Page:Love in Hindu Literature.djvu/102

 m VI. THE DIGNITY OF SEX.

that Kitltur can never be " national " except only in politics, but that it is always human, and cosmopolitan. It is the problem of the world from the Indian angle that Young India seeks to solve. Young India aims to contribute its own discoveries in science, industry, philo- sophy and social service to the widening stream of human civilization and thus to be recognized as a force among the forces of the universe. It is the ambition of Young India to be nothing short of a first-class power on the platform of modern world culture.

Young India is thus modernist or rather " futurist." The culture of modern Hindusthan is neither a mere restoration nor a r^resentation of the mediaeval and ancient life and achievements. It is utilising and as- similating the world-energies of today and also creating fresh forces and sending them abroad for mankind. Young India is looking forward to a nobler and happier future of the human race and intends to make Hindu culture an instrument of that future. This futurism is the life-blood of Young India's idealists and dreamers.

The futurism of Young India can be expressed in the enthusiastic hope of Shelley : " Another Athens shall arise, And to remoter time Bequeath, like sunset to the skies, ,The splendour of its prime ; And leave, if naught so bright may live. All earth can take or Heaven can give. The world is weary of the past. Oh, might it die or rest at last ! "

Young India does not live in memory" of the past