Yo DIA-Ananda K coomarasamy ‘Ananda _k. Coomarasamy born in ceylone(!877-19470) was one of the great art historian of the 20" century whose multifaceted writings deals primarily with visual arts ,aesthetics,9 literature and language , folklore, mythology, religion and metaphysics. His most mature works adeptly expound the perspectives of the perennial philosophy by drawing on a detailed knowledge of the arts, crafts, mythologies, cultures folklore symbolism and religion of both the East and the west. He also observed the study of arts and crafts of ceylone and of the social conditions under which they have been produced. In turn he became increasingly distressed by the corrosive effects of British colonialism. “Young India” is one the fourteen essays from Ananda K. Coomarasamy’s” The Dance of Shiva”. India which is a young country has a fragrance of its ancient culture. Spiritual values which was the base of human values has been replaced by means of, sophistication. Civilization is determined as :young” or “old” based on experience and not “dates or years”. However, it becomes tricky to state whether “India” is young or old as on one hand, India has achieved many things in philosophy, art and social organization, these achievements being of immense value have been used as the foundation for many other civilizations. India had been greatly influenced by the christian civilization under whose rule it was for many years. A civilization strived beyond its borders to create some kind of order. A civilization that thought itself to be superior to the others. But, towards the 20” century, the outcome of it led to the progressive decay of life”: people started more importance to a materialistic way of life while rejecting spiritual values; visions of the future were blurred by creating chaos. One of the most important consequence of the christian civilization stated by Ananda Coomaraswamy is the outbreak of the two world wars which affected the whole world and ruined many countries, a in the name of peace and universal order. Unfortunately, these wars only gave way to “hatred”. The conquered despised the conquerors, According to the writer was the establishment of a democracy after fighting against imperialism and exploitation for many years was the only positive outcome. Instead of being ruled over by one powerful person or by another civilization, in the Indian-democracy, Indians ar3e being governed by a powerful ‘group of privileged Indians whose interests are given more importance. Hence, liberty still remains a vision. Ananda Coomaraswamy puts forth the opinion that the liberty that we once thought we never had is more important than a liberty that we may try to obtain by oppressing any other nationality or class. When it comes to trying to establish peace, it isn’t possible to just put aside our weapons. This change according to Ananda Coomaraswamy cannot take place all ofa sudden. Moreover, it all depends on each and every individual's mentality to want this same change; the change cannot be voted upon and passed by the court of a majority. Therefore, since peace and harmony cannot be obtained to the fullest, we as individuals can at least make sure that the government we vote for can obtain the goal to some extent. At the same time, the less we involve ourselves in politics the happier will be, however, this doesn’t mean that we are refusing to cooperate; for we are serving a common need and not juts a personal need for peace. yu" Then, The writer talks about ethical judgement where in he says that the criteria of ethical judgment is based on the ‘priori’ right, according to which, the understanding of what is right and wrong , differs from one person to another. An individual's principles his perception on morality reaches a state of pure individualism, called ‘Jivan-Mukta’ in India which becomes the main aim of religion in Asia as well as in Europe. JivanMuktaia a state in which a person has nothing left of himself in him and has attained complete spiritual freedom. This is the ultimate goal of India i.e,, to attain spiritual freedom. Therefore the concept of success differs in India and America. He then moves to talk about the two main features of the hindu social order. The first one being, the caste system, which was brought about with the only intention of bringing unity among people of the country. This system help avoid chaos and is favourable in building a stronger administration system in a country. It brings about organization where several vocational groups were created and every group is answerable to the others regarding their field of work. Therefore, he says that this feature of the hindu social order will help to make a country peaceful, happy and healthy. The author also adds that unlike their olden days the occupation and ownership were determined by one’s heredity caste. But these days, the caste system has been made liberal and inter-cast marriages tal place too often. Therefore, we understand that some small changes have to be brought up in the caste system to bring about a common sociological agreement of the workers of the world. The second main featuredf the Hindu social order is marriage. Unlike the western countries, home is the foundation of all social thought in India. In the other countries, traditions are not given much importance He says marriage is like a contract undertake by men and women as a social debt to fulfill social and religious duties and not for personal happiness. It is not based on romantic love or passion. The author also feels that marriage has a deeper meaning in India and that it is superior to the modern theory of marriage where romantic love is the only ‘component of harmony. In India, the purpose of marriage is to prove the spiritual and dynamic value of passion.the art of handicraft has been washed off completely by industriaization. Itis believed that produces from industries meet perfection which ig not attained through handicraft. Even though sculpture has declined, painting and architecture were still in demand until the end of egiteenth century but now we see that too fading off. The three forms of art which survive today are music, dance and poetry too have become are scarce and will be lost one day. The author puts forth the truth that we are slowly losing our art, culture and tradition because of westernization. These days, He then discusses about the state of India in the 19” century. He talks about two special conditions other than the ancestral influence on the contemporary period. First, our Indian culture has already lost its richness and purity due to the advancement of materialism which has led to the exclusion of spiritual values.Secondly, political subjection (ie) (dictatorship, the power of the dictator lies inhis subjection of the people whom be rules] and empirical science has formed the basis for economic success. These two reasons had led to the trans-valuation of values in a bad way. All this happened in a matter of 50 years. ‘According to the author, war is not just an unfortunate accident but an inevitable outcome of civilization. Indian culture stands at the verge of its decline while western civilization stands at the beginning of a new movement. India is at once incalculably poor as well as rich. Poor, because it boasts of its poverty which she regards as her progress. Rich because of the infinite treasure, tradition that she inherited. Itis so surprising that a culture so ancient and great like that of the Indians has been broken down into pieces, but a single generation of English education is enough to break the whole thread of tradition apart and also deprived it of its roots.India’s greatest danger is the loss of spiritually (morality) and ethics when it comes to education also.in the modern generation, The Art of teaching (pedagogic theory) aims not at encouraging new talents but as Ruskin said, there is no finding out in Indian education. Education means ‘ finding out’ what a student is capable of and not the vice versa. Macaulay rightly predicted that the only way to conquer the Indians is ti deprive them of their native language and introduce English. It speaks about how the formulation of western cultures which has shaken our Indian traditions. A single generation of English education has suppressed the threads of tradition that was woven for generations together. The greatest danger for India is the loss of her spiritual integrity Though india was witnessing gradual progress towards colonial self-government, India still has had many grievances. Even educated Indians were insulted because oftheir skin tone. The political movement covering nationalism growing like the moderates wish to see gradual process towards self ruling government and extremists who would like to see even the last single Englishman being derived out of India.Many Indians though with a certain distate and grievances they fought for Indian national idealism has a wider significance than the redress of grievances. At present modern India lacks in cultivated and conscious taste that in our resources and environment The return of idealism i.e the art or practice of envisioning things in an ideal form has brought an appreciation of native arts and mythology. Abanindranath Tagore and his brother brought about the revival of painting in Bengal. They believed in the traditional Indian techniques of painting. They rejected the materialistic art of the west and came back to the Indian traditional art forms. European colonizers does not stand aside from the development of Asia. In order to sell their products, they are in need of a colony. Hence they won't completely destroy the Asian colonies. European colonizers are in form with imperialism and industrialism to withstand their power in the society. They provide all basic necessities of life to the people through their industtialism. Asia is like an artist in modern city, The artists in this time are not givervmuch importance and it doesn’t do anything great unless, asked for it. Our thoughts and point of views are more sentimental and scholastic and so we do not think practically. Hence we should have clear thinking of what is the need of the our. There should be sense of direction and without this progress is incomplete. Our thinking should not be depended on emotions and feelings it should be practical and thus progress can be attained.EFFECTS OF COLONIZATION ON INDLAN THOUGHT - MICHEL DANINO Miche! Danino is an indian writer of French origin. He has been conferred Badma Shri, award by the Government of India and had accepted Indian citizenship. In the present essay he speaks of the hardships of the Indian people who have suffered two centuries of Colonization by the British. He also satirizes the fact that the country’s so-called elite had been shaped and hypnotized by their colonial masters They always assumed that anything Western was so superior and in order to reach all-round fulfilment, India merely had followed European thought, science, and political institutions. The impact of the British contradicted India's own temperament, culture and genius. This was because, the Western Culture, which he considers that it doesn't deserve such a noble name, decolonized the Indian mind and psyche so deeply. The British tried to impose cultural change boasting them to be an enlightened nation with philanthropic spirit. But they failed as the Muslim rulers did to inject Koran. The British justified their task as noble for they wanted to see India, a nation ranked highest among the civilized nations. They wanted to introduce English and Christianized education - the doctrine of Macaulay ~ an education that projected Europe as an enlightened, democratic, progressive heaven and demoralized the Indian system of education as stagnant and false in company with a false religion. And this is how they convinced the young minds to hug the western mode of living. The young of the nation “educated” class, anglicised and partially Christianized, which always looked up to its European model and ideal, and formed the actual foundation of the Empire in India. India got freedom at a terrible cost but not in the field of thought. As Swami Vivekananda mocked, the elite had been shaped and hypnotized by the colonial masters. The imprint of the Colonial clutch could be seen at many levels. Several South Indian Towns were named after European names and the literati of the past were named after western writers and never mind British calling Shakespeare, the Kalidasa of — India. English nursery rhymes changed the psychology of Indian young minds. Even medicine like Ayurveda and Siddha were side-lined and neglected under the illus that modern Allopathic medicine would provide health for all. The history schools and universities were writen by Westem Scholars who gaveinformation as to the invasion of the Aryans. Indian scholars were demeaned and the greatness of the languages like Sanskrit and Tamil were rejected. Similarly, the service rendered by the innumerable freedom fighters that shed blood for the independence of the nation was forgotten. The list is endless, in every field of life, and if this attitude of accepting the westernized notion of the nation, after two generations, the greatness of the nation would perish senselessly in the process oof de-Indianizing. All these maladies have arisen from the fact that the Indians have stopped thinking, They are spoon-fed, especially at school and this is the result of not formulating and implementing a truly Indian education after independence. This is India’s most tragic and ruinous error and the credit goes to the country’s first and foremost ministers, including Nehru. India’s culture and traditions were dominated by the cult of modernity and the western obsession allowed the Indians to accept the dissected and catalogued communal labelling of colonial masters. The educated virtually admitted they were helpless and were expecting hopes on the westemized secularism and democracy and they shut their eyes to the abnormality of the western society. Modern elites disowned themselves that they are not Hindus. From all these maladies, the writer opines, India would hopefully revert back and will sustain itself adhering to the entire age old inexhaustible intellectual treasures. To recover the true genius in a new body is the task now ahead of the nation. The nation should try to understand the fact that the West is fast being sucked into its own emptiness and human madness. India should realize the relevance of spirituality in today’s world. The bridge between matter and spirit is what the world needs today. India alone has the potential to prove the world that material and spiritual aspects go hand in hand in harmony to establish a well-established society. India has sought the secret of life that it could restore the divinity of the earth and of all creatures, including man. The Indian genius has started infiltrating into the Meat aans. has. generously embraced universal fraternity thus ee ’ without bloodshed.