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This work has been reprinted recently. Elsewhere, the process was
similar. And it is probably no exaggeration to say that the discovery
and appreciation of Indian culture and history by British, German,
and French scholarshad a very important effection Indian intellectual
life. It strengthened the feeling for the greatness of the historical
accomplishments of Indian rulers, artists, scholars, poets or
philosophers in the past and this knowledge not only served to
considerably strengthen their self-confidence, it also created the
hope of regaining that former state of greatness for India.
It was when the Western idea of the nation was added to this
growing self-confidence of an urban middle class that the national
movement was born in India. Inspired by this combination, resistance
arose against British colonial rule and resulted in 1947, after a long
struggle, in the achievement of independence. But the concept of
the Indian nation could not be based on a common language since
the country had several major languages. In fact, when the question
of a national language came up in the sixties of the 19th century, the
Hindi-Urdu controversy proved to be more disruptive than anything
else. One had to look for another integrating factor which could be
made a common basis for the unity of the nation and found it in a
uniform all-Indian religious and cultural tradition. In its territorial
extent, this proposed future nation had been created by the British
and was not rooted in pre-colonial history, but no one thought of
letting the newly united India disintegrate again into many regional
states. The strategy of taking a common religion as the basis for
national unity succeeded in winning an all-India support for the
national movement, but it also inevitably led to the partition of India
because under this religious perspective a conflict of interests
between the Hindu and Muslim sections of the population was
bound to arise. When independence finally came in 1947, Pakistan
and what was later to become Bangladesh were cruelly cut away
from the main body of India and the after-pains of this religion-
motivated conflict can be felt up to the present day. The ancient
indigenous ideal of rulership, by contrast, had demanded that the
king was to protect the entire people, whatever their individual
creed.
It has been in the news for the last three years that leaders of
a Hindu nationalist movement distance themselves from the hitherto
