The Cause of India's Decline

 

WHAT is the cause – the fundamental cause – of India's decline? The mighty nation that was once the vanguard of the world in the field of learning and culture, whose all-round genius had almost no equal, is now ruthlessly stricken with poverty, incapacity, weakness and stands on the verge of destruction. Many are the factors that are said to have brought about such a downfall. But what is the main, the source cause? Loss of vitality, for that is the foremost feature. This statement applies equally to an individual as to a nation. When vitality runs short, the life-energy falls to a low ebb; weakness, disease and death gradually force their way. But India was, as it were, the fount of all energies. History bears witness to the fact that more than once India slipped into an alien atmosphere and almost crashed towards a total downfall, but always it was only for- a short while: for she mustered strength again from somewhere and, infused with a new life, she recovered her health and strength to rise again to a greater greatness. It happens however that her present crisis is very radical and unprecedented. It is a question of yes or no for ever. How could India come to such a pass? What sin, what violation of the Law could have deprived her of her vitality to such an enormous extent?

There are three primary causes that have led to the diminution of India's life-energy. Let us study them one after another.

Firstly, in order of time and importance, the root-cause 

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is the institution of Sannyasa, ascetic renunciation, and the influence of the theory of illusion. What does the ideal of Sannyasa teach us? The world is an illusion. The highest good consists in escape from life and withdrawal from action. The play of the natural instincts and propensities which comprise the ordinary social life of man is considered the lower nature. If man wants to attain to his highest nature, his true Self, then he will have to control his outgoing tendencies, stop them totally and finally turn them inward. The summum bonum of life is the absorption in the static Brahman.¹

Needless to say that a creed whose fundamental principle is to escape from life cannot but dry up the sap of life. The outgoing faculties of human life are bound to recede, dwindle and vanish or remain atrophied when it is inculcated that life and the living of life lead one astray from the ultimate Truth. The conception of life as a mirage cannot help life to bloom and manifest. On the contrary, it is sure to effect a gradual cessation of life.

It may be argued however that the ideal of Sannyasa, renunciation, was never meant for the whole of humanity. The Sannyasins neither expect nor wish that all and sundry should give up their respective vocations in life and retire to the mountains and forests and remain absorbed in the sole communion with God. They also admit the necessity of the outgoing movements in human life. The world is not an ultimate reality, but its pragmatic reality cannot be denied. In the course of leading a normal life when spontaneously a spirit of renunciation dawns on one, then that is the proper time to accept the life of renunciation for spiritual attainment. The institution of Sannyasa stands at the

 

¹ The genuine spirituality of India as embodied in the Vedas, the Upanishads and the Gita has never approved of the renunciation of life and action.

"Doing verily works in this world one should wish to live a hundred yearn. Thus it is in thee and not otherwise than this; action cleaves not to a man."

                                                                                                                                                                                          Isha Upanihad (Translated by Sri Aurobindo) 

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top of the society. One has to reach it through the household life fulfilling one's duties as a householder.

Quite true. But the ideal of renunciation gained slowly and occupied people's mind to such an inordinate degree that all other ideals fell into insignificance before this one ideal. The real truth, the real good lies outside the pale of worldly life. The sooner one can get rid of this life, the better. Besides, life was considered not as a way to the Goal beyond, but as a great obstacle to it. To our normal conception a householder is but a despicable sinner. We began to look down upon life and its activities even when we were within the precincts of life itself. Instead of enlarging all the spheres of our activities we wanted to dig out and cast away their very roots. But in spite of such an attitude the common men did not become pure of passion and life-attachments. For as the Gita declares, "All creatures follow the bent of their own nature; repression is of no avail."

The upshot amounts to this that even while we remained in active life, our zeal for action slowed down and diminished. We became overwhelmed with a pensive mood – a collective sense of the vanity of vanities brooded on our life. The active life was, no doubt; retained, but restricted within a narrow compass, and it was unavoidable. The way of life in the end became confined solely to the physical plane. Only the animal propensities were attended to. We missed all high ideals of action. In the social life we were deprived of all collective enterprises. Our only aim was somehow to satisfy our personal needs and those of our family members. And this is called praktana-kaya, – "exhausting the consequences of past actions". We paid no heed to the high or large enterprises of the life-energy, and these became altogether meaningless to us. All our energies were diverted to and hemmed in the channels of envy, jealousy and ill-feeling; "eat, drink and be merry" – as much as your depleted life-energy allows – became the motto of our life 

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From outside, new shackles were imposed on the life-energy that was already diminishing and dying out from within. The religious codes of Manu and others prescribed the routine of life in all its details. The canons enjoined on us taught how to regulate our life, what to do and not to do. The march of our life followed the rut of the rules laid down by the law-givers for the regulation of our daily life and the duties on special occasions. We could not deviate from the rules in the least for fear of censure and tyranny of the society. The customs that were in the beginning merely a spontaneous discipline changed into an inexorable chain and bondage. It is true that the living current of life does not and cannot adhere to all these injunctions of fixed laws. Life has a rhythm of its own. It creates its own law. The rules that do not take into account this rhythm and law become a hindrance to the natural progress of life. The urge of life, being hampered at every step, is bound to become weakened and crippled. The hard and fast rules that the mentors of our society had introduced even for inessential and trifling matters of life deprived the life-energy of its natural zest and zeal, made it move like .a machine. Consequently our vitality waned and life became nothing more than a bundle of rules. Perhaps the original intention was not to allow the vital energy to run amuck or break the bounds of discipline. Anyhow we missed the art of maintaining freedom in the midst of bondage.¹ This is the second cause that robbed India of her vitality.

The Caste-system is the third cause. The differentiation of castes and sub-castes has practically split India

 

¹ Many people hold that this rigid discipline saved Hinduism and the characteristic features of India during the periods of foreign incursions. But it cannot be admitted that if India had followed her own normal bent of life she would not have been able to save herself, assimilate the foreigners, the members of other religions and cast away what was not worthy of assimilation. On the whole, this austere discipline, the attempt at it which had, as it were, enfeebled and confined the life-energy within a dungeon, has done more harm than good. 

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into innumerable divisions. We Indians are bloated with pride and assert that we belong to the Aryan race. But do we know how many different strains of blood went to form this Indian nation? If there be any Aryan spirit in India, it is not in the blood of the Indians, but in their education and culture. And this education and culture too has mingled with those of other civilisations. When the Indian nation was living and powerful, it had considerably added to its life and power by absorbing new blood and new life-energy. But as the frame of the Caste-system grew more and more rigid, new sub-castes began to make their appearance. Social intercourse and matrimonial alliances ceased to take place. And, as a result, the power of unity yielded to the infirmity of division. No doubt, the maintenance of the purity .of blood of a clan may be at times necessary. When a small group acquires some speciality in education and culture, in order to perpetuate this virtue it is obviously needed that it should keep aloof from the other groups. This speciality may last for long, but not for ever. With the march of time its decline is bound to ensue. Besides, it does no good to retain a particular quality for all time, since with the change of time the usefulness of even good qualities will change. There comes the demand for qualities suitable to the age. Purity, i.e., continuance of the type, fixity for its own sake, leads to stagnation and disintegration. According to the nature and capacity of persons and groups, different systems of education and culture can and should be admitted in a society. Aptitude and inclination of men should decide groupings. There is no need for arbitrary or notion-made laws. But in the present-day society we find high and solid walls of division raised everywhere even amongst the sub-castes. So the social relationship has considerably narrowed down, and from generation to generation the social intercourse has been confined within groupings of a few families. Virility and the life-energy fail under such circumstances to retain their original vigour. 

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All these causes were responsible for the foreign yoke to be laid on India. The remnant of the life-energy was liquidated under the pressure of this subjugation. And that brought the coup de grâce which seemed to seal the fate of the Indian nation for good. 

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