Romain Rolland, a great admirer of Indian culture, and one who wrote foreword to Coomaraswamy’s The Dance of Shiva said that he did not intend that the “stately fabric of the soul should cast over Europe the golden shallow of its dome.” To quote:
No, there is no wish that Europe should become Asia! But she must not try to make Asia become Europe! She must learn to respect this colossal personality to which she herself is complimentary. Without seeking (oh, vain dreams!) to restore to fictitious life to the forms of the past, may these two worlds of human beings, allying their distinctive spirits, build up their union the road of the future. |
Anand K. Coomarswamy (1991: 34) with all his lofty ideals and arguments for revival and reinterpretation of Indian tradition favored the guild socialism of caste. He envisaged equality of opportunity for all within the caste. He was also afraid of the rising number of Shudras. He said: “… the Shudras should not by any means outnumber the other castes; if the Shudras are too many, as befell in ancient Greece, where the slaves outnumbered the freemen, the voice of the least wise may prevail by mere weight of numbers.” He seems to be much more clear when he takes up the study of William Shakespeare. He says (151): “Civilization must henceforth be human rather than local or national, or it cannot exist. In a world of rapid communication it must be founded in the common purposes and intuitions of humanity, since in the absence of common motives there cannot be cooperation for agreed ends.”
When it comes to national economic issues both Gandhi and Coomarswamy (1981: 165) seem to accept industrial Swadeshi rather than crafts Swadeshi. Coomaraswamy says: “Not till the Indian people patronize Indian arts and industries from a real appreciation of them, and because they recognize them not merely as cheaper, but as better than the foreign, will the Swadeshi movement become complete and comprehensive.”
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