{"product_id":"2940013775404","title":"Good-bye to Western Culture","description":"A GOOD while ago, as I was stepping into the train, a friend who had\u003cbr\u003ecome to see me off put into my hands a book and said:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Have a look at this. Very rich, in places. Pure sensationalism, of\u003cbr\u003ecourse; she wants to get herself talked about. I think you'll enjoy\u003cbr\u003eit. If not, just throw it out of the window.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat is how I came to read _Mother India_, while the train crawled\u003cbr\u003eslowly through a level, dried-up landscape under the cobalt sky of\u003cbr\u003eearly autumn. It was a drowsy afternoon; the corn had been cut long\u003cbr\u003eago, the country wore an air of exhaustion, and everything seemed half\u003cbr\u003easleep. And still we panted forwards, past white farmhouses and fields\u003cbr\u003eof yellow stubble, stopping at every station. _Mother India_ is a\u003cbr\u003efairly long book; this was a fairly long journey, hot and tedious.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Pure sensationalism,\" it soon became evident, was not quite correct.\u003cbr\u003eIf you poke your nose into unsavoury corners, the result is bound to\u003cbr\u003ebe more or less sensational. It struck me that the author had\u003cbr\u003eperformed in business-like fashion her job of disembowelling old\u003cbr\u003eMother India, though some of her arguments, I felt sure, would\u003cbr\u003ecertainly be challenged--as indeed they were. In other circumstances I\u003cbr\u003eshould have read it with greater attention (I did, later on).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThat railway carriage was not conducive to the reading of a book like\u003cbr\u003ethis. The heat, the proximity to objectionable fellow-creatures,\u003cbr\u003echildren squalling in the next compartment, the screeching of\u003cbr\u003emachinery, the perpetual coming and going, the banging of doors, the\u003cbr\u003ewhistling: what a coarse, undignified mode of travel! Here we were,\u003cbr\u003ecooped up like hens in a basket; open the windows, and clouds of\u003cbr\u003enoisome smoke pour in; shut them, and you are suffocated. A man\u003cbr\u003esitting opposite me was intent upon some newspaper article; I caught\u003cbr\u003esight of the heading \"Indemnity.\" Indemnity--reparations; it was all\u003cbr\u003ewe could talk about then, it is all we can talk about now; an endless,\u003cbr\u003eunbecoming haggle.... And the red velvet seats, my pet aversion.\u003cbr\u003eVelvet in the brooding heat of August! Here was a sample of the\u003cbr\u003eunnecessary discomfort which we Europeans endure all day long in one\u003cbr\u003eform or another; that railway trip, a trifle in itself, made me\u003cbr\u003eresentful against the Western world and its institutions, while this\u003cbr\u003ebook, with every page I turned, took me further away from them and\u003cbr\u003econjured up memories of a land where one feels more at ease. As I read\u003cbr\u003ethose disclosures, I could not help contrasting the two and thinking:\u003cbr\u003eWhat she tells of India is all very sad and unpleasant, but--but how\u003cbr\u003eabout Europe?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, Europe has lost her smile. Moreover, she is growing smaller than\u003cbr\u003eever; small and explosive and hectic--_balkanized_. An air of\u003cbr\u003eparochial defiance broods over us, signalizing its presence by\u003cbr\u003eoffensive aggressions upon liberty. Life in this continent must\u003cbr\u003epresent considerable difficulties just now to a really conscientious\u003cbr\u003eperson. They who make it their business to evade its laws and\u003cbr\u003econventions whenever possible are on a different plane; they find\u003cbr\u003etheir existence tolerable, and some of them--one, at all events\u003cbr\u003e--would not be sorry if it lasted for ever.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e* * *\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA FEW observations then scrawled on the margin of _Mother India_ have\u003cbr\u003enow blossomed, or at least expanded, into the following footnotes. The\u003cbr\u003elong interval between the two events may suggest that the idea of this\u003cbr\u003ebook was conceived, and again discarded. So it was. Why bother about\u003cbr\u003ethe state of Europe? Such tasks should be left to the qualified\u003cbr\u003eWestern enthusiast, the world-improver, the dreamer, the eternally\u003cbr\u003ehopeful and eternally muddle-headed. Can the leopard change his spots?\u003cbr\u003eAn occasional spasm of lucidity is all we may ever expect. Enlightened\u003cbr\u003eindividuals crop up in the most unlikely places and epochs;\u003cbr\u003eenlightened groups of them are as common as a flock of white\u003cbr\u003eblackbirds. The world has grown not only older since Pericles; it has\u003cbr\u003egrown stupider.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe reader will find no suggestion of remedies in these pages. I am\u003cbr\u003enot the stuff of which reformers are made; rather than indulge in that\u003cbr\u003evariety of meddlesomeness I would sweep a crossing. Nine-tenths of the\u003cbr\u003ereformers of humanity have been mischief-makers or humbugs. I have no\u003cbr\u003edesire to be added to the list. A man who reforms himself has\u003cbr\u003econtributed his full share towards the reformation of his neighbour.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLet Europe and Asia do what they please: good luck to them!\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI observe, and pass on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHERE they are, then--just a few footnotes, a few _asides_ that touch\u003cbr\u003ethe fringe of a great problem: East or West? The problem confronts\u003cbr\u003eevery one of us and its solution is uncommonly easy. It is a matter of\u003cbr\u003etemperament; it depends, to a large extent, upon whether a man likes","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47181945176304,"sku":"2940013775404","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013775404","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}