and snows and cigarettes from foreign lands. Consider what this means to the sari-trade and incidentally to the self-respect of our mothers, sisters, servants. Coats and pants have not vanished as completely as gowns, but how soothing it is to see the man in dhoti smoking away, though the smoking train missed him, never knowing or caring what it was missing.

Apart from, or rather within, the clothes, the bodies and the beaming faces are all Indian. That means, to descend as we must to economics, that foreign firms are now distributing among local artists a good deal of the money that they were spending wholly at home. It also means, ascending to the purer air of psychology, so much of free education in nationalism to our little kids who take their first lessons; from the pictures in newspapers.

Do not the signboards from housetops and shop-tops shout, 'as things have been they DO NOT remain.' Royal, imperial, Majestic, once words of power, have disappeared overnight and become, every one, national. The British Empire Hotels, how quickly they have become 'Swatantra Bharatha Bhavans'. Our own languages either non-existent or occupying shy corners on the signboards and name boards have now moved forward and occupy the centre of the stage with English servants attending at a respectful distance. Indian names ones Anglicized to suit the fashion have undergone rapid and proud reconversion. Varmas who had become Worms are glad to be Varmas again though they might wish to be Burmas when they go to Bengali! Foreign names, since become native, are now ashamed of their alien associations and are gladly accepting vernacularisation, D'Sas become Desais, Jeromes trick out as Jawahars.

These changes may not exactly be symbolic of a change within; but it is wise to remember that the skin can change the soul almost as surely as the soul can change skin, given time. A man can change his coat though it is not as easy as it looks; and a coat can change a man and it is not as difficult as it seems. Is this not the principle of the uniform, the ceremonial dress even of the Gandhi Cap? Can a man under a Mahatma's cap do mean things, can a policeman with a baton run away, can a criminal in a Cassock murder?

We have heard many laugh at the restoration of their real names to our old towns, our ancient states, our sacred rivers and mountains. In nothing had the rulers who have left us shown such contempt for their subjects and their country than in the way in which they twisted and tortured these sweet names, rich with a thousand associations, historical, religious and literary. We have now our Ganga, our Ayodhya, our Kanpur, back. A small thing, but significant if we love the beauty of words and names, their sense and purity.

The relative value of eastern and western manners too has changed. A 'namaste' is no longer inferior or vulgar. 'A Good Morning' with an English accent is not the sure passport it was to every office and every job. The parading of cigarette tins and the long enduring cheroots has ceased to be(or will soon be, we hope) chic. Cotton is now as respectable as foreign wool except perhaps at Christian weddings. A man's nearness to heaven is, as in ancient India, becoming inversely and not directly proportional to the number of TIES he has. People will no longer be judged by the shine of the shoes or polish of their buttons put by the shape of heads and their probable contents. One might be wisely humble without being condemned for not having push and guts. Now one does not have to pretend, to boast, to humbug,- these foreign ideals have followed the people who imported them.

Again the first language of our educational institutions has become the second, will soon be the third, and the second has become the first. A very minor change, a mere change in nomenclature at present, but psychologically and potentially how vital! Our Indian language pandits are no longer ashamed of themselves or of their names. English is humble, like THE ENGLISH, content to dream of the past shutting its eyes on the future. It is surrendering its chairs one by one to its vernacular superiors. Time was when no pandit could occupy a front seat in any gathering, but now he is on the platform, haranguing, inspiring the leaders of the future.

Has Independence done nothing ?

Did we ever hear, before Independence, our officers complaining of interference in their normal duties? Every interference was then an order, oral or written, and obeyed as such. Nay, no interference was necessary. They read the minds of their masters and found pleasure and promotion in catering even to their whims- But now with Independence they have become really independent, they brook no interference; they do their duty, according to their likes, or their dependants likes. Have we not gained much? At least have they not gained much?

Till that 15th of August 'Made in England', Incorporated in England Printed in England', 'Reviewed in England' even 'Returned from England' covered a multitude of sins. These last, local 'England-returneds', often talked of going 'home' when they periodically went back to Eng-and at Government expense to improve their accents and their complexions, but not their brains. For, out of the unwise cannot come wisdom even if subjected to periodical 'tempering' by alternate stays in the torrid and temperate zones, How often a mother, a father, an uncle, a father-in-law, in ordinary Indian cloths has been disowned by sons and nephews because they did not seem decent folk in a company of cigar-smoking, wine-bibbing, dancing dandies? And now! The half-naked Mahatma has not lived in vain, though 'official' maniacs are not wanting who would gladly undo his work. Our village gentlemen, no truer gentlemen in the world, need no longer be ashamed of themselves or their clothes even in the presence of President Prasad. No Indian will prefer now a European mate to the darker type that he is accustomed to at home and in his own mirror. Witness the hundreds of recent foreign scholars' who have returned safe.

In the field of sports there is not much reorientation, yet in the spirit, and outlook of sportsmen there is. We are not likely to go back, for some years at least, to our less expensive, less dangerous, but not less interesting village games. But till Independence there was a feeling, sedulously propagated by interested men at home and abroad, that the short-cut to Independence was cricket or tennis. It used to be said that one victory by an Indian side at Lords or the Oval, or a Wimbledon Championship meant more than a hundred Satyagraha movements. These champions of sport conveniently forgot that a world championship in wrestling, or the first place in Olympic hockey brought us no millimeter nearer freedom. How childishly simple freedom battles would have been if only what they believed or told was true, and how bloodless! We no longer hear such foolish talk. Now we play the game for the sake of the game not to please a master and win crumbs.

Till Independence we have no faith in our own standards. When an Englishman or one from the Continent praised us we felt good, when he condemned us we felt humble, guilty, repentant, eager to improve; or we screamed. We were eager for the foreigner's opinion even when they were worthless than nothing. (Of course there were worthy opinions, but so over-valued here) Our Vedas are good because a Max Muller praised them, our Ramayana is good because it has been translated into the Russian, our Sakuntala is good because Goethe praised it, (and conversely Goethe is good becaused he praised the Sakuntala), our Tagore is great because C. F. Andrews accepted him as master, our Mahatma is great because a Miss Mira Ben adored him. How anxious we were for these certificates from the West and how sparing in quality and quantity the ones we got. How often for a page of praise we got books like Mother India or Verdict on India. But now we get praise from every one and in plenty. We only smile superiorly and contemptuously when we hear it. Is this no gain?

THE FUTURE OF MAN

Has man a future? Even the wisest cannot tell. He was but an ape just more than a million years ago. What might he be as many years hence? He was a worm some five hundred millions of years ago. Will he be alive and kicking after a lapse of that fabulous number of years from today? Will even the earth, his home, be safe from some astronomical catastrophe in that remote future?

The human intellect is baffled by these questions, but not the human imagination. Poets rush in where scientists fear to tread. And yet, perhaps, not completely in vain. For, in a sense, they help in building a bright new world, with their dreams.

Before the age of Darwin these dreamers were content with imagining little ideal islands or city states nestling in peace and comfort in a warring world. Plato's 'Republic', Sir Thomas More's 'Utopia' and Bacon's 'New Atlantis' are small model states visualised by great minds to serve as an inspiration for their contemporaries and as a prophecy of the future. But even their modest and humble prophecies are yet to be fulfilled. Plato's schemes of breeding the governors of the land by choosing their parents and his balanced state composed of four contented classes symbolised by gold, silver, copper and iron, have had only one appreciable effect. They have supplied other writers in the same line with hints and suggestions.

Pre-Darwinian prophets were as a rule more concerned with improvements in man's surroundings than with possible changes in man himself. Even when they deal with man, their thoughts just hovered dimly around possible changes in man's moral make-up. But Darwin released visionaries from their chains. When they recovered from their initial shock at his 'heresies' they realised what wonderful vistas were now open before them. They let their fancies roam thousands and millions of years into the future, building, pulling down, and rebuilding, as the mood took them.

Mr. H. G. Wells was one of the first to plunge into this exhilarating prospect. His Time Traveller travels in his 'Time Machine' forward through time and stops for a few days in the world for the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand and Seven Hundred and One A. D. Man has by this time differentiated into two distinct species. The upper world is inhabited by Eloi and the underworld by Morlocks. The former are the descendants of the happy capitalists and intellectuals of the present and the immediate future. The latter are the descendants of the present day workers who may in the immediate future have to live more and more underground. In the year 802,701 A. D. the Eloi are beautiful and graceful creatures but indescribably frail. Their flushed faces are like those of the more beautiful kind of consumptive. They have no hair on the face and there are no differences in costume, texture and bearing between the sexes. They eat nothing but fruits. There never could be people more indolent or more easily fatigued. They are on the intellectual level of five year old children. Even reading and writing they have forgotten. They are terribly afraid of darkness and night. Clearly they are on the wane. Their civilization had reached its zenith and then declined. 'After the battle had come quiet'...The Morlocks, on the other hand, are animals preferring darkness to light. Their eyes are luminous. They are ape-like and walk with their heads hanging down. They are blinded by light. They are carnivorous and carry away Eloi from the upper world for their dinners. The Eloi have become the fatted calves they see to the breeding of. But they are excellent workmen and know everything about machines.

Let us tear our eyes away from this picture of the suicide of the human intellect and the triumph of the human brute. There are others who believe that comfort balance and security need not necessarily lead to decay. Mr. Bernard Shaw is one of the foremost of them. His book 'Back to Methuselah' takes us onward from the days of Lilith, an imaginary ancestor of Adam and Eve to 'as far as thought can reach.' i.e. 31, 920 A. D. In that world, separated from us by thirty thousand years there are no babes. Boys and girls who look not less than seventeen or eighteen come out off big eggs, which are ceremonially opened before a temple. In two years of life inside the egg they pass through a development that costs us twenty years of stumbling immaturity. In five or six minutes they are perfectly reasonable and have finished their education. Strongest of all, they have no bowels. Humanity has been saved once and for all from hunger and the tyranny of the stomach. For four short years they spend their days making love, dancing, playing, painting, sculpturing, working in laboratories at dolls which they can endow with life, and heartily hating older people who despise these childish games. But as days pass they grow more and more thoughtful and finally leave their nursery round the temple of art for the groves and the hills, to think and think and be happy thinking. The hills and groves are peopled by He and She Ancients who walk about with their eyes shut and deep in thought. With their will they can transform themselves into whatever shape they like but they soon give up the exercise of this newfound power. Experiments with their body lead only to the conviction that the slavery of the body is irksome. They strive in vain for liberation from the flesh. Their wish is to become pure whirlpools of intelligence unencumbered by matter. They live for years and years trying to realise this real immortality. Death is caused only by accidents but these too they have not succeeded in abolishing.

Shaw's faith, as that of his ancients, is that this new world and progress have been made possible by the will to long life and improvement manifest from the first in human beings.

Evolution is to him no accident. In this he is a disciple of Lamarck. Lamarckianism is not scientifically defensible. "No one can by taking thought add one cubit into his stature", Anatole France dynamites this popular fallacy by making one of his character say "I often see children with strawberry marks, whose mothers say that they desired strawberries before their birth. I am waiting to see a baby marked with a pearl necklace."

Olaf Staphedon in 'Last Men and First Men' paints a different picture of the world to be and man's place in it. His imagination works many millions of years into the future. He first depicts the failure of an early experiment in human evolution which produced a great race with great brains and diminutive bodies, in whom the intellect is developed, as in the case of Shaw's Ancients, to the exclusion of the emotions. Evolution starts experimenting again and at last produces a race of human being 'who take nearly two thousand years to grow up, live two hundred thousand years and continue to Indulge in love art and even sport when fully adult although vastly more intelligent than ourselves."

Aldous Huxley's brilliant satirical imagination is more modest and the men and women who inhabit his 'Brave New World' live in the 26th century, or to be more exact 632 A. F. A. F. meaning either ' After Ford' or 'After Freud.' Ford is the God of the New World.

Ford is in his flivver

All's right with the world.

This world is controlled by Ten World Controllers. The administration is based on the twin ideals of Happiness and Stability. On the alter of Stability art and love have been sacrificed. Science is an enemy and every new invention is suppressed. Every one who has worked out any bit of real science is banished into one of the many small islands of the world. Passion is kept under strict control. Old age, sickness, sorrow, have died out and so has God. Children are mass produced in racks and racks of test-tubes in Hatchery and Conditioning centres. There are five classes of children. Alphas and Betas are the higher castes. Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons are lower caste menials doing mechanical work. Many of them are identical, one Gama ovum producing by the 'Bokanovsky process' up to ninety six identical twins to work ninety-six identical machines. The education of all the children begins in Neo Pavlovian conditioning rooms. "Everyone works for everyone else", "I love my caste and my uniform", "Everyone belongs to everyone else" are some of the lessons the children are taught in their sleep on the principle that 62,400 repetitions make one truth. Death still survives but every one is conditioned to think lightly of it.

But these are all insubstantial pageants 'built on airy nothings'. They do no more than point the way. We can-not know. We can only hope. Even our hopes are so different. Some of these dreams have been nightmares and some honey sweet or gorgeously grand. Science tells us only this, that in case man does not evolve other animals will take up the wondrous tale. Some scientists hold that the rat has as good a chance as any other.