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Show An International Feature ; India: A Synthesis Of Culture.. I make a great contribution to Iindian culture. The reign of Akbar, the great Moghul king, is considered as significant as the reign of Asoka the Great in Indian history. Today, India, which is 84 per cent Hindu, has a Muslim President, Dr. Zakir Hussain, and a Muslim Chief Jus-. tice of the Supreme Court, Mr. Hi-dayatullah. Hi-dayatullah. Tolerance has given rise to another an-other important characteristic of Indian culture Synthesis. Indian art best represents this continuing symbiosis: Mauryan artwa-, I ' enced by Persia; the am': hara School of Buddhists was the result of the fusion I f ' dian and Greek art; the Taj i"! . called by Sir Edwin Arnold a w K in stone,' is the very epitome 5? ,ra' do-Saracenic architecture , dian genius for synthesis fo $ finest expression in the life I fl"1 work of Mahatma Gandhi The 00 spiration for his theory of non-ft lence came from the Buddhist, Ho (Continued on Page 3) e By ISAAC SEQUERAT Speaking of Indian Culture Ja-waharlal Ja-waharlal Nehru, who, in his charismatic charis-matic leadership of Independent India, In-dia, came to symbolize the resurgent resur-gent spirit of the nation, said: "It is not some secret doctrine or esoteric eso-teric knowledge that has kept India vital and going through the leng ages, but . a tender humanity, a varied and tolerant culture and a deep understanding of life and its mysterious ways. Her abundant vitality flows out from age to age in her magnificent literature . arid art." India's history goes back to the Indus Valley Civilization. The excavations ex-cavations at Mohenjodaro and Har-appa Har-appa have proved that a very highly high-ly civilized people evolved a sophis ticated culture on the banks of the Indus in 3500 B.C. Since then, In-d:an In-d:an culture has undergone a number num-ber of modifications through contact con-tact with other cultures, remaining essentially Indian nevertheless. The Indian way of life has found noble expression in the profound philosophy, philoso-phy, the rich art and literature of the past and the present. And it is from this expression of the genius of the people in idea and art that one can find the essentials of Indian In-dian culture. The most outstanding characteristic character-istic of Indian culture is tolerance a tolerance that comes not from indifference, but an attitude based on the Vedic-Hindu postulate that every way of life has its own contribution con-tribution to make to human welfare. wel-fare. Jews driven from the Holy Land alter the destruction of their Temple found asylum in India and still live there as a significant community. com-munity. St. Thomas the Apostle carried t ho message of Christianity to India in t ho first century, and today almost all the Christian sects are represented in the various sections sec-tions of the Indian population. The Zorastrians, fleeing from a change of religion in Persia in the eighth century found refuge on the west coast of India. Today the Parisis, as their descendents are called, form an important part of the Indian In-dian community. (Incidentally, Zubin Mehta, the dynamic young conductor of t ho Los Angeles Philharmonic Phil-harmonic is a Parsi from India I. Islam came over to India in the tenth century and remained to A Land Of Tolerance (Continued from Page 2) nd Vaishnava doctrine of ahimsa. Hi, political ideas were influenced 1 Z Tolstoy and Thoreau. The Ser-m-n on the Mount made a profound pro-found impression on his mind. In L book, Ishwar, Allah, and God were but different names for the Almighty and the All Merciful. Tolerance and Synthesis have been the bases of Indian philosophy too. The "Bhagavad Gita," the fountain-head of Indian religious and philosophical thought, teaches that the ultimate aim of the jivatma (individual soul) is complete merger merg-er with the Paramatma (Universal Soul). Emerson was influenced to a great extent by this idea in his conception of the Over-Soul. The idea of the synthesis of the individ ual and the Universal Soul is actually actu-ally a reformulation of the Vedic concept Tat twam asi (That art thou). The idea of synthesis finds corroboration cor-roboration in the Hindu attitude to Nature. Indian culture, which, like any other culture has its origin in religious beliefs, has always emphasized em-phasized the unity of nature and the community of living beings. Thf idea of re-incarnation and transmigration trans-migration of the soul, connected with almost all the religions of India, In-dia, celebrates the value of created life and the oneness of all being. |
