I wish to express my sincerest appreciation to my beloved wife for her untiring assistance in the preparation of the manuscript and the reading of the proofs. I wish also to thank my friend Mr. Anoop Singh Dhillon for valuable suggestions. Los Angeles, California. March, 1930. DALIP SINGH SAUND. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. WOMAN’S POSITION IN INDIA. IS SHE BOND OR FREE? 9 II. THE HINDU IDEAL OF MARRIAGE 36 III. THE CIVILIZATION AND ETHICS OF INDIA 64 IV. THE CASTE SYSTEM OF INDIA 81 V. GANDHI--THE MAN AND HIS MESSAGE 108 VI. INDIA’S EXPERIMENT WITH PASSIVE RESISTANCE 126 VII. JALLIANWALLA MASSACRE AT AMRITSAR 146 VIII. WHY IS INDIA POOR? 162 IX. INDIAN NATIONALISM--ITS ORIGIN AND GROWTH 190 CHAPTER I WOMAN’S POSITION IN INDIA. IS SHE BOND OR FREE? “_Where women are honored,_ _there the gods are pleased;_ _but where they are dishonored,_ _no sacred rite yields reward._” Thus, in the year 200 B. C., wrote Manu, the great law-giver of India--India, whose mind was full grown when the western nations were yet unborn; India, whose life rolled on while the West, like the dragon fly, lived and died to live again. While Europe was still in a state of primitive barbarism, the Indo-Aryans of _Bharat_ (India) had reached an elevated state of moral and spiritual perfection; and in the realm of intellectual culture they had attained an eminence which has not yet been equalled by the most advanced of western countries. Not only had they a perfect alphabet and a symmetrical language, but their literature already contained models of true poetry and remarkable treatises on philosophy, science, and ethics when the forefathers of the modern western nations were still clothed in skins and could neither read nor write. In their firm grasp of the fundamental meaning and purpose of life, and in the organization of their society with a view to the full attainment of the fruits of life, namely, “to take from each according to his capacity, and to give to each according to his needs,” they had attained to a high degree of excellence, which has been recognized by the greatest of both western and oriental scholars. Says Max Müller, the noted scholar of oriental languages: