Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from within — John Shaqi
Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from withinLajpat Rai, Lala
History
Young India: An interpretation and a history of the nationalist movement from within
Lajpat Rai, Lala
India -- Politics and government -- 1765-1947
Writers about India may again be broadly subdivided into two classes:
(a) those of British origin, (b) those of non-British origin. Those of
British origin are in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred tainted with
the imperial bias. They can only look at things from the imperial or
British point of view. Even the best and the most fair-minded of them do
not altogether succeed in freeing themselves from this bias. The bias
acts even against their will. The second class of writers are affected
by the racial and the colour bias. Moreover, nine out of ten amongst
them are made to look at things from the British point of view. As soon
as they land at an Indian port, they are taken in hand by the British
residents, officials and non-officials, and practically the whole of
their trip is arranged for them by the latter. They only see things
which the ruling community want them to see and they only hear and know
what these allow them to hear or know. The few who resolutely refuse to
be thus “programmed” do sometimes see things in their true light, as
the late Mr. Keir Hardie, M.P., and Mr. H. W. Nevinson did.
In this connection I think the following remarks of the latest American
writer on India, Professor Pratt of Williams College, Massachusetts, in
his book on “India and Its Faiths” are very pertinent. Professor Pratt
begins by warning the reader against “the point of view of the native”
himself, as well as against “those European writers who seek to give an
ultra ‘sympathetic’ picture of India.” But his observations about the
other two of the four sources of information mentioned by him are
extremely interesting. He says:
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