… the body is made by the thought that lies behind it.
The body politic is thus the expression of national thought, and in India, of thousands of years of thought.
To Europeanise India is therefore an impossible and foolish task: the elements of progress were always actively present in India. As soon as a peaceful government was there, these have always shown themselves.
From the time of the Upanishads down to the present day, nearly all our great Teachers have wanted to break through the barriers of caste, i.e. caste in its degenerate state, not the original system. What little good you see in the present caste clings to it from the original caste, which was the most glorious social institution.
Buddha tried to re-establish caste in its original form. At every period of India's awakening, there have always been great efforts made to break down caste.
But it must always be we who build up a new India as an effect and continuation of her past, assimilating helpful foreign ideas wherever they may be found.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Interview in London (1896)
The body politic is thus the expression of national thought, and in India, of thousands of years of thought.
To Europeanise India is therefore an impossible and foolish task: the elements of progress were always actively present in India. As soon as a peaceful government was there, these have always shown themselves.
From the time of the Upanishads down to the present day, nearly all our great Teachers have wanted to break through the barriers of caste, i.e. caste in its degenerate state, not the original system. What little good you see in the present caste clings to it from the original caste, which was the most glorious social institution.
Buddha tried to re-establish caste in its original form. At every period of India's awakening, there have always been great efforts made to break down caste.
But it must always be we who build up a new India as an effect and continuation of her past, assimilating helpful foreign ideas wherever they may be found.
- Swami Vivekananda,
Interview in London (1896)
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