Page:The Illusions of New India.djvu/15

2 is not a very long time in the life of a nation, and the prediction of the poet-Seer may yet be fulfilled. But, for the present, the persistence and the annually accelerated intensity of the forces of Western Civilization have created a new India, as they have created a new Japan, and are creating a new China. And new India regards the methods and ideals of that civilization to be so superior to those of Hindu civilization as to render their propagation to be, on the whole at least, a boon and a blessing, and eagerly pursues the path of Western Civilization as the right path of progress and reform.

This is the great Illusion of new India. The causes for it are not very far to seek. In the first place, new India consists of people who have been educated on Western lines—Neo-Indians as they may be conveniently called. Macaulay had the foresight to predict that English education would train up a “class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.” That is exactly what has happened. The Western-educated Indian can hardly be said to have a mind of his own. It