174 POLICY FOE WESTEKN INDIA 



On the one hand there is a party which advocates a 

 return to primitive simplicity, the abandonment of 

 western learning, the disuse of machinery and the 

 cultivation of asceticism to the exclusion of all desire 

 for material advancement. On the other hand the 

 Indian National Congress has for years past demanded 

 a vigorous agricultural and industrial policy. It is 

 easy to say that this cleavage of ideals denotes the 

 gulf fixed between the mental attitude of the East 

 and that of the West. This, no doubt, is true up to 

 a certain point ; but it is not owing to a curious coin- 

 cidence that, in the two views of Indian village life 

 quoted above, it is an Englishman who advocates the 

 eastern view and an Indian who puts forward the 

 western view. The Government of India, composed 

 of British officials, while recognising the need for 

 material progress, have tended to take up the attitude 

 that it is not desirable to urge the millions of India 

 at a rapid pace along unfamiliar paths or into 

 developments contrary to their traditions and their 

 inclinations. Indeed, this policy has in some quarters 

 incurred the charge of excessive political caution. 

 It is probable, however, that in the minds of most 

 educated Indians the threads of eastern and of western 

 ideals are closely intertwined. These are the men 

 who will mould the future destinies of India, and it 

 is for them to say how far the country desires material 

 progress and how far it is prepared to pay the price 

 which is necessary to secure it. Unless material 

 progress is desired it is unlikely that it will take place ; 



