The ancient and medieval architecture of India: a study of Indo-Aryan civilisation

xxxii INTRODUCTION

mostsacredthinginIndia—thefountain

headofallherculture

and religion, that its plan

wasbuiltintothe

fabric of Indian

temples, and thatits daily

lifeandverynamewere

consecrated

inIndianreligiousritualbythe

traditionoffivethousandyears.

And

ithasneversinceoccurredto

Anglo-Indianhistorians

that

the

greatupheaval of

1857,

when

Hindu and Musalman

joined in
a

desperateeffort tooverthrowtheBritish

Raj, prob-

ablyhad itsrootcause,

notin greasedcartridges, but

in what

seemedtothe British

officialpurelyamatterofbusiness.

Or

was itamerecoincidence

thattheyearsimmediatelybeforethe

Mutiny were those in

which the agents of the East India

Companyweremost

.activein dealingwith this question, and

whenthe effectsoftheir

activitiesweremost keenlyfelt?

Thenetresult

of

the

organisationofAnglo-Indianadminis-

tration effected

since

1857

is that British officers,giving up

theirlives toIndia,

working honestlyandwhole-heartedlyfor

hergood,

accordingtotheirlights,rarelycomeinto touchwith

Indo-Aryan

civilisationexceptintheprocessofuprooting

it, in

which most of them are engaged. Andthe politicalreforms

ofrecentyears,fromthegrantofmunicipalself-governmentto

theestablishmentofLegislativeCouncils,havebeenconceived

in thesame profound ignorance of the Indian point of view

withwhichthe artwhichreveals the people's innermost soul

hasbeen alwaysregarded. Is itnecessarytolook further for

the cause

of Indian unrest

? Is not that unrest merely a

symptom

that theancient

spirit ofIndia—whichbythe lawof

heredity runsin the blood

of everyIndian man, woman, and

child,thoughtheymaybeunconscious

ofit—revivingunderthe

benigninfluenceoi^h^paxBritannica,

isbeginningtoreassert

itself? Ifso, arelegislative machinesof

Western pattern,con-

structed withatotal disregard of Indian

conditions, likely to

allay Indianunrest, ortoaddfuel

tothe fire?

The fact that Indianswho come

into closest touchwith