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Cynthia Gebauer Kelley

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Cynthia Gebauer Kelley

This study is an attempt to discover what themes in Indian culture
American authors of popular non-fiction have presented to their readers.
It is suggested that these particular themes were not selected at random
by these authors but were chosen for certain reasons which can be inter-
preted in the context of cross-cultural education.

Only non-fiction books about India written by American authors for
the general American public were considered. Books written for special-
ized or academic interests are not included nor are fiction or juvenile
books.

A list of authors was compiled from the Cumulative Egg}; _I_n_d_egc_ and
the @9313 m 22529.3. These authors werethen stratified according to
sex, date of book publication, and general purpose in going to India.
From this stratification, a selective sample of thirty books was chosen
in an attempt to represent various points of view in proportion to the
frequency of their appearance on the original list. The books were ana-
lyzed in terms of those areas of Indian cultural life or "themes" which
the authors chose to present to the general public. The assumption was
made that the number of pages an author devotes to a theme constitutes
the stress or importance given that theme. Note was taken of the number
of times these themes were treated by page and the way in which the au-
thors interpreted each theme.

The following themes are found to be given major importance by 37%
to 80% of the authors: the British in India, Politics and Nationalism,

Villages, Princes, Religion, National Leaders and the Indian PeOple.

 

   

 

Cynthia Geb auer Kelley

Furthermore, it is found that in choosing and interpreting these themes,
the authors tend to perceive more of the manifest patterns of Indian
culture than the latent patterns. They tend to polarize their impres-
sions of India in terms of approval of those parts of Indian culture
they feel to be most like the ideal patterns of American culture and
disapproval of those parts of Indian culture they feel to be in conflict
with American ideal patterns. The majority of authors tend to use as a
primary reference group an ideal America; few authors use Irdian culture
as a reference group at either the ideal or actual levels.

In addition to the above, further enpirical generalizations or try-
potheses are suggested by the study. In conclusion, some recommenda-
tions are made for Americans in India, on the basis of the cross-cultur-

al experiences of these thirty authors.

 

AN ANALYSIS OF THE THEMATIC CONTENT
OF THIRTY POPULAR NON-FICTION BOOKS
ABOUT INDIA BY AMERICAN AUTHORS
(1920-1956)

by

Cynthia Getauer Kelley

A THESIS

Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies
Michigan State University of Agriculture and
Applied Science in osrtial fulfillment of

L

the requirements for the degree of

MASTER OF ARTS

Department of Sociology and Anlhropology

1957

ACKNOYLEDGHENTS

I am indebted to Dr. John Useem for his initial sug-
gestion of the subject and his unfailing help and guidance
throughout every step of the preparation. Without his gen-
erous contribution of time and ideas, this paper would not
have reached completion.

For their many worthwhile suggestions, I should like
to thank Dr. Joel Smith, Dr. Iwao Ishino, Dr. Charles Hoffer
and Dr. Shao Chang Lee.

I am grateful to hrs. heredith Caskett of the Michigan
State Library reference staff for her cooperation in obtain-
ing the necessary hooks, and to Miss hary Roy for her help
with the initial book lists. I should also like to thank
Hrs. Hyrna Curtis for her swift and accurate job of typing
both the rough draft and final copies.

Finally, for his moral support, helpful suggestions

and kind consideration, I should like to thank my husband,

Douglas Kelley.

CHAPTER

I.

INTRODUCTION

Purpose and Scope . . .

Method of Study . . . .

Literature

Hypotheses

in the Field

0

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTERS II, III AND IV--THEKATIC

CONTENT . . . . .

II.

III.

THEMATIC CONTENT:

Animals . .

Elections .

THEMES
O O O O O 0
O O O O O O

Hindu/Muslim Strife . .

'l- ‘,‘ 3,..
Cech' Contwirousnress . .

Labor . . .

THEME: TI C CC'FTT‘B'TTT:

IMPORTANCE

THEMES

Health and Disease . .

Education .

O 0 O O

0
0

Architecture . . . . .

Communi sm .
Cities . .

Caste . . .

O O O O O O
O C O O O C
O O O O O 0

Americans in India . .

Ecdnomic Development .

OF MINOR IhPORTANCE

ll
14

17

26

CHAPTER . PAGE

Women and the Family . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

IV. THEMATIC CONTENT: THEMES OF MAJOR IMPORTANCE . 62

British in India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Indian Politics and the Nationalist Movement. 66

Villages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Princes and haharajahs . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Religion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

National Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IOO

Gandhi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Nehru . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Other Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

The Indian People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

V. RE—EXAMINATTON OF HYPOTHESE . . . . . . . . . 121
VI. SOHE SUGGESTIONS AND RSCOHKEHDATIONS FOR

AMERI CAVS IN INDIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1'70

BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184

APPMTDIX e e e e o o e o o o e e e o o o o o o o e e 188

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE PAGE
I. Number of Popular Non-Fiction Books Published

in tie United States on Major Asian

Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
II. Classification of Thirty Books . . . . . . . . 8
III. Percentage of Book Devoted to Dominant Themes . 20

IV. Indian Informants Authors Mention Specifically. 22
V. American Cultural Values Reflected by the

AL‘lthors O O O O O O O O O O O O I O O O O O O 24

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

Over the last thirty years, greater numbers of
Americans have been going abroad in various roles, and an
increasing number have been returning home to write non-
fiction books for popular consumption. No longer are these
books confined to Europe and "the Grand Tour.“ As Table I
indicates, 269 popular non-fiction books about Asian coun-
tries have been published in the United States from 1928 to
July 1956, a figure which suggests a long term interest in
Asia.1 This means that Americans are receiving impressions
of Asia through books, non-fiction books which cannot be
dismissed as "mere travel books" because they are supposedly
picturing the country “as it really is." Whether the author
is a State Department official, a missionary, or simply a
tourist, the general public will give credence to his report--
and subsequently build up an image of the country, an image
which, in the long run, may influence the way Americans think

and act toward Asia.

 

1Table I was compiled from the Cumulative ggok Index,
a world list of books in the English language.' (New York:
E; W. Wilson Company, 1928-19560 A book was judged to be
popular non-fiction on the basis of title, and it is assumed
that those books published only in the United States are by
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The subject of this study, non-fiction books by
Americans about India, was chosen for three primary reasons:
(1} As Table I indicates, the sample of books about India was
largest, eighty-five non-fiction popular books having been
written on this one country over the last twenty-six years;
(2) Great numbers of Americans havebeen going to India under
a variety of auspices during recent years, there being at
present a total of 5,550 Americans in residence there;1 and
(5) The relationships between the United States and India
have become increasingly important in global affairs. Fur-
thermore, India is a country with which this student has had
some personal contact, having spent five and one-half months

there in 1955.
1. Purpose and Scope

The aims of this study are (1) to discover what themes
in Indian culture American authors of popular non-fiction
have presented to their readers; (2) to suggest that these
particular themes were not selected at random by these

authors but were chosen for certain reasons; and (5) to

lon January 1, 1956, 5,497 Americans were in residence
in India according to figures issued by the U.S. passport
office based on reports of embassies and consulates. Of
these, 2,642 were mission, 881 U.S. Government employees,
802 business and comercial, 455‘ doctors, dentists and edu-
cators, 759 others.

interpret these reasons in the context of cross-cultural
education.1

The study is concerned solely with those popular non-
fiction books about India by American authors over a thirty-
six year period, 1920-1956. "Popular" in this study refers
to those non-fiction works which are written to reach a wide
segment of the general American public; books written pri-
marily for special interest groups or academic circles were
not considered, nor was any work of fiction. Juvenile books
were not considered nor were books which attempted to cover
the whole of Asia, devoting only a small portion to India.
Books published only in Great Britain or India, though they
may have been written by Americans, were not included in the
study as they probably did not reach many Americans. Unfor-
tunately, publishing houses either do not keep records of the
circulation of books they publish or are unwilling to divulge
that information; therefore, it was impossible to determine
how widely each book was circulated among the general public.

It was not the purpose of this study to analyze fully
the motives which prompted each author's trip to India nor
those which prompted him to write the resultant book. No

attempt was made to get full information about every author's

1By "cross-cultural education" is not meant here the
two-way process of Indian-American relations but merely that
segment of the relationship which deals with an individual
American's reaction to India.

5
background or actual experience in India apart from his book.
Instead, the books were accepted on face value as being a
selection of Indian cultural themes which the author widhed

to interpret to the general public.
2. Method of Study

The primary method used in this study was a content
analysis of thirty books. In order to arrive at the final
selection of these books, this procedure was followed: (1) A
list of books was made from (a) the B225 Review Digest1 (1920-
1927) under the heading "India,” and (b) the Cumulative Book
.Iggggz (1928-1956) under the major heading "India," and.the
minor headings “Civilization,“ "Description and Travel,"
"Social Conditions," "Social Life and Customs,“ and."Politics
and Government." The assumption was that these headings would
cover books written for the popular market. A further judg-
ment was made on the basis of title as to the "popularity" of
the book, i.e. whether the book was written for the general
public or for academic or specialized interests. Authors
whose books were printed only in Great Britain or India were
not chosen. (2) It was imperative that each author chosen be

an American; thus the next step was to determine the nationality

 

1Book Review Qigest (New Ybrk: H. W. Wilson Company,

1920-1927 ) .

2Cumulative Book Index, op. cit.

 

6
of each author. This information was obtained.through book
reviews, biographical anthologies as Twentieth Century
Authors,1 and writing directly to the publisher. From this
a list of fifty-five American authors of non-fiction popular
books was drawn up. (5) These authors were then stratified
in three ways: (a) according to sex; (b) according to date
book was published (whether before or after 1947, date of
India's independence from Great Britain); and (c) according
to the author's general approach to India-~as intellectual
observers, as non-intellectual adventurers, as personnel con-
nected with the Christian missions, as businessmen with in-
terests in India, as U. S. Embassy or State Department per-
sonnel, or as persons closely identified with India (for
example, a person who had married an Indian). A further
breakdown was later made in the areas of "intellectual ob-
server" and "identifiers." The former was broken down ac-
cording to motive for visiting India: (a) those who came to
teach, (b) those who came to learn, and (c) those who came as
reporters to do a story. The latter were stratified accord-
ing to the kind of identification they made with India:

(a) adaptive or adapting themselves to certain situations
without actually internalizing cultural symbols, (b) symbolic

or internalizing certain manifest cultural symbols of Indian

1Howard Haycroft and Stanley J. Kunitz, editors,
TWentieth Century Authors (New‘York: H. W. Wilson Company,

7
life, and (c) behavioristic or an attempt to internalize the
Indian culture completely--to "become Indian." From this
stratification a selective sample was chosen in an attempt

to represent various points of view in proportion to their
appearance on the original list. Thus, a list of thirty

books was developed as shown in Table II.

After a trial reading of six books, a list of areas of
cultural life or cultural "themes" was devised fbr handling
the material, themes within the sociological or anthropological
frame of reference. A theologian or natural scientist would
have chosen other "themes." These themes may be feund in the
Appendix. Note was taken of the number of times these thenms
were treated, the unit being a page, in an attempt to dis-
cover what percentage of the book was concerned with a par-
ticular theme. Note was also taken of the way these themes
were interpreted by each author. The assumption was made
that the number of pages an author devotes to a theme con-
stitutes the stress or importance an author gives that theme.

In addition to these themes, three charts were kept on
each book: (1) An index of approval and disapproval which
tabulated what items in Indian culture Americans tended to
admire and which they tended to find objectionable; (2) a
check list which tabulated number of statements made in ref-
erence to values which Americans tend to hold in common;

these values were taken from American Society by Robin M.

 

TABLE II
CLASSIFICATION OF THIRTY BOOKS

I. Igtellectuals - 11
A. Those who came to teach:

The Pitiful and the Proud by Carl Rowan (1956)
EwerIcan __In In-d'i'a 5y Saunders Bedding (1954)
Friends and FelIow Students by Thomas Bruce

Horgan (19 6
B. Those who came to learn:

Interview with India by John Frederick luehl (1950)
India and the Awakenin East by Eleanor Roosevelt (1955)
India ITIr3_By Harris and Clare Wofford (1951)

Richer by_Asia by Edmond Taylor (1947)*

The Case for India by Will Durant (1950)*

India 13 Ferment 5y Claude Halstead van Tyne (1925)*

m

C. Those who came to do a story:

‘Ag I See India by Robert Trumbull (1956)
Halfway 29 Freedom by Margaret Bourke-White (1949)

II. Non-Intellectual Adventurers - 5

One Man's India by Arthur Stratton (1956)

THIS Is India By Peter Muir (1945)*

IndIaj—Land 9.1.: _t_h_e_ Black Pagoda by Lowell Thomas
(1950)*

Mother India by Katherine layo (1927)s

Letters Home from India gag Irak by Paul Cravath

2H _
III. Mission Pgrsonnel (9r with g "Hissions" Outlook) - 4

Face to Face with India by Roland Wolseley (1954)
FurthEF'UEwardjgfi Rural India by D. Spencer Hatch

 

5 )*
Christ of the Indian Road by E. Stanley JOnes
87?

Behind Mud Walls by Charlotte and William Wiser
50)*

Table II (continued)

IV. Businessmen - 2
Steel [an ig_India by John L. Keenan (1945)*
LIvfiig East by David Wooster King (1929)*

V} E; S; Govengment foicials - 2

 

Ambassador's Re ort by Chester Bowles (1954)
India Against Egg Storm_by Post Wheeler (1944)*

 

 

VI. Identifier§_- 6

 

A. Adaptive:
Iarriage gg_India by Frieda M. Hauswirth (1950)*
Understandin India by Gertrude Marwin Williams
(I928)*
B. Symbolic:
'At Home in India by Cynthia Bowles (1956)
Just Halfjg World Away by Jean Lyon (1954)
voIceIess_India By Gertrude Emerson (1944)*
C. Behavioristic:
!1_Road tg_Indiatm'Nilla Cram Cook (1959)*
VII. Books starred were written prior to 1947, date of
India's independence from Great Britain.
VIII. Number of books written by male authors: 19
Number of books written by female authors: 9

Number of books written by a husband and wife team: 2
Note: Each such team is counted as one author.

10
Williams, Jr.;1 and (5) a ”problem list" of those aspects in
Indian culture which Americans tended to regard as "problems."
Certain terminology will be used in the following
pages. Operational definitions of these terms for'the pur-
poses of this study are listed below.
(1) Manifest patterns: The formally institutionalized

 

values of a society and the codified social norms by which
individuals and groups express their conduct in a socially
approved way at both the overt and covert level.

(2) Latent pattern : The informal value structures
of a society which constitute the imperatives for behavior in
the context of social life and which are not codified or openly
recognized as factors which govern the decisions and behavior
of individuals within social groups.2

(5) Eggeggggg.ggggg: That group with which an author
identifies himself, as for example an idealized concept of
all Americans may be a significant reference group for an

author.

 

(4) Values gr value orientations: Modes of organizing

 

conduct; meaningful principles which guide human actions.
(5) Ideal pattern : Institutionalized and conven-
tional prescriptions for approved conduct closely related to

value orientations.

 

1Robin u. Williams, Jr., American Society (New York:
Alfred. A. Knopf, 1952), Pp. 388-116.

. 2For further discussion of manifest and latent patterns
see Robert K. lerton, Social Theory and Social Structure (Free

 

 

Press of Glencoe, Illinois, 1949)] pp. 21-81.

 

11
(6) Actual patterns: Particular life styles experi-
enced daily.

5. Literature in the Field

Unfortunately, the literature dealing with the reac-
tions of Americans to other countries is limited. A few
theses have been written on Americans traveling in Europe:

Attitudes 2;,American_Travelers i3 Germany (1815-1890), a

 

 

study in the development of some American ideas, by Ruth

Musselmanl; American Travelers in France (1850-1860), a study

 

of some American ideas against a European background, by

Robert C. L. Scottz; and Americans ig Russia (1776-1917), a

 

 

study of American travelers in Russia from the American
Revolution to the RUSsian Revolution, by Anna Mary Babeys.
The first of these has proved useful in presenting a
point of contrast between 19th Century Americans in Germany
and 20th Century Americans in India. In both cases there is
an experience of “cultural shock" during which the traveler
reflects some degree of frustration and disillusionment upon

finding that the cultural picture he had prior to his trip

 

1Ruth Musselman, "Attitudes of American Travelers in
Germany (1815-1890)." (Ph.d. thesis, Michigan State College,
1952).

2Robert C. L. Scott, "American Travelers in France
(1850-1860).” (Ph.d. thesis, Yale University, 1940.)

5Anna Mary Babey, "Americans in Russia (1776-1917)."
(Ph.d. thesis, Columbia University, Comet Press, N.Y., 1958)

 

12
is radically altered when face to face with the culture itself.
In both Germany and India, Americans tend to polarize their
impressions into strong likes and dislikes. Here there are
some interesting differences in specific cases, as for example:
Americans in Germany tend to praise family life and stress its
importance in German culture; Americans in India seldom be-
come intimate enough with an Indian family to recognize its
importance in Indian culture. Still another point of contrast
is the motive, generally speaking, which pronpts an American
to travel to Germany as apart from that of the traveler to
India. In the former case, the American goes to learn from
the "great cultural heritage" which Europe, and specifically
Germany, symbolizes to him. The American in India, whether
his role is that of a teacher or not, often concludes that
Americans or the West in general should teach these "people
of a backward area" a better way of life.

The above studies are concerned with books by Americans;
a study which examines American motion pictures is Dorothy B.

Jones' The Portrayal 2; China and India gn_the American Screen,

 

the evolution of Chinese and Indian themes, locales and char—
acters as portrayed on the American screen. This study has

value in that it examines the various Asian stereotypes

 

1Dorothy B. Jones, "The Portrayal of China and India
on the American Screen (1896-1955)." (Center for International
Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge,
lass., 1955) ‘

15

Americans have seen depicted on the motion picture screen;
however, like those studies mentioned above, it is not set in
a sociological framework and makes little or no attempt to
examine the "why" of the phenomena presented, in terms of the
larger context of American culture.

It would be a mistake to conclude that the image
Americans hold of India has developed only over the last fifty
years. Americans in fine 19th Century also traveled to India
and.wrote books about their experiences; the pictures they
paint of the "exotic East” have certainly helped shape today's
image of India. Among these books are: Across America and
Asia. by Raphael Pumpelly (1870) and _'I_'_w_g X3933 in £h_e_ Jungle
by W. T. Hornaday (1886).1 However, perhaps the most widely
circulated book of this nature was Following ggg‘Eguator by
Hark Twain. This is a two-volume work which describes in
detail a trip Twain made around the world in 1897. The 255
pages on India stress those aspects of the culture which are
thought of as "thrilling" or "romantic" oro-the other side of
the coin-~"appalling" or ”horrible," e.g., thugee, suttee,
caste distinctions, the Kali cult, maharajahs, tiger’hunts,
picturesque natives, and so on. Twain's summary of India
presents so many of the common 19th and 20th Century images

that it is worth quoting:

‘

lcited by Robert E. Spiller in Litera Hiatofl 9.1:. the
U} S. (New Yerk: lacmillan Go., 1948), o . .

—" _‘-— 4—.-

14

This is indeed India! The land of dreams and romance,
of fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and
novels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and
Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and.the
jungle, the country of a hundred nations and a hundred
tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods,
cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech,
mother of history, grandmother of legend, great grand-
mother of tradition, whose yesterdays bear date with the
mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nationso-the
one sole country under one sun that is endowed with an
imperishable interest for alien prince and alien peasant.
. . . the one land that all men desire to see, and having
seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse
for the shows of all the rest of the globe combined.

Here is an India to which many a later author will re-

fer in either an explicit or implicit manner, an India por-

trayed in both books and films of‘the 20th Century.

4. Hypotheses

After examining six "test" books, certain initial major
and minor hypotheses were drawn up; these served as guides in
looking at the material and may be thought of as empirical
generalizations.

I. The sample writers tend to polarize their im-
pressions of India in terms of good or bad, approval or dis-
approval, rather than playing the part of disinterested
spectator or objective observer.

II. Furthermore, the sample writers tend to approve

of flnose parts of Indian culture which they feel to be most

1Hark Twain (Samuel Clemens), Fbllowin the Eguator
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1897), p. 34$.

 

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_d

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4,

15
like the ideal manifest patterns of America and to disapprove
of those parts which they feel conflict with America's ideal
manifest patterns.

III. The sample writers tend to compare their ideals
with the actuality of Indian culture, seldom looking closely
at Indian ideals--or comparing the actual behavior of Ameri-
cans with the actual behavior of Indians.

IV. Furthermore, the writers seem to stress themes in
Indian culture in terms of the reference groups or certain
sensitive areas which had been most meaningful to them at
home; they seldom use India as a reference group.

V. The sample writers tend to perceive more of the

manifest patterns of Indian culture than the latent patterns.

VI. The sample writers tend to see three groups of
Indians: the old.elite (as maharajahs), the western and non-
western educated intellectuals or students, and the cultiva-
tors they observe in the village, or in their homes as serv-
ants, or in minor clerical positions. As a rule, the authors
tend to disregard the middle classes.

VII. The sample writers tend to look at India in terms
of sets of problems which could and should be solved through
technological change and education.

VIII. The sample writers tend to see uhemselves in

the role of the teacher who will bring or is bringing scien-

tific knowledge and democratic ideals (since '47) or

 

l6
Christianity (before '47 roughly) to backward, under-developed
areas.

IX. The sample writers tend to draw generalized con-
clusions from particular types of "significant experiences"
which are meaningful to them as symbolic of the "real" India.

X. The sample writers of the pre-Independence days
were not so concerned with "identifying” with Indians and
adopting certain Indian manifest patterns as are the Americans
of'the post-Independence period.

XI. When the sample writers go to India in an altru-
istic role, they experience a cultural shock which‘will not
diminish if they leave within the first year. If, however,
they remain and their altruistic patterns are routinized over

a long period of years, the cultural shock is greatly lessened.

INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTERS II, III AND IV’
THEMATI C CONTENT

As each American author looks at Indian culture through
the lens of American values, certain Indian cultural themes
seem to him to be significant. Table III on the following
pages represents a breakdown of these themes according to the
percentage they occupy in each book. The percentages are
based on the number of pages each author devotes to the theme
divided by the total number of pages the author spends on

India.1

A careful subjective judgment is made as to the author's
intended emphasis in some cases; for example, when two major
themes occupy the same page, the theme stressed most by the
author in the book as a whole is given precedence. No attempt
is made to break down the thematic content of each book one
hundred percent. The themes which comprise at least eighty
percent of each book are tabulated and an "x" category repre-
sents the remaining percent. It is felt that in this way the
salient finemes are represented. It should be emphasized that
because subjective judgments have been made, these figures
should not be taken as exact percentages but as indications

of the dominant themes of each book.

 

1Thus, pages the author devotes to Pakistan or Afghanis-
tan or other Asian travels are not included. Pages devoted to
Kashmir, however, are included as Kashmir is counted as part
of India for purposes of this study.

18
In the following pages each theme presented in Table III

will be treated (l) in light of percentage and author classi-
fication, and (2) in light of the authors' interpretations of
the themes. The themes are listed beginning with those of
nflnor importance, i.e. ten percent or less of the authors were
concerned with these themes. In Chapter III themes of moderate
importance are discussed, or those themes stressed by sixteen
to twenty-seven percent of the authors. Chapter IV deals with
themes of major importance or those stressed by thirty-seven

to eighty percent of the authors.

Table IV on pages 22 and 25 lists the number of Indian
informants authors mention specifically according to each sub-
type, i.e. intellectuals, non-intellectuals, and so on. The
purpose of this table is to show with what occupational groups
authors most often spoke directly, as it is assumed that these
contacts influenced an author's treatment of a theme. The
table was compiled by counting the number of informants in
each occupational group. If there appeared to be an overlap-
ping in any case (for example, a communist leader who is also
a farmer), a judgment was made on the basis of the authorig
rupture of the person in the role he stressed.

Table V'on pages 24 and 25 gives a list of American
values chosen from American §ociety_by Robin E. Williams, Jr.1

It is assumed that a statement made by an author is not made

1Robin m. Williams, Jr., 2p. cit., p. 30.

 

in a cultural vacuum but reflects certain basic American
values. Therefore, the number of statements which reflect a
particular American value was recorded author by author and
the results shown in Table V.

These tables will be referred to later in Chapters II,

III and IV.

 

 

 

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CHAPTER II
THEMATIC CONTENT: THEMES OF MINOR IIPORTKNCE
I. ANIHALS

Mayo (10%) and the Wiser's (9%) are the only two au-
thors who are primarily concerned with this theme. It refers
to those statements made about the Indian's treatment of his
animals, cattle in particular. The fact that only two authors
stress ”animals" to any significant extent does not mean that
authors ignore "sacred cows." Almost every book contains one
sentence at least about cattle seen wandering about the city
streets, and several include a paragraph about seeing Indians
maltreat their animals. However, the basic attitudes of all
the authors are well reflected by the statements made by Mayo
and the Wisers.

As Mayo looks at India's "cattle problem" she makes a
continual comparison with the ideal treatment of cows on the
modern ranches and dairies of the U. S. Her interpretation
of the Hindu gaushalas (dairies), treatment of cattle, legis-
lation of‘ cattle, etc. ix: reflected in the following state-
ments:

He (the Hindu) says that he venerates all life and is
filled with tenderness for all animals. Lecturing in
America, he speaks of the Hindu's sensitive refinement
in this direction and of his shrinking from our gross
unspirituality. . . . But if you suppose from these
seemingly plain words that the average Hindu in India

shows what we would call common humaneness toward animal
life, you go far astray.

 

(After a visit to a gaushala) Looked at from the
point of view of an American farmer, the whole thing
was too primitive to discuss. Looked at from the Indian
background, it was a shining light, and one felt almost
guilty in noticing that all the staff were cousins,
nephews, or close relatives of the superintendent.

But it was a British-trained Indian. . . who rescued
this gaushala from a bad start, devised the present ad-
vance sc eme and persuaded the Association to adopt it.1

During their five years in Karimpur village, the Wisers

attempted to effect change in the general health and treatment
of the village animals, notably cattle. They appreciate the
villager's reverence for his cows in terms of the tremendous
contribution the cow makes to the village economy but disap-
prove of his rejection of scientific ways of improving the
local stock. They also object to the religious ideas which
prohibit taking of life as they feel that surplus puppies
should be drowned, mad dogs shot, and rats, birds and other
crop-eaters destroyed. Conclude the Wisers:

Until they are educated. . .there is small prospect
of improvement. . . . They simply accept things as they
find them and go on limiting the efficiency of their
animal helpers by fostering a husbandry which is based
on tradition rather than science.

Efficiency and practicality, science and secular

rationality play a big part in the inability of American au-

thors to comprehend the Indian's treatment of animals. The

A

1Katharine Mayo, Mother India (New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Company, 1927), p. 242, p. 269.

Zaharlotte V. and.William H. Wiser, Behind Mud Walls
(New York: Friendship Press, 1946), p. 92.

 

 

28
religious principles behind such treatment simply "do not
make sense"--scientific sense--to the authors, and they are
disturbed when they try to discuss or change the ideas of an
Indian on this matter. This frustration often results in a
rejection of'the idea that India is a "spiritual" or "religious"

nation, as Mayo's comment indicates.

II. ELECTIONS

One author, Jean Lyon, stresses "elections" over ten
percent. By this she refers to India's first national elec-
tion in 1952 which she went out of her way to observe first
in mountain villages, then in the princely states. Her basic
attitude is one of approval; here is "democracy in action."
The fact that She is aware of party ignorance, personality
contests, cloudy issues, and inefficient mechanics does not
dissuade her from this general impression.

Chester Bowles (4%) and Robert Trumbull (4%) corrobo-
rate this idea.

I have seen the spectacle of more than 100 million
free Indians gping to the polls in the world's largest
free election and I can imagine no achievement greater.
I have seen long lines assembled before dozens of poll-
ing booths. I have seen women defy old customs and cast
their first vote. . . . I have seen 'Untouchables' walk
for miles to stand in the voting line next to Brahmans.

. . . In Asia, as in America, I know no grander vision
than this, government by the consent of the governed.1

 

lChester Bowles, Ambassador's Report_(New York: Harper
and Brothers, 1954), p. 156.

The Indian election demonstrated that the people of
the East, though they may be poor, illiterate, and barely
clothed, are not lacking in political consciousness.
(From chapter entitled "The World's Most Democratic
Election.")
It is interesting to note that here, when Trumbull sees
Indians adopting a value of the United States, i.e. democracy,
he makes no attempt to "de-bunk" as he has other themes but

praises unstintingly.
III . HINDU/HUSLII STRIPE

Three authors approach this religious conflict from
different angles and come up with different conclusions.
Mayo (7%), writing in 1927, predicts strife when the Britidi
leave, foreseeing an India ruled by Muslims with Hindus as
virtual slaves. Trumbull (20%) and Bourke-White (9%), two
journalists "doing a story" on Partition (1947-48) each em-
phasize a different viewpoint; the former stresses the over-
all violence; the latter, the individual tragedies.

layo is convinced that the British are the only people
who can keep peace between Muslims and Hindus. As proof of
this, she cites an incident in a Lucknow community where
Hindus and Muslims lived peacefully until the "Reforms" (1.6.
granting of certain Home Rule measures to Indians in the '20's).

Then the Hindus began to fear Muslim domination in the event

1Robert Trumbull, is I See
Sloane Associates, 1956), p. 1597'

India (New York: William

 

 

50
of Independence, and "rather aggressively and offensively"
organized meetings which coincided.with Muslim worship in
time and general place. According to Mayo, the conflict which
followed would never have been resolved had it not been for
British intervention.

Mayo and Trumbull, both of whom tend to be "muck-rakers,"
place a decided.enmhasis on the violence which characterized
Hindu/Kuslim strife. Partition for Trumbull is "an insane orgy
of killing," "unparalleled carnage" and "indescribable slaugh-
ter" where "corpses lay in the landscaped streets of New Delhi
bloating in the sun."1 He is particularly disturbed by the
disregard Indians show for the wounded and dying and by what
he considers to be crude methods of killing. This treatment
of Partition is typical of Trumbull's interpretation of India
as a whole; he attempts to ”de-bunk" and tear down those
stereotypes about India he feels are false, the most salient
of which is India as a non-violent nation which is somehow
more spiritual than other nations.

Bourke-“hite's approach to this theme differs from
those preceding in that her stress is on the fleeing refugees
and the individual cases of disaster. Partition for her is
"a massive exercise in human misery." Rather than the rioting
stressed by Mayo and Trumbull, she describes incidents as an

improvised cholera hospital:

A.
w

11b1d., p. 55.

31

The sight of these helpless sufferers made me very

angry. These were innocent peasants; some had been
driven from their ancestral homes; the others had
listened to the drumming of religious slogans and
left home to pursue a dream.

Throughout the interpretations above run humanitarian
values, the tradition of religious freedom, and the worth of
the individual personality. The norm for all three tends to
be a stable society where violence, especially religious
strife, is isolated and relatively unusual; it is this refer-
ence group that thrpws the Hindu/Muslim tension which the

authors witness into sharper focus, tending to shock them

more deeply.
IV. COLOR CONSCIOUSNESS

By this theme is meant the awareness authors show of
the identification Indians make with those persons of dark
skin in other countries, notably the American Negro. Sig-
nificantly, the authors who stress this theme are themselves
American Negroes, Carl Rowan (10%) and Saunders Bedding (9%),
writing in 1956 and 1954 respectively.

Both authors find Indians greeting them as "colored
brothers," and both find a great deal of misinfbrmation con-

cerning racial discrimination in the United States.

 

1Margaret Bourke-limits, Half-way 32 Freedom (New York:
Simon and Schuster, 1949), p. 7.

32

No matter where I went, or with whom I talked or
what the original subject of conversation, Indians
were always coming back at me with America's race
prejudice. It was a shadow in which I moved. It
evoked scorn, or patronage or pity.

There was much evidence that almost every thinking
Indian was seized by this consciousness of color. To
many, this concern with color had become close to an
obsession and I was convinced that for many years to

come race would be an important factor in India's
foreign policy.2

Both authors experience a sense of frustration and
embarrassment as they try to point out to Indian audiences
the progress whidm has been made in American race relations
without denying those injustices which still exist. Rowan,
however, goes somewhat deeper into the reasons for the Indi-
ans' preoccupation with color, concluding that it is a result
of the long-standing anti-white feeling manifested during
British rule.

What Americans, and particularly our propaganda ex-
perts, must realize is that Asian questions about racism
in America are not asked out of deep concern about the
American Negro. Basically, they are an expression of
the Asian's concern about himself, of 233 232 quest for
status and dignity.3 -_——-—-'

Treatment of this theme brings sharply into focus the
anxieties which result when an American is face to face with

k

1Saunders Bedding, An American in India (New York: The
Bobbs-Berrill Company, Inc77'1954), p.—I2 .

QCarl Rowan, The Pitiful and the Proud (New York:

Random House, 1956), pp. III-135.
31b1d., p. 156.

 

\
\

35
with the conflict between the ideal and actual patterns of
American culture. Some white authors ignore this or mention
it only briefly; perhaps it is too sensitive an area for them.
Others, as Jones, the Bowles', and Roosevelt show real anxiety
for the picture America presents to the world in this area.
Rowan and Bedding, so closely identified.with this theme, are

naturally the two authors who give it the greatest importance.
V. LABOR

Both Keenan and Bourke-White devote over fifteen per
cent of’their books to ”labor," 1.6., the specific living and
working conditions of the factory worker. Both authors had
unique significant experiences in factories, Keenan as general
manager for Tata Iron and Steel (1913-1938), and Bourke-White
as a reporter investigating conditions in textile mills and
tanneries (1946).

Keenan's account of labor disputes, strikes, and union
growth is characterized throughout by a genuine sympathy fer
the men under him and a consideration of their grievances and
difficulties. He understands that labor problems at Tata's
were closely related to anti-British feeling and the Inde-
pendence Movement; however, instead of dismissing union lead-
ers as simply "terrorists," he analyzes the background of
their bitterness, citing incidents from his intimate knowledge

of their families and their relationships at Tata's. Those

34
Indians who are energetic, hard-working, determined to succeed,
intelligent, honest and.conscientious receive Keenan's praise,
whether pro- or anti-British, pro— or anti-union. The follow-
ing incident is typical of'Keenan's approach to factory woflrers
specifically and the theme "labor" in general.

lost of the Indians I have worked with showed a
sharply contrasted persistence. One of the best blast
furnace men in India while still in training was or-
dered by his fbreman to act as conder-snapper for a
time. . . . This Indian boy tried hard but he couldn't
bot up the notch. . . . He got flustered. An old
Indian cast-house man walked over and stopped the
notch with ease. He had had years of practice. The
young student was filled with rage and despair. Tears
ran down his cheeks. He shouted at me, 'God damn it!
I'll never be a blast furnace man. I'm just no goodl'
I patted him on the back. I confessed that after
years of trying to be an expert at that job I was not
yet very proficient. He calmed down and answered that
he was going to learn to do that job or go to hell
trying. If that quality of determination were not
present in most Indians, it might not have been feai-
ible to effect flue gradual Indianization of Tata's.

Bourke-White's treatment, though based on a considerably
shorter period of contact, includes a somewhat greater variety
of experiences in that she interviewed workers in their homes
and at their union meetings as well as in the actual factories.
She is quick to conclude that the problems of labor in India
are not specifically Indian but are comparable to situations
in America.

. . . it struck me that these were the same sort of
people, with agile, too-slender bodies, heavily-veined

 

1John Keenan, Steel Man in India (New York: Duell,
Sloan and Pierce, 1943), pp. 1323155.

35

skillful hands, and anxious, eager faces which one
sees in any mill town in the world. . . .

It was an obvious observation, but we foreign visi-
tors sometimes miss the obvious in the strangeness of
a new setting; it was the discovery that these workmen
had the same desire to live healthy family lives in
clean surroundings as any American citizen. These men
too had worked for freedom and freedom had the same
meaning to them and carried the same not unreasonable
hopes that it holds for Americans.1
Her disapproval of the living and working conditions of both
textile and tannery workers is focused in particular on the
children, aged about eight to fifteen, who work in these
factories, and her emphasis is on the progress which the
union is making to better conditions.

Both these authors reflect the American value of hu-
manitarian mores in treating "labor." The values of effi-
ciency, hard work, progress and freedom also influence their
judgments coupled wits the reference group of an America which
embraces these ideals. Bourke-White in particular emphasizes

her belief that Indians are "just like Americans" in wanting

material comforts and a better standard of living.

 

lBourke-Vmite, 29.. cit., p. 50; p. 70.

 

 

CHAPTER III

THEMATIC CONTENT: THEMES OF MODERATE IMPORTANCE
I. HEALTH AND DISEASE

Mayo, Wolseley, and Cynthia Bowles devote ten percent
or more to this theme. Between Mayo's Mother Iggig and Bowles'
AEWEQEEHEE £2392» however, there is a wide gap in interpreta-
tion, a gap stemming in part from the reference group each
holds. Whereas Bowles is writing as an identifier whose par-
tial reference group is Indian ideal patterns, Mayo is writing
as a "de-bunker" whose reference group is an ideal America.
Another reason for the gap might be the changing roles of the
U. S. and India since 1927, date of Mother Iggig's publication.
Generally speaking, American authors today are too conscious
of their own country's Shortcomings and too aware of the need
to Win friends abroad to write such an openly critical report
as Mayo's. Of course, this does not mean that they do not
criticize India, as Wolseley's book and others indicate.
Kaye's major criticisms center around childbirth and
midwife practices, inadequate sanitation and epidemics, and
indigenous systems of medicine such as the Aruvedic. She
gives countless examples of deaths and tortures resulting
from a variety of Indian medical practices. For example, She
describes the typical Indian mother crawling into an "evil-

smelling rubbish hole" to be delivered by fine local dhai or

 

 

37

midwife "the half-blind, the aged, the crippled, the palsied
and.the diseased, drawn from the dirtiest poor. . . ."1
Cynthia Bowles does not approve of the indigenous prac-
tices above and herself works in a western-style Delhi hospital
and in a village clinic. However, she comments:
That a person, whose only experience with a hospital
is having heard of someone who went there and never came
back, refuses to go to the hospital even when seriously
ill, is natural. It is difficult to persuade cautious

people of any nation of the importance of hospital care
ii'they are ignorant of what it can do for them.

 

‘11..

To a person who has never heard of a germ, clear
water is sufficient evidence of clean water. How hard
it would be, if you were not brought up in a germ-
conscious culture like America, to believe that there
are tiny little things, so small you cannot see them,
that can make you 111. How easy it would be to blame
your sickness on the gods.2

Wolseley's experience visiting a Nagpur hospital in-
fluences his thinking considerably. While not as critical as
Mayo, he nonetheless writes:

Hodern medical practice still faces many handicaps

that stem from the caste system, from superstitious be-

liefs, from systems of medicine that have little or no
scientific basis.3

He is particularly impressed by the work of an Indian Christian

doctor and nurse who tell him, "'Here we treat patients as

llayo, 92. cit., p. 92.

ZCynthia BOWles, A£_Home ig_India (New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Company, 1956), pp. I52-155.
3Roland Wolseley, Face 32 Face with India (New York:
Friendship Press, 1954), p. 56.

 

38
brothers and sisters.'" Wolseley adds, "This is the Christian
way."

'Nayo and Wolseley tend to think of health problems as
peculiarly Indian; Bowles sees them as problems in any nation.
A perceptive comment in this regard is made by Taylor and,
although he does not stress this theme, it is pertinent to
repeat here:

It is impossible to live amidst so much human misery
without one's feelings becoming blunted to some degree.
The emotional daock which produces this blunting also
tends to distort one's thinking to beget curious myth-
ologies of horror. One forgets that poverty and starva-
tion and disease are the social effects of definite
material causes and one tends to think of them as
characteristics of the Indian. Dying of cholera seems
an Indian way of life, instead of just being an Indian
form of death, and one begins to feel something of the

same horror of this way of life that one has of the
disease itself.1

II. EDUCATION

This theme is stressed by Cynthia Bowles (26%), Roland
Wolseley (18%), Katharine Mayo (11%) and Thomas Morgan (6%).
It refers to specific statements made re: Indian schools and
colleges.

Three of the four authors are writing in the '50's;
two of these had specific experiences with Indian education.

Bowles writes as a student who actually attended two Indian

1Edmond Taylor, Richer by Asia (Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Co., 1947), p. II4.

39
schools; Wolseley as a teacher of Indians at Nagpur University.
Morgan and Mayo write primarily as reporters who observed
several schools on their brief tours.

Despite varying experiences, all four have in common
one criticism of Indian education-~that too many students are
being prepared to take white collar jobs primarily in the
government, and too few students are prepared to do rural
education work as engineers, agricultural agents, teachers
and so on. Mayo cites the following example:

'What are you training for?‘ I asked the students.

'To be teadners,‘ they generally replied. 'Will you
teach in the villages?‘ 'Oh, no!’ as though the ques—
tion were curiously unintelligent. 'Then who is to
teach the village children?‘ 'Oh-—Government must see
to that.‘ 'And can Government teach Without teadhers?‘
'We cannot tell. Government should arrange.’
Thirty years later, this same attitude angers Cynthia Bowles
at Delhi Public SChool and Shantineketan Where she finds too
great a gap between the classroom and the village. Sevagram
school, a Gandhian institution aimed at training village de—
velopment workers, meets with her approval.

Morgan and.Wolseley reiterate this idea, Wolseley to a
greater extent as his contact with Indian students is more
intimate. Contrary to Kaye's statement that Indians are

"apathetic" toward education, Morgan finds the desire for

education ”overwhelming." He is discouraged, however, because

1Mayo, op. cit., p. 208.

._t-

 

 

4O

”lack of personnel, experienced and trained staff, and money
coupled with the problem of multiplicity of languages, hamper
every major effort even if tradition and habit leave any chance
for improvement which often they do not."1

These criticisms of Indian education reflect the au-
thors' concern for’solutions to India's social and economic
problems as they see them. Invariably, "education" is given
as the answer; frustration results when auflhors find that
education Indian-style (greatly influenced by the British)

does not solve these problems.
III. ARCh TECTURE

A theme related to cities is "architecture" or those
statements about monuments, buildings, and historical sites.
Stratton and Cravath, two tourists, devote over ten percent
to this theme although many authors mention such buildings as
the Taj Mahal and the Black Pagoda. As a matter of fact, of
tflm thirty authors, nine comment on the Taj Mahal at some
length, and because, for many authors and readers, this tomb
is symbolic of "romantic India," some of the phrases used to

describe it are recorded below.

1Thomas Morgan, Friends and Fellow Students (New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, I§56), p. 12.

"001—. .
_ ‘-:.J_p -

41

. . . unable to speak in the face of so much beauty
. . . beauty that enters one's soul.

. . . that breath-taking wonder, the Taj, which must
stand in its dream garden of fountains unique among all
structures of beauty the genius of man has reared."

If it is the world's most beautiful building, it is
because it is a dream body of the world's most beautiful
soul. 3

That indescribable lyric in stone. . . .4

. . . an incredible feeling of lightness. . . rather
see it again than any building in the world. . . .5

. . . a radiancy of love, a glorious concept of de-
votion stronger than death made visible in marble. . . .6

The beauty of it choked me. . . a dream in marble
turned to silver. . . the perfume of the faded rose
leaves haunted me for days. . . .

The general American reaction to the temples of South

India or fine caves of Ajanta and Ellora is quite different.

For Cravsth these temples give an impression of "sordidness,

 

1Eleanor Roosevelt, India and the Awakening East (New
York: Harper and Brothers, 19 953), p. 1W0.

 

2Post wheeler, India Against the Storm (New York: E. P.
Dutton, 1944), p. 55. ""— ""“""‘""' "'"’ """‘""

3Nilla Cram Cook, 111* Road _t_c_>_ India (New York: Lee
Furman, Inc., 1939), p. 0.

 

 

4w111 Durant, ‘Ih__e_ Case _r___or _1_____ne1a (New York: Simon and
sohuster, 1950), p. 6.

5Peter Muir, This is India (New Yerk: Doubleday Doran
811d Company, 1945): p. I— e .

6Lowell Thomas, Land of the Black Pagoda (New York:
Century, 1930), p. 142.

7David Wooster King, Livin East (New York: Duffield
and Company, 1929), pp. 117-119

 

42

sensuality, and degeneracy." The majority of authors tend to
agree with him, though some, as Lowell Thomas, emphasize the
sexuality of the carvings in an effort to shock and thrill
their readers. Thus, a tomb built for a ruler's favorite
wife is comprehensible and thought romantic; temples whose
architecture is related to complex religious ideas is in-
comprehensible and "mysterious" or "obscene." A though
Stratton makes some attempt to reject this idea, he also con-

cludes in bafflemaxt.
‘IV. COIMUNISM

Six post-'47 authors refer to this theme but only three
to any considerable extent: the Woffords (20%), Rowan (23%
and Bedding (23%). These three intellectuals writing in '51,
'54 and '56,respectively;have a single theme: India is in
danger of "going Communist" unless (1) the United States adopts
a "good" foreign policy, and (2) India develops herself eco-
nomically within a democratic framework. It is important to
note that all three authors made quick trips of not over six
months to India and the great majority of their informants
were drawn from the middle and upper middle classes.

The Woffords are anxious for the Indian governnmnt to
attack the problems of land reform and economic development;

they fear that the Congress Party is failing to do this and

that dissatisfied hungry peasants will turn to Communism. If

 

43

the U. S. would have "a bold new economic development program,"
this would help India fight Communism. Time, they say, is
running out. "Nehru is sixty, India is hungry and China is
Communist."

Rowan and :edding had more intimate contacts with In-
dian Communists. As Negroes lecturing to students and pro-
fessional groups for the U. S. State Departkent, they believed
they were made the targets of organized Communist agitators
who made special efforts to disturb their meetings.

The deft fingers of international Communism were
manipulating my audiences, pushing hostility and dis-
agreement to the surface where it burst forth in agi-
tating accusations and tenacious suspicion.

Nothing altered my strong feeling that shock and
disorder were instruments in the hands of unscrupulous,
scheming men not yet grown desperate from being recog-
nized for what tfcy are-~the vanguard minions of a new
and terrible orthodoxy that could eventually block up,
choke off the avenues to freedom. And it seemed to um
that some honest and innocent man, ineXplicably blind
to the distinction between Communist principles and Com-
munist pragmatism, were helping to draw their country
toward a political crisis in which the only choice
would e between political subjugation and national
death.

It is difficult to assess how much of the above ac-
counts are actual fact and how much comes under Taylor's
heading of delusion. Suffice to say that in interpreting

this theme, the values of democracy and freedom are uppermost

1Rowan, 22, cit., D. 66.

5
’

aRedding, op. cit., p. 273.

 

44
in the authors' minds. There is, in addition, on the part of

Rowan and Reddina

g, a deep sense of frustration that while

Americans such as themselves only "want to be friends,” Indi-
ans are responding with a hostility and lack of understanding
about the "real America" that is both frightening and threat-

ening.
V. CITIES

This theme refers to statements made about the charac-
teristics and tourist sights of various large Indian cities.
Three of the four authors who devote over ten percent of their
books to this theme are adventurers or tourists; the fourth,
King, is a jute salesman whose interests outside business were
of a tourist type. The themes of a social or economic nature
do not interest these men. Without either a knowledge of the
language or a desire to suffer the discomforts of the village,
they remained primarily in the urban areas, living in hotels
and making relatively few specific Indian acquaintances. All

but Stratton wrote prior to 1947; One Man'§_India, as the only

 

"travel book" of the '50's, is unique in that the majority of
recent books about India stress the socio-economic rather than
tourist theme. With an increasing number of American tourists
to India one can expect this to change in the next decade.
Certain cities are almost inevitably described by the

authors; Benares and Calcutta lead the list with Delhi, Bombay,

 

45
Puri, Darjeeling, Udaipur and miscellaneous southern cities
following in importance. Each author stresses those particu-
lar facets which (1) correspond to his picture of India, and
(2) either'fit in with his orientations or conflict sharply
with them. Thus Cravath likes Calcutta because it is "modern"
and the European section of Madras which has "some fine modern
streets.” Benares he finds "disgusting," "degrading" and
."filthy." Thomas, on the other hand, in dramatizing his gen-
eral theme of "mysterious India," emphasizes the strangeness
which repels Cravath.

Outwardly Benares seems a crumbling city for a
crumbling faith. But when we know it better we realize
that from its ruins, unknown, unguessed-at beauties may
arise. For it is instinct with a strange vitality-~a
vitality that makes it one of the most interesting
places in the world. . . . You will feel that there is
a great subconscious brooding over Benares. A sub-
conscious air of peace and power.

This theme of "mysterious India" is combined with a picture

of "simple, primitive India" where one can "get away from it
all." Thomas characterizes Trivandrum as a town unspoiled by
"the gloomy steam and steel of the West" and hopes that ”trains,
factories, transportation and daily papers" may "long remain

far away." This is an interesting contradiction to Thomas'
comments elsewhere complaining of the lack of material com-

forts on his journey and praising cities such as Jamshedpur

for being "new, bright, tidy and greatly prosperous" with "the

1Thomas, 22. cit., p. 249; pp. 255-4.

46
biggest blast furnace in the world." In other words, lack of
westernization is very romantic until it becomes too incon-
venient!

This conflicting pattern of praising India's "modern
cities” is evident in King's book. King's home base is Cal-
cutta which he likes because of the clubs and golf courses
but which is a "city of profiteers" where the prices are too
high. As a tourist, King prefers "fascinating" Indore with
its ”narrow winding streets" and "multi-colored bazaars" or
Udaipur's "dazzling palaces," "graceful bridges" and ”fairy
lakes." For Stratton Calcutta is ”the worst place in India"
giving an impression of "exhaustion"; Delhi is "foreign" and
atypical of India as a.whole; Darjeeling is "dead” and too
British to be interesting. He much prefers the cities of
India which he feels are "really Indian" as'Puri, Bhuvaneswar,
Benares, Jodhpur and Jaipur, cities which live up to his pre-
conceived ideas of India as a place of historic grandeur and
religious eccentricity.

The theme of "cities" as interpreted above reinforces
the idea that the authors tend to see what they wiSh to see;
their generalizations of Indian cities correspond to their
notions of what an Indian city ought to or ought not to be.
Cravath, King and Thomas think an Indian city Should'be either
modern or romantic to be "good" whereas Stratton prefers the
romantic; if an Indian city is too westernized, it isn't

"really Indian" for him.

47
VI. CASTE

Actually a more accurate title for this theme might be
'outcastes" or "untouchables" as this is the major concern of
the majority of authors stressing this theme. Although every
author mentions it to some extent, three pre-‘47 authors, Cook,
Wheeler and the Wisers, devote over ten percent to "caste.”
Each had specific experiences re: the caste system which led
to this emphasis.

Cook's disapproval of caste is especially interesting
in View of her conviction that she was a Hindu in a former
reincarnation and her re-conversion to Hinduism. Although she
adopts certain outward forms of Hindu worship, she does not
internalize all Hindu ideals, and she especially denies fine
validity of the caste system. At one point in her stay she
organized a group of students to clean sewers, drains and
streets; in other words, to do the work of untouchables in an
effort to personally break down the barriers between caste
and outcasts. Thus she finds the Hindu religion emotionally
.satisfying until it conflicts too sharply with her values of
equality and the worth of the individual personality.

The Wisers' discussion of the social structure, caste
and class, in their village is perhaps the most thorough of
any author's. They, too, are especially concerned with the
position of the outcastes and they, too, decide to "do some-

thing about it." They encourage the outcastes to try farming

48
instead of latrine-oleaning solely, and attempt to get an
outcasts child admitted to the local school. These efforts
zmmt with opposition from both caste and outcasts groups; how-
ever, the Wisers conclude:

Our leaders. . . cannot risk this weakening of the

old structure. They are reproachful, feeling that we
in our stubborn ignorance have spoiled the school. But
we regard ourselves simply as the advance guard of a
movement which is sure to reach the District as it has
the most progressive parts of the country, and if*we
can somehow persuade our friends to accept the change
which is being wrought gradually and civilly, they will
be spared a painful shock When compulsory education
descends upon them.

Though he had no direct contact with untouchables as
did the Wisers and Cook, Wheeler is upset and disturbed by
their living conditions as he observes them in Delhi, "hope-
less, abject and pitiable." He and the other authors praise
any efforts made to break down the caste system. For example,
The Bowles' family encourages its servants to treat each other
with equality; Bourke-White praises laws which enable a woman
to marry outside her caste; Lyon is pleased to find a village
well which all, including untouchables, may use.

Several authors, especially those writing after 1947,
compare the caste system to racial discrimination in the
United States, and express the hope that both will be eradi-
cated. 'When Indians accuse an American of racial inequalities
at home, some authors, Trumbull and Morgan for example, are

ltviser, fl. Cite, p. 710

49
quick to retort with a comment on India's caste system as a
defense, finding satisfaction and an easing of guilt in noting
another country'stroblems' of inequality.

In treatment of "caste" the values of equality, democ-
racy and humanitarian mores are closely related. Authors like
to think that the U. S. is a country where all men are equal;
however, they cannot ignore the fact that in some cases the
opposite is true. The value of progress is evident in the
authors' approval of India's gradual breakdown of caste bar-
riers--as it is in their defense that the U} S. is "working

on" its racial discrimination as well.
VII. AMERICANS IN INDIA

Since World War II a radical change has taken place in
America's foreign policy in India, the most salient feature
being the technical assistance program. Whereas prior to 1950
the only Americans in India were occasional tourists, business-
men, government officials and missionaries, at present it is
estimated there are, according to Indian Embassy figures, ap-
proximately 10,000 Americans per year in a wide variety of
roles. The theme "Americans in India" would not have occurred
to an author writing prior to Independence; the four authors
Who do stress this theme are all writing since 1953.

These authors, Morgan, Bedding, Chester Bowles and Mrs.
Roosevelt, all devote over ten percent of their books to this

theme. ZBowles was intimately connected with and in part

50

‘P<esponsible for America's role in India; the others, in the

czourse of fiaeir brief tours, met many members of the American

(community in India. All are concerned with American prestige

in India, and all have suggestions about how to raise and keep
this prestige, suggestions based on the values each holds.
For example, Thomas Morgan, a reporter covering a team

«of U.C.L.A. students, believes that the friendly exchange of

.ideas between young Americans and Indians can do a lot to

"show Indians what Americans are really like." He describes

1313 team thus:

To the best of their ability, all twelve tried to
understand India as well as be understood by it; they
forgave and were forgiven many faults. They found.the
Indian students friendlier than any group of people
they had ever met, and in turn, offered them what
Asians want most from Westerners-~friendship.1

Teacher Saunders Bedding also emphasizes U.S.-Indian

friendship and suggests other ways of achieving it:

I think what is needed is a concentration on two
groups: the professional groups that should be sought
equality

out, encouraged, helped in a spirit of complete
and.friendship by visiting American writers, teachers
sued journalists; and the indecisive mass who, through
cnar Information Service, should be shown more represent-
atxive films, illustrated magazines, books and the like.
YYe lnust bombard them with the truth, for in general even
a bitter truthis more effective than apologies for it.
.AJiCi sincerity is another word. The insincere can lose
Lrs irrecoverably the friendship of India and, I believe,
tIIGB whole Middle East, and.we sorely need that friend-
811149, which cannot be bought. Those who do not believe
it) tine equality of man and who are not themselves exam-
Ples of it can lose us a struggle which, even for all

A.“

 

lMorgan, pp. cit., p. 1'75.

51
our best efforts, will remain some time in doubt. The
Indian people are not going to be fooled by any play-
acting by Americans.

Bedding, Roosevelt and BOWles are eager to show Indians
ttmt Americans g2 treat people equally and democratically.
EBowles, in particular, goes out of his way to break down con—
ventional patterns of diplomatic life in New Delhi by giving
JEndian-American parties, encouraging Americans to learn Indian
czustoms and language, sending his children to an Indian school
51nd avoiding the "big houses and shiny limousines" which he
Ifeels "are out of place in a land of mud huts and awakening
xrillagers."

Both Roosevelt and Bowles are convinced that the "Point
'Four" program is essential to an American foreign policy in

Asia. They are concerned, however, about its implementation
in India and are eager to have Americans demonstrate that
imperialism is not a part of U. S. technical assistance. Mrs.
Roosevelt is also disturbed by the difficulty in imposing
Ammufiioan values on Indian culture. She raises this question:
My own feeling is that with their religious and cul-
ttxral background something different will be required
tn: spark in them the conviction that the modern struggle
(31' a highly technologically developed state is worthwhile.2

Reddin g, Bowles and others suggest that this "something" may

be the: .ildcentive of competition with Red China with whom they

 

lBedding, 23. cit., pp. 275-6.
23f2c>osevelt, 23. cit., p. 200.

52
tilink Indians feel a strong affinity.

These authors want Americans in India to exemplify
.Ammrican values of equality, democracy and.humanitarianism.
Those Americans who tend to emphasize the value of racial and
group superiority are very embarrassing to these authors; for

example, Katharine Mayo is often singled out for disapproval

in this regard. Furthermore, the tendency for the authors to

thold an ideal America as a reference group results in a feel-
ing ofgjuilt and discomfort then Indians point out that cer-
tain actual patterns of'the United States (or patterns they
think are actual) do not measure up to the ideals above.

VIII. ECONCKIC VVELOPA’TWT

1.1 mi; .

Five authors, Hatch, Keenan, Trumbull, Hrs. Roosevelt

and Cynthia Bowles, stress this theme, each devoting over ten

percent of their books to it. Each means something a bit

different by "economic development" in the light of personal

experiences. Hatch and Keenan, writing prior to 1947, refer

to agricultural development and the steel industry respectively.

The th ree post-’47 authors refer to India's Five Year Plan and

the American Technical Assistance vhich aids its implementa-
tion.

Individual occupation is a primary factor in whether

01‘ not authors stress "economic development."

Both Hatch and
Keenan

“-‘ere in India primarily to aid in this field. Roosevelt,

53

Tfitrumbull and Bowles are eager to inform the general public of

true accomplishments of the Indian and American governments.

333s reference group for all five authors is a technologically

advanced America; any efforts Indians make in approximating

this picture are praised.
Writes Keenan with pride:
A man can see a lot in twenty-five years. What I
cultural India

saw was the transformation of the old
industrial India with Tata's as thelback-

into the new
bone of the country's growing industrialization.
The title of Hatch's book, Further Upward in Rural

India, suwgests his emphasis on progress through economic
veritable handbook on various

0

(ievelopment. He has written a
‘aspects of his mission—oriented program, from beekeeping to

compost pits. For him mission work starts with improved rural

agriculture, not evangelism.

Writing fifteen years later, Mrs. Roosevelt shows a

similar approval of economic progress. Her tour included
several dams, industries and develOpment projects of all kinds.
trpical incident on her trip:

0

The follov.ing is a
At another exhibit, we saw a chart showing how they
riaci more than doubled their crop production by the new
Inerthods now in use. We stood in the field of a farmer
vxht>se wheat was almost as high as my head. Realizing
that it used to grow only about a foot high, I was not
Sizruprised by his enormous pride in his achievement,
.Pea;?t;icularly since he knew it was largely the result
cyfi' 211s own readiness to experiment and to work hard.
Iflisat: is the fine thing Etawah is doing: giving people

 

lFieenan, pp. c t., p. 2.

54

just the little boost that enables them to go forward--
and know they can go for'card--on their own.

£1 similar experience is related by Trumbull. He concludes:

The apathy of centuries is disappearing overnight as

the community projects extend gradually over the country.
Farmers content with the implements and cropping methods
of their forefathers are now clamoring for improved seeds,
tools, and techniques as they see them demonstrated. And
they have been shown that if the village needs a new road
or a schoolhouse, one way to get it is to build it them-
selves. Strange as it may seem to an American, this idea
had apparently never occurred to them before.2

Towards the end of her stay, Bowles visits Bhakra-Nangal
'Dam, India's largest irrigation project. She is thrilled with
the prospect that it will "start people's lives anew" by chang-
ing the area to fertile land.

These quotations emphasize the value that India is
technologically backuard (bad) but is making progress in chang-
ing this (good). Other authors, who do not stress this theme
in large percentage, nonetheless reflect the same idea in
their comments on what they consider backward technology--

1.8. dhobis pounding clothes on a rock or farmers plowing with
wooden plows. Table V ,;;;‘ives a rough estimate of the number of
tinues each author makes such statement31efflecting progress.

In these examples are reflected the American value

orientations of personal achievement, activity and work, sci-

ence .araci secular rationality and progress. then the American

lRoosevelt, oe. cit., p. 126.

 

£2'JLTrumbull, oo. o t., p. 218.

55

public is told that India is trying to develop herself eco-
nomically, approval of India as a whole grows considerably,
more than if Americans are told that India is developing her-
self spiritually or as a "moral leader." This religious
angle borders too closely on the old ”mysterious East" concept

to be comprehen sibls to the majority of Americans.
IX. WOMEN AND THE FAJIILY

"Women and the family” is actually two themes linked
for purposes of this study because the authors tend to think
of them together, a discussion of the One almost invariably
leading to a discussion of the other.

Seven authors devote over six percent of their books

to this theme. Six are women; the seventh, the Wisers, is a
husband and wife team in which the wife spent a great deal of
time with women informants. The following indicates occupa-

tion and date of writing. For further details see Table III.

Before 1951 After 1947 Total

Intellectuals --- 1 1
Adventure rs l --- 1
Hission 1 --- 1
Identifiers 5 1 4

'7

Only Lyon and Bourke-White are writing after Independ-

ence, and their percentages rank under ten percent while

56
others are eleven percent or more. Thus, this is a theme
which appeals to pre-'47 female authors, mainly identifiers.

Yet it is a theme which one might expect a great many

authors to stress judging from the sociological importance of
the family in Indian culture as a whole. The fact that only
a small group do so, however, underlines the difficulty which
most foreign authors, particularly males, have in learning
about this area. Due to purdah and the traditional role of
women in Indian culture, it is a rare instance for a male
author to meet an Indian woman. Table IV indicates that only
four male authors specifically mention Indian housewives; the
total number of housewives mentioned by these authors is five.
Seven male authors mention professional Indian women; their
total is twelve in all. On the other hand, nine female au-
thors (this includes the Wisers and the Woffords) mention a
total of sixty-five female informants, fifty of whom are house-
Wives and fifteen of whom are professional women. It is clear
from this that it is easier for a female author to meet Indian
women, particularly non-professionals, and, through these in-
formants, to meet the Indian family.

Judging from this small sample, post-'47 authors do
not seem to be as interested in Indian women and the family
as those writing prior to 1947. One possible reason for this
18 that of the three female post-'47 authors who do not stress

this theme, two (Hrs. Roosevelt and Claire Wofford) made quick

5'7
tours with other targets of observation as "economic develop-
ment" and ”communism." The third, Cynthia Bowles, spent al-
most two years in India, visited several Indian families, and
mentions ten specific female informants; however, she does not
view them as a separate theme but rather as friends with whom
she closely identified and who were significant mainly in the
context of other themes as "Americans in India."

In discussing "women and the family," the authors
typically emphasize four areas: the general status of Indian
women, the status of widows and sati (immolation of widows on
funeral pyres of husbands), marriage customs, and the joint
family system.

To some degree, all the authors disapprove of the
Indian woman's status and of the restrictions placed upon her.
Katharine Kayo takes perhaps the most extreme “anti-Indian”
view in condemning purdah and similar customs on the grounds
that (l) purdah is a medieval custom which is imposed on
younger women by the ”sharp-eyed, iron-lipped authority of
the old,” (2) that it contributes to the spread of tubercu-

lo sis and other diseases, (3) that it results in "explosions
of eccentric crime" among young Bengalis in particular who
"need escape from their purdah-deadened home lives." (Kayo
18 perhaps referring to an incident involving two young girls
Who shot a British Judge during the Independence Movement.)
Gertrude Williams' arguments parallel Kaye's although she

Peallzes that "America has only recently freed its women."

58

To some extent, the Wisers and Emerson use Indian cul-
ture as a reference group in trying to understand the status
of the village housewife with whom they come in contact. Both
conclude that the traditional role of the woman gives their
Indian informants great security and, in the case of the older
women, a certain prestige, neither of which are necessarily
wrong.

Behind customs easy to condemn from a superficial
standpoint is almost invariably a basic ideal to which
one may well do reverence, and this Indian woman, so
frequently an object of patronizing pity in the eyes
of the West, becomes transfigured when the point of
view is shifted from what she does to what she is. . .
Where the social emphasis is on transient physical
charm, the individual woman's position can never be se-
cure. By placing the emphasis on tested qualities of
character, India assures all women a permanent position
in the group.

Frieda Hauswirth is in the position of being married
to an Indian but at variance with the traditional role of the
Indian wife. The difficulties she encounters when she tries
to "liberate" an Indian acquaintance from purdah make her
angry and resentful, as she feels she is in India to break
down such conventions.

Writing at a later date, Bourke-White is glad to see

"the subservient woman is’becoming an increasing rarity in
the new free India,“ a comment which more or less speaks for
811 the recent authors; despite the fact that some authors

¥

lGertrude Emerson, Voiceless India (New York: Double-
day, Doran and Company, 1933), pp. 557-5.

59
try to understand the Indian woman's status, none would trade
places with her'or be sorry to see that status becoming more
”modern."

The authors are united against sati and likewise dis-
approve of the widow's status, especially fine custom forbidding
her remarriage. Whereas Hayo and Williams take the extreme
position, and Emerson and the rest a somewhat more flexible
view, no author approves of’the widow's status and all praise
changes and ”progress" being made in this area.

larriage customs, especially child marriage and ar-
ranged marriages cause much comment. Kayo blames child mar-
riage and certain sexual customs for the poor health of
Indians generally:

Take a girl child twelve years old, a pitiful physi-
cal specimen in bone and blood, illiterate, ignorant,
without any sort of training in the habits of health.
Force motherhood on her at the earliest possible moment.
Rear her weakling son in intensive vicious practices
that drain his small vitality day by day (i.e. masturba-
tion-CK). Give him no outlet in sports. Give him habits
that make him, by the time he is thirty years of age, a
decrepit and guerulous old wreck--and.will you ask what
has sapped the energy of his manhood.

Emerson and the Wisers consistently attempt to analyze

the ideal behind the Hindu marriage, emphasizing that child
marriages are rarely consummated until the parties are in

their teens and that the younger the wife, the more easily

she merges with her husband's family, an important factor

 

1Mayo, 22. cit., p. 16.

 

 

 

 

60
when marriage involves the entire kingroup. Emerson further

notes:

No individual or nation is without its special form
of extravagance or self-indulgence. What seems futile
or silly to one is a favorite indulgence--almost a
necessity--to another. American wedding customs. . .
deeply shocked my listeners. The flexibility struck
them as utterly lacking in dignity, and the Hindu wed-
ding, with its elaborate ritual and prescribed tradi-
tions seemed infinitely more civilized.1
Jean Lyon also found her Indian informants shocked at
American customs of dating and marriage. "Whereas the Ameri-
can girl counted on her instinct, or her glands, or her emo-
tions, the Indian girl counted on her parents' thoroughness
and reason. Fbr one doubting moment I wondered which system

was more sensible!"2

In discussing the Joint family system, the greatest
objection made by all the authors is the authority the old
have over fine young. ‘Williame observes that with power in
the hands of the elders "the young never have a chance for
change and.progress." The Wisers comment:

In the smaller homes, where the walls surround a
single family, there is a much more natural relation-
ship. With no older women present constantly to remind
husband and wife of their respective roles, they work

together for the good of‘their little family without
excessive consciousness of sex.:5

1Emerson, op. cit., p. 343.

2Jean Lyon, Just Half 2 World Away (New Ybrk: Thomas
Y} Crowell Company, I§545, . 7”.

3Wiser, 92. cit., p. 105.

61
Lyon's experiences with a matriarchial family in Ialabar, and

Hauswirth's difficulties with her Indian husband's joint family
result in similar conclusions.

Taking all these comments on "women and the family" as
a whole, one concludes that the values of equality, freedom,

progress and individual worth play a strong part in the authors'
Judgments.

CHAPTER IV
THEMATIC CONTENT: THEMES OF MAJOR IEPORTANCE
I. BRITISH IN INDIA

As one_would expect, the six authors devoting over ten
percent of their books to this theme all wrote prior to 1947.
After Independence only two authors give any percentage to the
British--Chester Bowles (3%) and Arthur Stratton (8%), both
men analyzing India's history for the general public. Thus
we are dealing with pre-‘47 authors: Thomas, Cravath, luir,
van Tyne, Durant and Williams, three adventurers, two intel-
lectuals and one identifier. It is instructive to note what
significant experiences lead to particular generalizations
about "The British."

For example, Paul D. Cravath, a young wealthy'AnBrican
making an Indian tour in the 20's, was wined and dined by over
a dozen Britishers, mainly provincial governors, Army officers
and other’high status civil servants. On the boat to India
his companions were largely British, and he remarked then,

"We are already beginning to have a better understanding of
why the British are so happy and successful in ruling the de-
pressed races of the world."1 At the end of his two month

tour he concludes:

 

1Peul D. Cravath, Letters Home from India and Irak
(New York: J.J. Little and Ives Company, 1525), p. 13.

‘O

65

The strongest impression we carried away from India

is the majestic power and authority of British rule.

. . . It is the most remarkable triumph of moral force
and authority that the world has ever seen. . . the
most benevolent, just and enlightened rule ever been
imposed by one nation upon another.

This is the most extreme pro-British statement made by
an author. At the opposite end of the pole is Will Durant,
whose contacts with Britidhers are mainly limited to such
"identifiers" as C. F. Andrews, Madeline Slade and Annie Besant.
He quotes copiously from pro-Nationalist writers as J. B.
Sunderland. Thus, though he presents the ”Case for England"
in the latter half of his book, he himself is of the opinion
that British rule is "the most sordid and criminal exploita-
tion of one nation by another in all recorded history," and
proposes "to Show that England has year by year been bleeding
India to the point of death."2

Somewhere between these two extremes lie authors Van-
Tyne, Thomas, luir and Williams, who have feelings pro and con
about British rule. Taken individually, the first three tend
to approve of their British infbrmants. Thomas is impressed
by the "hard working" Viceroy who ”often works right on through
the day and well into the night." The "courage of the British

martyrs" defending the Lucknow Residency causes him to remi-

nisce on Britain's "proud role" in Indian history. Visiting

11bid., p. 117.

2Durent, 23, cit., p. 2.

64
professor Van Tyne's English informants are mainly top-ranking
civil servants or men he designates as "a British expert ad-
viser," "a keen liberal and experienced Englishman," etc.
These men he finds "dignified," "courteous," "fair and just."
Muir's experiences with the Governor of the Punjab and the
Prime Minister of Cochin impress upon him that British civil
servants are "hardworking administrators" who must suffer
"loneliness, disease and frequent disillusionment" in their
difficult 30b3,

Basing their ideas on their informants, these authors,
plus Gertrude Williams, tend to praise the British for: abol-
ishment of suttee, thugee, female infanticide; unification of
India and the stopping of factional wars; establishment of
railroads, irrigation projects and industry; and the raising
of the St andard of living.

However, they also criticize the British, the most
common Objections being: (1) The British lack sympathy with
their Sub jects; (2) they are inefficient; and (5) they are
o"elabe’ar'Zl-lrig and have a superiority complex.

8 T110 British administration is deficient in human
ympatchy between rulers and the ruled. . . .1

in W'1'lat is needed is a little more physical understand-

f1§8212g less abstract sympathy; more heart and fewer

\\—-——

lmomafl, 9-20 Cite, p0 3’43.
=tll:1d., pp. 166-7.

65

The typical attiude of the Englishman is devoid of
sympathy or even interest.1

The British 108 is perhaps the best and most in-
corruptible in the gorld but it is too smug and aware
of its own virtues.“

Tin tubs, laboriously filled from buckets, are taken
for granted. There is no excuse for this Victorian
simplicity. It is symbolic, along with red tape, of

the seamy side of the British administration. No one
criticizes administration inefficiency in India more
than th 6 British who spend their lives there. The
phrase 'thunder box (toilets) mentality' is currently
used to express impatience with such inefficiency.‘5
Identifier Gertrude Williams is the one author who
comes in closest contact with the British memsahib whom she
finds "bitter," "grimly intolerant" and suffering from ”a
martyr-Complex.” lore than the other authors, she notes ”the
patronizing and arrogant attitudes" of her British informants
toward Indians and cites several instances of this. concluding
that most British simply do not know India.
Thus, two factors play an important part in an author's
tr
“Went of this theme--his relationship with British in-
1‘s
Pmanta and his value orientations. The above judgments,

bot
h pro and con, reflect an emphasis on humanitarian mores,

mat
erial comfort, activity and work, efficiency, equality and

\—

Coward :Gertrude Williams, Understandin India (New York:
ceann, Inc., 1928), p. . "“'

pleton :Claude Van Tyne, India in Ferment (New York: D. Ap-
Co., 1923), pp. T5“- ." """‘""

3.1111“, 9-20 Cite, Pp. 129‘130.

66

technological progress. When Britishers "live up to" these
values they are approved of; when they do not, they, and con-

sequen tly British rule, meet with disapproval.
II. INDIAN POLITICS AND THE NATIONALIST MOVEMENT

As in the preceding theme, "Politics and the Nationalist

movement" is important mainly to pre-‘47 authors, six of whom
devote over ten percent of their books to it--three intellec-
tuals, one government official, one businessman, and one ad-
venturer. Of these the first four, or Durant (24%), Taylor
(17%) , Van Tyne (63%) and Wheeler (25%) have the highest per-
centage; Iuir (10%) and Keenan (11%) decidedly lower.

A special case is Roland Wolseley, writing in 1954 with
a mission-orientation, who devotes eleven percent of his book
to "P011 tics" which he classifies as one of India's "many
problems” as "Food," "Health," etc. Since the first six are
more tYpical, more time will be spent on them.

Again, a few authors take a definite stand, pro or con,
on Indian independence while most others attempt to analyze
the nationalist movement or Indian politics in a more neutral
fashion. As Durant has attacked the British, so he lauds the
Nationali81:8. His discussion emphasizes the violence done by
the former to non-violent peaceful demonstrations by the lat-

to
I" “tin 5?: the Julianwalla Bagh massacre and the Salt [arch

as
“”3 in point. These judgments show evidence of several

    
     

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:‘s’
c)-
b“-
(1 .
( 1"

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'lwf “C n"
uU-AV‘A . .
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67

recto rs: a whirlwind trip, a limited number of informants

and the strong value orientations of freedom, liberty and

demo 01'9ch

Post Wheeler's values are no less "American" than
Will Durant's; however, he does not see these values reflected.

in the Independence Movement but rather the opposite:

The party's (Congress Party) assumption that it is
the sole and inevitable heir to India's government,
and its intention to substitute its party machine and
its dictator for the machine of democratic government,
is an arrogant perversion of freedom. Its goal is the
establishment of a party State, such as the world sees
today now in Russia, Italy and Germany. By exactly
the methods Gandhi used, came into being the Soviet of
Lenin's Moscow, the Fascismo of Iussolini's Rome; and
Hitler's monstrous abortion of Nazism in Berlin. . . .
The Western mind can consider the situation only with

won der and irritation.

Wheeler" 3 description of the Julianwalla Bagh incident is
markedly different from Durant's "pitiful massacre." Instead,
he defends the British action which put down a "riot" which
would have led to "butchery and rapine." Gandhi's Nationalist
V01unteers are described as "the lawless alley element, hooli-
gang and worse," deluded by "Congress mirage makers" who
blame all India's poverty on the British without telling of
the "squalor- of the gilded Hoghul era as well."

In these judgments is again the bewilderment which
Char°°tepi zed attitudes toward "National L6aders," bewilder-

me
“13 Whic}: results when several values clash. ‘meeler is no

\N—

1WI’deeler, on. cit., p. 347.

d.-

68

less for "democracy" than Durant; however, he is not thinking~

of the violence and confusion which attended the American

Revolution but of an ideal, established and stable U. S.

Government as he sees it.1n 1944. Thus the Indian Independ-

ence Movement does not seem "democratic" or "rational" to him.

The resulting Judgment :

Political India was confusion horse confounded, a
bedlem of conflicting interests with rebellion at the

helm-
Claude Van Tyne and Peter Muir take a similar if

slightly more moderate view. For Van Tyne the Indian repre—

sentatives in the legislature are "very entertaining" and
"picture sque” but "they will need years of experience and
drill before they can give the concentrated attention, the
ceaseless watchfulness, the devotion to details. . . which

makes an efficient administration."2 He also deplores the

v
10161306 of the Nationalist movement as "a huge monster un-

ch
“an” before which Gandhi is "powerless." Thus, for” him,
th
6 Indian National Assembly does not constitute a legitimate

le
E18lative body nor Nationalism a legitimate political move-

me
at. lluir's views reflect the same idea:
the Oddly enough, although I know how deadly serious
131') 383 people are, I am continually under the impression
81:; they are a lot of school children playing at poli-

tics during recess.
\
11mm, p. 18.
2Van Tyne, 22. cit., p. 56.
uir, op. cit., p. 68.

69
Clearly, the same reference group to which Wheeler referred
is referred to harem-the image of an ideal society, consis-
tently democratic, rational, logical, stable, non-violent
and not revolutionary.

Two authors inquire into some of the "whys" of the
Nationalist Movement, in its context of Indian politics:
Keenan and Taylor. Keenan's reference group is in part the
group 01‘ young educated Indians with whom he comes in contact
at Tata Steel. He tries to analyze their feelings when, after
fluid? in the United States and Great Britain, they find it
difficult to get jobs and are snubbed and treated with con-
descension by the British. He knows of specific cases where
such young men turn terrorist, pointing out that in his View
"True Indian patriots have long been horrified by terrorism.
I have yet to meet an Indian who was not shocked and ashamed
at the Crimes committed during the last twenty years by his
young drugged, misguided countrymen." However, he concludes:

It is the British diehards who fathered (the terror-

ists) and who perpetrate terrorism by continuing to
send younger sons out from Kent and Surrey and Ulster
and Argyle to rule. If the Indian university graduate
ad his rightful chance. . . to acquire training in
the governing of his native land, he would ably demon-
s‘tirate his good citizenship, his pride in membership
0 a great empire, his ability as an Indian to make
and enforce the laws of India. Without PBCPUIWS ‘90
raw from, terrorism would vanish. The lives 01’ those

Eggpel‘ate young men are wasted more tragiially than 11'
Gy had faced death on the battle field.

\-
lteenan, op. cit., p. 117.

'70
Thus, Keenan's judgments are based for the most part on his
Indian informants, mainly the engineers and factory workers
at Tata's. Because he has been personally involved with an
Indian steel company competing with the British, he feels
sympathetic to the Indian Nationalists, at the same time de-
ploring the violence and terrorism accompanying that movement.
'l’neae dual feelings result from Keenan's conception of de-
mocracy, freedom and so on coupled with an ideal image of
American democracy. Keenan, however, unlike the preceding
four authors, does recognize that the reality of certain
American manifest patterns does not match the idealized image
of those patterns.

Edmond Taylor goes even farther with this idea although,

Of course, neither he nor Keenan phrase it in this way. At
first he, too, is drawn into what seems the whirlpool con-
fu3102') of Indian politics. Later he concludes that this first
1IIIEJI‘esz-‘sion was a delusion and places Indian politics in the
context of Politics per se.

1 am always looking for a theory that will explain
Why everything I like about the Indians is important
and everything I don't like unimportant. It is not
really Indian politics which is confused but my rela-
tion to it.

. . . What I haven't seen up to now is that Western
politics is Just as confused, contradictory, and de-
luded as the Indian variety, and I have really been
bewildered for years, while pretending to myself that

"as not. There is no shame in being bewildered by
polZI-‘lsics, for by its nature it is a bewildering thing.

P0 itics is not just another expression of man's un-
conseious mind, but it involves his unconscious mind,

'71
the roots of its emotional dynamism are there, hence it
must inevitably contain irrational and contradictory
elements. Instead of admitting this to ourselves, we
invent ideologies and theories which rationalize our
beliefs into neat, orderly systems that are capable of
explaining anything, because they omit everything which
their premise cannot explain. . . . Our refusal to rec—
ognize the subjective, the irrational, element in po-
litical belief leads us inevitably to falsify the facts
to conform with our beliefs.1

Taylor believes that the Congress Party and the Na-
tionalist Movement represent a cultural as well as a polit-
ical revolt. "On the whole it seemed to me to be a noble
and meaningful way of life, and those who accepted it whole-
heartedly and completely were enobled by it and appeared to
have a greater moral stature than other Indians-~or most
Occidentals for that matter." This greater "moral stature"
‘30 Whi ch Taylor refers means for him essentially a personal
dignity and sense of individual worth which he feels the Con-
grass Party workers possess. The greatest crime of the
001011181 system in Asia is, he believes, this robbing of the
Asian! 8 personal dignity. Such a judgment, he realizes, is
the reflection of his own democratic ideal of the individual
parsel’lality as being of intrinsic worth.

Thus, unlike the preceding authors, Taylor stops look-
ing for pat answers to the seeming inconsistencies of Indian
Pout-.108 and of politics in general; neither does he apply
western political terminology to Indian political phenomena.
\N“

1

Taylor, 92. cit., pp. 168-169.

'72

Instead, he says:
We have only to cease asking ourselves whether our
opinions are right or wrong and start asking: What
is the element of myth in my opinions, what is the
element of delusion? Or better still what is the
element of hate, the element of fear?1
This theme has decreasing importance in the post-'47
books as the Nationalist Movement ceases to figure in Indian
life, and Indian politics is grouped into other segments as
"Elections," "Neutralism" and "National Figures.” Only
Wolseley gives over ten percent of his book to it, and then
only in comparing the past use of non-violence against the
British to its present use against the Congress Party. He
characterizes the problem of Indian politics as dependence on
one man , Nehru. The complexities which Taylor could see as
inherent in all politics are peculiarly Indian to Wolseley
and, therefore, puzzling.

All seven of the authors cited above shared a common
value orientation and, with the exception of Taylor, a common
reference group (Keenan's being slightly less of an "ideal
image") . These factors influence their thinking in that
Durant, and to some extent Keenan, are pleased because they
re‘51 that the Indian Independence Movement and Indian politics

conform to the American ideal whereas ‘Jireeler, Van Tyne, ”U11"

and Wolse ley feel it does not. Taylor moves outside this

\
lI‘bid., pp. 170-171.

'73
moralistic "right/wrong" orientation to examine Indian p011-

tics in its more sociological context of politics generally.
III. VILLAGES

This theme is concerned with those statements directly
referring to village life. Included are those authors who
tend to think of the village as a meaningful theme in itself.

Of the six authors who devote over twelve percent of
their books to this theme, three, plus Mrs. Wiser, are women.
The following table gives a breakdomn of these authors. For

fuller details, see Table III on pages 20 and 21.

Men Women1 Total
Intellectuals l - 1
Mission Personnel 2 l 2
Identifiers - 5 5
6

1Mrs. Wiser is included here although the Wisers,
like the Woffords, are counted as one author.

All six stayed in India over one year, Hatch and the
Wisers staying over fifteen years. From this one COUClUdeS
that "Villages" as a theme does not appear significant to
those on quick trips or to intellectuals, adventurers and
businessmen, (of the State Department personnel, Chester

11
NOV 9°
”‘93 devotes seven percent to this theme, and Lheeler five

peI’Cen t . )

Why should this be the case? Hainly because for an

a
”13110? to "1mm!" the villages requires special time, effort

'74
and interest on his part. It is much more comfortable to re-
main in the cities where both housing and transportation are
convenient and where foreigners and English-speaking Indians
are common. To go to the village for any length of time re-
quires an interest keen enough to transcend the physical prob-
lems which a prolonged visit entails and either a knowledge
of the language (all but Lyon had this knowledge) or a very
good interpreter. ‘I.'Y1ether an author is writing before 1947
(as are the Wisers, Hatch and Emerson) or after (as Lyon,
Muehl and Cynthia Bowles), this remains true. On a quick
trip there simply isn't time for more than a cursory glance,
a one-day trip to a "typical village" such as Rowan, Horgan,
Bedding, Roosevelt and others experience. Of the eleven in-
tellectual authors, seven made these quick trips to India; of
the five adventurers, only Muir stayed longer than one year.
Anthors of other occupational groups those stays extended
over a year (as Hauswirth, Keenan, King and Jones) are con-
cerned with other special interests and did not take the time
required to "know" the village. It would seem then, that an
anthOP stresses this theme if (1) his stay in India is over a
year, and (2) he has a strong desire to find out how eighty-
five Percent of India's people live despite the physical dis-
Comfort involved.

P8 rhaps the most extensive study of Indian village
life attempted for the popular audience is the ‘t‘isers' Behind

In P
“d 1%. This mission-oriented couple had lived in Ind ia

'75
fifteen years prior to writing this book, five of them spent
in tents on the edge of Karimpur, a North Indian village.
They wished to be "simply members of the village family per-
forming our tasks" while making a survey of the social, re-
ligious and economic life of the village. As seen under
"Caste” as a theme, they also tried to effect some changes
in the status of untouchables and in the general health con-
ditions of the village. Their interpretation of the village
is reflected in this statement made in the preface to the
book's second printing (1946) after a return visit to Karimpur:

Developments that one would expect in these times of
rapid change have not yet taken place. The security
that the old ways have given still appeals to the vil-
lage leadership. There is the same resigning of them-
selves to things as they are. And there is too much
readiness to depend on outsiders for help. The idea
that they, themselves, through their own efforts may
achieve a richer, fuller life is not yet accepted.

In this statement are reflected the values of progress, ac-
tivity and work, personal achievement and science and secular
rationality which also characterize the Wisers' moral judg-
ments, They approve of increases in literacy and better
sanitation; kindness shown to animals; democratically-elected
Vin-386 officials; villagers who "studied, tried and had self-

x7"”‘136t3t." They disapprove of unnecessary suffering, dirt,

disease : the absolute power of the Brahmins and the caste

System in general; refusal of villagers to buy disinfectant

\—

lViE'iser, 2p. cit., p. ix.

 

 

o
7“ O:

"I 'l_

4"
1:-

Li,

 

 

'76
for their cattle; corrupt village officials. Thus, those
aspects of village life which fit American values are en-
dorsed; those which do not should be gradually corrected, the
Wise rs believe, by education and working with the established
village leadership.

D. Spencer Hatch, another mission-oriented author

writing in the 30's, reflects similar attitudes. He is a
YMCA director primarily concerned with rural reconstruction.
His aim: "to help find ways for the poorest and lowliest of
India' a rural millions to lift themselves from a many-sided
poverty toward a more abundant life." He deplores the "filthy,
congested villages" and villagers who are "lost in hopeless
apathy. " He praises villages which are "clean and healthy and
thrifty" and villagers who show imagination and initiative.
Like the Wisers, he is interested in educating the villager;
however, he cites four major obstacles to this education:
the villagers lack (1) a scientific mind; (2) business apti-
tude; (3) definite plans and responsibilities; and (4) a de-
sire to produce first rate crops and merchandise. Again,
previOUBly cited values are uppermost in his judgments of the
Village : primarily, material comfort, activity and work.

An author who. does not personally try to effect change
in the vi liege is Gertrude Emerson, an identifier, writing at
the same time as Hatch and the Viisers. Miss Emerson (who

la
tel" married an Indian and has published an extensive volume

On
Indian history) built a house in Pachpera, a North Indian

T"?

 

 

 

'77
village, and remained there for a year, living on a standard
comparable to that of the local upper middle class. Her
first impressions of the village were:

. . - flies, bony cattle, mongrel dogs covered
with sores, timid children with uncombed hair and
incredibly thin old men.1

Later, howe ver, she believes that the villages "taught me
more of the deep-rooted Indian viev. of life than all the
cities of India put together." She remarks in her Foreward:

The life of one village cannot be isolated for the
common life of India is the chief occupation for three-
fourths of the population. Nine-tenths of the people
are villagers. It is these villagers, poor, simple
and illiterate, who cherish the traditions of centuries
and keep alive the essentially Indian spirit.2

These traditions and "the Indian spirit" are not necessarily

" I:
wrong for Emerson, althourh they do not correlate with her

OWn V8 Inc 8

The village of Five Trees does not know telephones,
gas, electricity, ice, running water, plumbing. . . .
But Something is left in spite of he deficiencies,
something that flows imperturbably on through all
wfinner of adversity. Life, it seems, can exist even

ere all modern conveniences are absent.5

Both Emerson and the Visors differ from Hatch in one

im
portant respect; rather than simply criticizing village

life, thew . 1, -~ -- v
VJ attempt to put t..:emselvcs in the villager 8 place

\.

l:
Lrnerson, 2g. cit., p. 9.

21b 1C3 Foreward .

-\’_., 9,). 13-14.

‘78
and see how the problems which seem so serious to an American
look from the villager's viewpoint. For example, many authors
deplore the villager's lack of progress. The Wiser-s, speaking
for the villager, comment:

TO 8 newcomer we may seem suspicious, obstinate,
intolerant, backward-~all that goes with refusal to
change. We did not choose qualities for ourselves.
Experience forced them upon our fathers. And the
warnings of our fathers, added to our own experiences,
have drilled them into us. Refusal to change is the
SPIROUI' W’ith which we have learned to protect ourselves.
If we and our fathers had accepted the new ideas and
customs commended to us, we might have made greater
progres 8. But greater progress would have drawn the
eyes 01' a eovetous world (i.e. tax collectors, corrupt
10°81 Officials-~CK) toward us. d then our lot
would have been worse than before.

LECLC of scientific knowledge on the villager's part is
9 Common 00 mplaint of authors. Says Emcrson:

Khowledge of this sort is comparatively new, even
in the West. How are poor Indian villagers to be ex-

peeted to possess it unless those who know pass it on
to them?

These three pre-‘47 authors actually lived in a village

for . .
over 2’ year's time; the three post—'47 authors made briefer

tr
1p: 0f 9- few months to a few weeks to various villages scat-

te
red over- India. Huehl's six-month village tour is unique in

the
t he re lied solely upon local transportation, sometimes

tr'nv
filing by ox-eart, sometimes with camel caravans, once with

8 tr-
OUDO of itinerant actors, often on foot with a local guide.

\-\.—

l .
Viiser, .9420 Cite, 90 1'53).

ZEmerson, op. cit., p. 74.

79

His itinerary followed the vest coast from the Rann of Kutch

to Hadura in the south, all in all covering about twenty-five

villages. His first impressions follow:

It was a collection of huts in the middle of a
desert, a gathering place of lonely animals. . .
like 9 horrid cemetery of a dying race. . . a maze

of choked, directionless alleys, a vast awful rubble
more dead than alive.1

The first shock does not lessen as Muehl moves southward.

Phrases as "a morass of dead habit and rotting traditions"
fl

and some enormous junkyard” are used to describe subsequent

villages. The salient fact vas poverty.

It was the fact of the atrocious poverty of village
India; even starvation and famine could not measure its
depths for it was like something malignant with a life
01' its own. This memory I could no longer differenti-
atQ; it was a mass of hoarse cries and protruding bone,
the small of disease in a thousand villages, the smoke
or a hundred burning ghats. It was a deep visceral
memory that cut through all the mythology of the splen-
dor and glory of ancient India but it was a two-edged
Word for it out against the mythology of a simple but
happy people.2

Muehl had promised himself before his trip that he would not
Judge Indian society by the standards of America, but he
found himself unable to dissociate himself from an ideal
American style of life. "In the end, of course, my emotions
tipped the scale," he writes. Sociologically speakins7 these

0’

em- ‘
Qticns were the value orientations of science and secular

N...—

D, C 1John Muehl, Interview with India (New York: The John
«y omDeny, 1950), p. 2?.

21mm, p. 298.

rationality, material comfort, progress and so on.

This disillusionment which results from an attempt to
match the ideals of America with the actual life of the Indian
villager is an emotion Which both Bowles and Lyon experience--
and later reject, possibly because both of these women spent
greater periods of time in specific villages and both made
Special contacts with those Indians who were trying to better
village conditions. While in the village both attempted an
identification with the actual lives of their hosts, trying
to dissociate themselves from American values and regard the
Village through the eyes of the villager.

Cyn this Bowles' description of her first village dif-
fers vast 1y from that of John Muehl.

To me, Chawla was beautiful. Life there was, of
n°°°881ty, extremely simple. The complicated and often
unn°cessary wheels of modern societies did not turn
here and as a result I felt somehox. that man was closer
bOth to his fellow man and to nature. . . . The village
homes, roughly finished and the same color as the earth,
th" mutkas of baked clay, the wooden plow, the homespun
cotton clothing, were simple and an obvious part of the
nature from which they had come. For this reason they
Were beautiful to me.

and. - . I, an outsider, found beauty, friendliness
1a quiet in Chawla. But had I been born in that vil-
Wh?’ had I grown up illiterate and sometimes hungry
andn the crops were not as big as had been hoped for,
and’eas a young person, had gone away from the village
hamveen the comforts of other people, perhaps I would
bee able to feel only hatred for the village tray
Of life 9.

\l

1
CYnthia Bowles, _o__p_. cit., p. 9'7.

 

 

81

At first, she is disturbed at that she calls "a lack
of a progressive attitude." Tho-1;, like the Visors, she at—

tempts to see the situation from the villager's point of visit.

Can you . . . imsjine yourself living in a tiny
village surrounded by deep l‘IOCCS? The boundaries of
your wor 1d are the boundaries of the village area.

You have never :one outside this area, never seen any
other V123; of living; besides your own. . . . Your grand-
father' 8 way is the way to farm. It would probably
never occur to you-that there might be another way.

Jean Lyon's past experience in China lessened the
shock of Indian poverty to a considerable extent, and, like
BOWIes, she could appreciate the villager's viewpoint. More
than that, she looks at American ideals and decides, like
Taylor, that it is delusive to judgfe other cultures by them.

We Of the ‘s‘.‘est--especially in America--think in
terms Of time, of facts, and of material accomplish-
ment. It's a part of our say of life, and we some-
times mistakenly think that because it is our way of
life it is therefore essential to democracy. ‘a‘fe are
naturally proud of thinking in these terms . . . but
When our pride makes us feel that these are the uni-
versally right terms in which to think, it is quite
possible that we are wrong. These terms may be valid
for us “Hut they are not necessarily valid for others.9

In looking at villag s, Lyon tends away from moral
JUdginents about material conditions and, insteac, stresses
tie Work inhick the rural reconstruction torkers are doinS'

Pl"(flintatbly no one can dissociate himself corpletely from

his
culture. still, of these six authors, four attempt P919"

tive objectivity

82
Such an attempt seems to involve two major factors: consid-
erable time spent in an Indian village with informants other
than just local villagers (i.e. local teachers, social workers,
etc.) and a real desire to see the viewpoint of the villager,

a desire so strong that it overcomes the old values.
IV. FENCES AND MAHARAJAHS

In Hyderabad, I heard that the ruler kept an uncut
diamond as big as his fist on his desk as a paper

weight.. I asked one of his secretaries if this was
true.

'Good heavens, no, what utter roti' the secretary
replied. 'It's onl3,r an emeraldl'l

-—Robert Trumbull

India as "the land of fabulous maharajahs" is such a

common stereotype in movies and novels that one is not sur-

prised to find one-third of these authors devoting nine per

cent or over of their books to this theme. The follOV-finET is

8 brief breakdown of t‘rese authors. For a more detailed re-
port: see Table 111.

Before 1947 After 1947 Total

Inte llectuals

 

l 3 4
Adventurers l - l
Businessmen 2 - 2
U-S.eovt. Officials 1 - 1
Identifiers 2 - _ 2
7 3 10

\~\———

1
Trllmbull, 9g. cit., p. 52.

83

Another group of ten authors had at least one specific
contact with a maharajah though they did. not stress this
theme over ten percent. Between them, these twenty authors
met sixty-seven princes or maharajahs or ten percent of the
total number of informants, the second largest {group of in-
formants after professional intelligentsia. As the princes
actually make up only a tiny fraction of the Indian popula-
tion in comparison with the great mass of villagers, this is
an interesting figure. Why do many bra-1947 Americans make
it 8 Point to meet royalty and that judgments do they make of
(1) royalty, and (2) Indians as a group based on their (the
”Uthors') "royal" exocriences?

FPOm the figures trenticned above, it seems safe to as-
sume that the date of writing, uhetlier post- or pre-1947, is
one factor in the stressing; of this theme. The decrease in
the princes ' wealth and power after Indecendence is a reason

for this shift in emghasis. Authors in the fifties are not

till! ‘ ’. - ‘

”ms; in terms of "fabulous princes" but rather tne themes
rele.

ted to India's economic development. A travel book in th

0“.
40's . ~ ~
“ and UQ's would have to mention tne princes in some con-

nect .
ion 01‘ run the risk of disappointing the pogular market;

Str
atton's Qne Man's India, the one post-'47 travel book in-

 

clu
dad in this study, makes little or no reference to this

them
e. AnOther post-'47 author, Jean Lyon, does stress

W
.0:-
inceS" but in the context of the 1952 elections with the

8m
Dhasis On the maharajah as 9 9011131019“ rather than a

(3

84

prince, hence her discussion of royal campaign tactics comes
under the "elections" theme. Mrs. Roosevelt, though somewhat
awed by palace living which are found still rather lavish,
nonetheless stressed not this aspect but the "modern, pro—
gressive administrator" rho was cooperating with the ~jovern-
ment to better economic conditions.

It is hard to explain just why Americans want to meet
maharajahs when they go to India. One explanation might be
an extension of the interest in royalty whicl‘ characterizes
American so ciety despite our democratic value orientation.
There seems to be a widespread fascination in the doings of
kinds and Queens as witness the avid interest in the English
royal family. Coupled with this fascination is the "oriental
Dotentate" stereotype with its associations of "fabulous
Wealth," " i‘ora’ieous harems," and "courts or splendor," 9- con-
cept fostered in literature since Haroo Polo's journals and
lbs- Arabian Nights The fact that orior to the last ten

h._\ . . ., ;
Years ENG even in some places today, India could produce 9
reasonable facsimile of this stereotype has led many an Arter-
ice:l t"- ‘

" tilink of India in te ‘ms of her "fabulous maharajahs."
Amer 1cans in our sample going to India are looking; for
this

ste
PeO‘lzype to appear in person. If they don't meet him.

Ce, they can at least quote the latest gossip about

‘1
‘-9nd .
alany of them find it comparatively easy to rctually
me
at the D V
~ I"inces personally as it seems foreigners are USURIIJ
elcomed

11" the princely states. 50 we find professor Van Tyne

85
sitting down to dinner with the Maharajah of Alwar, steelman
Keenan enjoying the conversation of the Maharajah of Bikanir,
tourist Cravath hunting with the Maharajah of Gwalior, pho-
tographer Bourke-vmite scrambling over rocky hillsides with
the Wall of Swat, and Hills Cram Cook "falling in love at first
sight" with the Maharajah of Mysore. Out of the thirty au-
thors, twenty had at least one personal experience with an
Indian prince--an experience they did not fail to recount!

As princes make up such a orOportionately large group
of informants, it is revealing to see how they are judged. A
"800d" prince, both pre- and post-1947 is industrious, friend-
1y, progressive, modern and democratic. Prior to 1947 he is,
in addition to the above, strongly pro—British. The attribute
or great wealth does not involve value judgment prior to 1947.
Jewels, palaces, parties--lavish display of all kinds is cited
as a kind of circus curiosity. After 1947, there are a few
examples of condemnation of this display as ’.';'olseley deploring
the princes' wealth then a village school was so hard to fi-
nance. No moral judgment is placed on the various extra-
marital eprloits of the princes, in contrast to the disgust
shovtn re: Hinduism's inclusion of sex. Here gossip about the
PI‘inces 18 treated as a columnist treats Hollywood movie stars.
As a matter of fact, the treatment of the "princes" theme
Dears some resemblance to the "fabulous film stars" stereotype

of tr e
m ‘dO'S and 30's.

86

The following; specific examples reflect these various

attitudes toward the princes. A typical author inthis regard
is Wheeler, whose total of twelve royal informants tops the
other authors'; he is careful to point out that deepite the
jeweled clothing and court festivities, the maharajahs are a
"responsible and Lardtorking class of rulers . . . the tag
'playboy' belongs to no one of the maharajahs I know." Re-
garding the Kaharajah of Dholpur he says:

He Wears a collar covered with pearls . . . but he
takes no joy rides to Europe. Every rupee of his
revenue goes back to his people's land, in agriculture
and irrigation projects.

Regarding the Nizam of Hyderabad, he writes:

He is one of the great leaders of Moslem India
. . . behind this odd mask of seclusion and parsimony
"“1813 be an acute and tireless brain and a genius for
organization . . . the State has its own army, now
being modernized, its own currency, its own university:

and is serviced by a web of railroads managed by Erit-

ish experts. It has coal fields and hydro electric
Works.

th And more admirable than all these, it has wiped out
e unhappy color line that has been so strenuously
Preserved throughout British India. . . . Today it is

:26 0f the few places I have seen in India Where the
0 races meet on equal terms, sociallYo2
Hrs. Roosevelt, writing almost ten years later (1953)

as Everything 1 saw on my visit bore out his reputation
tratn exeeedingly intelligent and enlightened adminis-
or- One rapidly acquires the conviction that here

\\

1
Mleeler, 9-2-0 Cite, pp. 64-50

a
lbl\d. , pp. 65-4.

 

87

is one of the men who will play an important part in
building; India into a modern state.

However, she does not emphasize the great res—filth of the princes
she meets as do 's'fheeler, Van Tyne, Cook, Trumbull, Thomas,
Williams, an d Muir.

Robert Trumbull's discussion of "maharajahs I have
known," writ ten in 1956, makes essentially the same kinds of
statements and judgments as did 'x'Theeler in 1944 and Thomas in
1950. That is, he tells all the old gossip about the princes'
eScanszdes and wealth (though he 136911115 by saying sue!" stories
are exaggerated), includes his own personal experiences of
hunting tl‘ii‘qs and birthda parties, and concludes that despite
the reduction of princely power, the people still hold the
maharajahs in as high esteem as prior to Independence.

These references illustrate the fact that authors tend
to approve of those Indians--in this case the maharajahs--mho
reflect the
th

same values as themselves. The most important of

ese . - . . .
“:1qu is tne general icea tfzat man can change and con-

tlficl \ ‘0 .
at“ 9hysical environment throufjh the application of

30101
-.ce. COrrelated with this a *e the values of hard work,

81 achievement and progress. Only those maharayahs me

are makinn. -. . ~ ~ "-
:3 Scientiiic improvements, xxork nerd F170 seem pro-

greSSive" F q a V 1'
61‘s commendec- 0;; tea authors. .heeler's comment

Shows t} 3
‘1" V?! lue of equality as still another referent in

\\

ROCJeevelt, 23. Cl ., Do 155-

evaluating the princes. It is important to note that he also
makes statements which reflect an attitude of racism and group
superiority toward Indi ans, a contradiction inherent in the
American set of value orientations and reflected to some de-
gree by eight of the thirty authors.

The authors do not generalize about the "Indian people"
from their contacts with the princes. They have only to look
at an Indian street to realize that the princes' style of life
is vastly different from the people they observe casually.
Instead the authors use the princes as a point of contrast in
regarding India as a place of "splendor and squalor." It is
common for an author stressing; this t‘z'leme to deplore the arth
$59 bat“9611 the classes as they see them-~the princes on the

one hand and the untouchable on the other.
V. RELIGION
, 1116318 is a land of mysticism. You feel it in
"“6 very air. . . .1
E. Stanley Jones
The idea ti-at Indians are a "spiritual people" who are

80m ..

ehO“ more religious than Western "materialistic people" is
an 1 ‘.

deg “hich almost all the authors deal with in some fashion.

Some
greet it with agreement and praise; others with disgust

Srn; a very few with an attempt at objective interpre-

The Ab E‘ Stanley Jones Christ of the Indian Road (New York:
ingtOn Press, 19255, p. IE]:-

\

8

\
I

(f

Of the thirty authors, ten choose to devote over ten
percent of their books to the theme of religion, including;
Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism,

Theosophy, and Christianity, il'ith the overz'shelming emphasis

on the first two.:1 01‘ these ten, all but one (Stratton) are

\3

v

writing prior to 1947. Broken down by occupation these are:

Before 1947 After 1947

 

Intellectuals l "
Adventurers 2 1
Mission personnel 1 -
Businessxrcn 2 '-
Identifiers 3 .2—
9 1 Total: 10

Has the concept of India as a "religious nation"
Changed Since 1947 and if so, that images are supplanting this
concept? Why is only one intellectual (Taylor) concerned with
this theme in comparison with the percentage of identifiers
and adventurers? Actually, these two questions are closely
related as the percentage of pre-194'7 intellectuals is smaller
to begin W1 133.1; only three of the eleven intellectual authors
‘W'I‘ote prior to Independence whereas four out of five adven-
turers and four out of six identifiers fall in this category.

\

Separatiln this study "caste" and "purdah," are treated as

81126 the 1“emes, the latter under "women ; fev.~ authors re-‘

P9153101] these themes are actually part of religion or that
" uriderlies the whole Indian culture.

2.
For. further details, see Table III.

90
One concludes then that date of writing as well as occupation
is a significant factor in understanding the stress placed on
the religious theme. An assumption suggests itself-mamaly,
that prior to Independence, India was generally thought of as
a nation spiritually advanced but technically and politically
backward. Viith the coming of Independence, this concept grad-
ually gave place to one of a net- Asian power with a foreign
Policy of its own, a voice in the United Nations, and a vital
role in the U.S.-U.S.S.R. conflict. The latter, with its re-
sultant programs of U. S. technical aid helped to change the
traditional picture of "mystic India" to the India thich is
"pulling herself up by her own bootstraps--with our help."
Thus, themes other than religion are emphasized by post-
Independence authors, themes related to this second concept
as "Americans in India," "National Leaders: Nehru and Bhave,"
"Communism" and "Economic Development."

The next concern is the ray in which authors tend to
regard India' s "spirituality"--especially the way in Which
Hinduism is interpreted in comparison with Islam and Christian-
ltY- Generally speaking, we find that four of the ten authors
Stressing this theme view Hinduism with approval While six
tend to regard it with disapproval. The important factors
below influence these general groupings and the range of vari-

atio
n found V(ithin them.

Again, it is doubtful that length of visit is signifi-

cant e
’ Veil though, as the following breakdown indicates, all

of the "pro" authors 1were in India longer than one year.

 

 

Ilength of Stay Approval Disapproval
Stayed less than Williams, Cravath,
one year: None Thomas, Stratton
Stayed more than Cook, Taylor, Jones
one year: anerson, King;

Keenan

Kuch more important are the authors' reference groups
and value orientations. For many writers Hinduism presents
the very opposite picture of what they conceive as Christianity,
a concept inextricably bound up with the values of progress,
activity, work, achievement, and science and secular rational-
ity. For example, Gertrude ’.'.'illiams, in disapproving of the
Hindu idea of renunciation, states:

To the average ‘.'.'estern mind, it would mean a blank
nothingness which would paralyze interest or ambition
and result in hopeless fatalism. . . . (The) 5331310113
doctrine of Renunciation has undermined his aggressive-

:88? and independence and he has no courage to dely
raflition

I‘f‘vrite 8 Roland Violseley:

caogatalism and superstition of Hinduism clearly handi-

self efforts to adopt new agricultural methods, increase

predia‘ffficiency by avoiding reliance upon astrological

aeti Onions, and stimulate more independent thought and
on in the people.2

This idea of Indian fatalism as an object of disapproval
is re
peated by Jones and King. The former condemns the fatalism

\

1
Gertrude Williams, op. cit., pp. 233—237.

gholaeley, 22. cit., p. 165.

92
of Karma and of Islam, suggesting that Indians be "liberated"
from it by Christ. The latter, matchingt a group of Indians

miss a train, says:

The jabbering redoubles and there is a certain
amount of agitation, but with the fatalism of the

East, they settle down again. . . .
With fatalism, certain other aspects of Hinduism strike

the authors as "wrong" or ”unethical": (1) Sex in Finduism

as reflected by "phallic worship" and ”obscene temple carv-
ings"; (2) the Kali cult; and (5) the role of the sadhus or
1101? men. If an author has visited the temples of southern
India, eS£>ecially the Black Pagoda, he comments on the mixture

of sexuality and religion which he finds incomprehensible.

Writes Lowe 11 Thomas:

Nothing will bewilder you more in that bewildering
land than the constant mingling of lofty religion and
what is to us debasing sensuality, and the Black Pagoda
is at the same time the most beautiful and most obscene
0f Hindu temples. You know of the lofty spirituality
3?: dizzy mystical heights of the Brahminical religion.
theen they are too spiritual and unworldly for us. How
Wit? are they to be rationally or emotionally related
mimilthe se lascivious eroticisms that are so closely
Youowid with them? You will ask that question and . . .
I‘iteq 11 remember that all manner of orgpgiastic sexual
Indi; Skich 93 you will find today in the temples of
Shri : “list have been performed in this magnificent

he dedicated to the sun.

combined with this distaste for so-called religious

eroti
0181?] is disapproval of the Kali cult, those symbols of
1
King, 22. CitO, p. 270

2
Thomas, 92. cit., pp. 550-551.

95
blood, death, and destruction are also incomprehensible and

horrible to some autiors.
'=.:'.'rites Post ‘.'.'heeler:

At Calcutta's temple of Kali, the Black One, the
Delighter- in Blood, I had stood on pavements reeking
with the gore of goats which had just had their
throats cut and seen the silken-sari'd women dipping
their kerchiefs in the crimson puddles and kissing
the sacrificial stone. And a few blocks away the
m°V133 Were doing a roaring business.

After uitnessina a. scene similar to the above, tourist

Cravath sums up Hinduism as ”filth, degradation, human super-

stition in n2

its most debased form.

FinFilly, sadhus or holy men, a common sight all over

India, and especially at benares, impress some authors as

being; un fit representatives of sincere religious thinking,
While 0the rs make a distinction between the itinerant holy

ma
n and the guru, priest or ascetic who may have an ashram,

temple or stationary religious settlement. Reactions to the

fo
rmer are usually disapproving nihile those to the latter are

m .
ore approving. Perhaps John Muenl is the most vehement in

condemn in 8 the former:

. Thfies parasites . . . dressed in saffron garments
$3110?) apparently gave them the right to defecate any-
are

to sit in the bazaar idly scratching, their
teSti‘lles or searching for fleas in their pubic hair.
They Were as ill-kept as animals, their hair being
matted into greasy plaits literally inches thick, and

\.

lulleeler on. cit., p. 11.

, * —

2Cravath, oe. cit., p. 61.

-‘——-

94

yet they claimed the most fantastic privileges from
the villagers, and, ET'OPSB to say, got them. It was
a religion gone mad . . . devoid of rules or reason

where the dogma had became so blind and unquesticning
that anythin; 21,2.tormticall’y yielded.

Certain authors, as Cook, Jones, Huir, Lyon, and

Hauswirth had more favorable experimwea \.ith the teacher

or
guru-type r” f s:,-:<:‘z:u, Cook €!ct't-xrell';7 joining; an eshram as a
discipl . Muir's experience tit-.11 the astray; of Sri Aurobindo
is 313511;“: 3. ant because prior to this visit Muir‘z1ad been

scarring; at Hinduism. He first comments on the cleanliness

and industry of the ashram; it was "businesslike, modern and

practic

D

1 . " Then he concludes:

.ll‘here is a lot of talk about lofty thought and
LDhlios-Q;_)‘;J in India. But amidst all this Shocking
I“911c10us intolerance, prejudice, and superstitious
PJ’GC’Cice, the ashram of Sri Aurobindo represents the
only Sincere unworldliness. that I have seen? . . .
It 13 this practical side that baffles you. '

{3 — _
L “’1‘, after an interview, with a prominent leader:

Renunciation on tte one hand; preoccupation with
gloriey on the other. This doesn't add up convincingly,
“t I) either does anything else in India from the view-
point of Western logic.“

The resultant bafi‘lement when two aspects of Hindu

1"eligion

1

Seen; contradictory ano incongruous is directly con-

nect -
ed to the idea that India is a "land of mystery."

X‘N-

R. u'.‘

I‘llehl, op. cit., p. 252.
2
Muir, pp. cit., .9, 2‘07.

3%., p. 210.

I
‘ L
(.71

We . . . try in imagination to create a state of
feeling in which they (bawdy sculptures) will combine
harmoniously with the magnificent spirituality of the
religious thought of India-wand all we gain is a
deeper sense of the mystery of that fantastic land.

Konerak is a profoundly dis
all its elements. Its surfacus
the 11:" it of the sun; its hidden core is black and
silent; in fact, its mean ng is ineffahle . . . .
There is tog z:zueh--too much of everything--to try to
understand. ‘

turbing experience in
are arranged to catch

Thus , the author who generally disapproves of Hinduism
often sums: up his experience by dismissing it as too puzzling
for a l‘.'esterner. E’fe turn nor-.- to those authors who attempted
to solve the puzzle.

l'fitlxin the group cf four authors Who are in Elfin-JG“?
tith Hinduism there is a wide range of experience. Nilla Cook,
believing She had been a Hindu in a former reincarnation,
found "incredible delight and ecstasy" in her identification
with Hinduism; houe'ver, judging, from her later emotional

bre . . .
8kd°“n and departure from India, this identification was

temoo .
‘ Pary and never fienply internalized.

T _, . ,
Jnexpectedly, tne tough-minced steel engineer, John

Keen
. e s
n, is 8130 among, these autnors, not as a. participator as

cook, but 9 w - ‘ ' . ' n
b a sympatnizer nonetheless. He once heard a “omen

Speak
on ETC)“; only Ch“‘°tian1ty could save the East. ”Save it

g-ok'

from J
“hat, I wondered now, observing this eXhibitj-OU Of

\—

Th 01.193, 00. cit., pp. 350-531.

I

2
Norton afipth‘ur Stratton, One Ken's India (New York: W. W.
G Company, 1956), p. 103.

96

spiritual cowardliness and contrasting it with the many exam-
ples of brotherly feeling I had often seen displayed by Indi-

ans.'1 As this indicates, Keenan bases his feelings about

Hinduism and Islam on the people he has known. "I have met
many real Christians in India. They happened to be Hindus

and Mohammedans, but in spirit they were more Christian than

a number of people I have known west of the Suez."2 He con-
cludes that it requires a lifetime of study and contemplation
to really understand Hinduism and he condemns those foreigners
who "80 once or twice to a few temples, perhaps the Kalighat
temple near Calcutta, watch the slaughter of a few goats
sacrified much the same as they were when Christ went to the

temp” in Jerusalem, and then rush into print in America with

exEfldalrlfiti.ons of the Hindu religion.“5

Gertrude Emerson's year in an Indian village drew her
to the conclusion that the West misunderstands Hinduism. As
she obserVSd her neighbors at worship, ' she became impressed
with the role God played in their daily 11ve8=

what astonished me was to find that poor, ignorant,

22d illiterate as they were, they possessed a measure
in in Sight that reflected the far source of their
spiration. It was they who taught me much of the

deeper wisdom of India.4
\‘
N
keenan, 220 Cite, p0 1940

2%. , p. 203.

3%., p. 201.
4m"arson, 9p. cit., p. 436.

9'7

She stresses the fact that Hinduism has a history of toler-
ance in comparison to Christianity and approves of the Hindu
emphasis on the principles of the Vedas rather than on a
particular personality. After observing people worship at a
shrine to Shiva which contained a stone described by other
authors as "obscenely phallic,“ she noted that they felt a
sense of "intangible protection" from seeing "the familiar
formless symbol.” Her contacts ranged from sadhus she char-
acterized as fakes to those she thought to be genuine. She

concludes that if one of them attains "that supreme knowledge,

even the small rays of which served to light and warm humanity,"

it does not matter that there are five million wandering so-

call°d unproductive holy men in India.
Finally, Edmond Taylor relates Hinduism to the whole

fabric or Indian onlture; what is contradictory for others is

meaningful and integrated to him.

Hi he direct--though by no means uncomplicated--
1, ndu attitude toward sex seems to me one of the
hguntainheads of pantheism, in the sense that the
a altihy-qnindedness of Hindu religious sentiment is
cmfl'gfflection of minds sufficiently free from neurotic
Withlicts about sex at least to fill consciousness
like an abstract sense of fulfillment which is very
Who], Sexual fulfillment--and to project upon the
“811° cosmos of experience a halo of satisfied sex-
thatt . To the extent that this is true, it suggests
is the sex-instinct is even more remarkable than it
thegenerally recognized to be, and deserves some of
Inyloerbole characteristic of religious utterance.l

\\——_

1 .
Ta3101', op. cit., p. 289.

98

Reduced to its crudest terms, the underlying mood
of Hinduism is one of joyous acceptance of the uni-

VOI‘SO. o o 0

Taylor experiences this mood not in the superficial and rather
faddish way of Cook, but in a way which utilizes the total
Indian culture as a reference group.

In interpreting other Indian religions, it is interest-
ing to note that several authors are drawn to Islam or to
Sikhism. Keenan, Ernerson, Kayo, Williams and Muir are strongly
FPO-Islam while Cynthia Bowles and Wheeler are in sympathy
with Sikhism. The values of equality and democracy are inter-
woven in these judgments as all seven stress the emphasis on
brotherhood and approve the absence of the caste system. Mayo
and Wheeler approve of Islam and Sikhism respectively not only
on democratic grounds but because these religions stress mono-
theism while they feel that Hinduism stresses pantheism, an
idea abhorrent to them. Keenan rejects this idea, and thinks
that d°spite various sects, the prevailing faith of Hinduism
13 monotheism. Edmond Taylor neither rejects nor ignores the
Plural pentheism of village Hinduism but integrates it with
the idea of the joint family system, comparing a Hindu's re-
lationship to his gods with his relationship to his many-
membered family. Only one author, E. Stanley Jones, suggests
that Christianity should be and is supplanting a dying and

de 5
8 “”3133 Hinduism. Jones' emphasis is not upon the

\_—_

1
Q3” p. 280.

99
acceptance of Christianity 933 _s_e_ as he feels it is too
closely linked with imperialism, race prejudice, war and
Western civilization for many Hindus to embrace it; instead
he stresses the personality of Christ as appealing to Hindus
and suggests they interpret him as they wish. Jones' view
of non-Christian religion is illustrative of the attitude
many mission-oriented people take:

We should be grateful for any truth, found anyWhere,
knowing that it is a fingerpost that points to Jesus,
who is the Truth.1

What the authors feel about Indian religion carries

over into their judgments of "the Indian people" as a whole.
Generalizations as "The Indians are superstitious, fatalistic
9901316" commonly stem from an author's usually superficial
encounter With Indian religions. This idea is correlated
With that of the Indians as "slaves to tradition." The Amer-
ican values of science and secular rational, progress, and
freedom play a major part in these judgments. For example,
Gertrude Williams calls religion in India a synonym for the
"tyranny of tradition." She compares this tyranny to the
Middle Ages, speaking of I'India's bondage to the past and
fatalistic acceptance of the present."

magi“ of these difficulties between our own and

standards are the result of their continuing

fizzticism and fatalism as contrasted with our modern
erialiem. This is a practical aspect of what is

N.

1
E~ Stanley Jones, 23. cit., p. 120.

100

called Indian spirituality. Indifference to the
things of this life and contemplation of the Abso-
lute has its beautiful side, but also its drawbacks.
India pays a heavy penalty for her indifference to
the material world.

Thus the various authors accept or reject aspects of
the several Indian religions according to their reference
groups and value orientations. Their ideas ofthese reli-
gions are often based on easily observable manifest patterns
and they usually use as point of comparison an ideal version
of the Judaic-Christian tradition which is intertwined with
American values. It is the rare author who attempts, through
careful study and personal experience, to see the Indian
relig1on as part of the totality of Indian culture; perhaps

only Taylor in the sample fits this category.
VI. NATIONAL LEADERS

The theme “National Leaders" refers specifically to
those men and women who were prominent in India's recent past
and present on a national level, particularly individuals who
figured in the Independence movement. It is a theme closely
related to those of "Politics and the Nationalist Movement"
and "British in India." Authors who are apeflfically inter-
ested in India's politics, especially those authors who take
a strong position pro or con Independence tend to stress

I!
N
ational Leaders." Gandhi and Nehru naturally take top

\\__

lGfirtrude Williams, op. cit., p. 50.

101
priority in terms of the space devoted to this theme, pre-
1947 authors tending to stress the former, and post-1947, the
latter. To these two should be added the names of Tagore,
'1‘8- Nsidu, Ambedkar, Patel, Rajagopalachari, Prasad, lotilal
Nehru, and most recently Vinoba Bhave. Where Jinnah is men-
tioned Prior to the founding of Pakistan, references to him
are included in this theme, especially when such a reference
draws a comparison between Jinnah and Gandhi.

01' the thirty authors, thirteen gave this theme prom-
inence. Tine following is a breakdown of these authors.

Table III gives a more detailed report.

Before 1947 After 1947 Total

 

Int"allectuals 2 4 5
Adveliturers 1 - 1
31381011 personnel 1 - 1
.s- Govt. Officials 1 1 2

Ida n 1: ifiers 5 _‘ ._._.3
8 5 1.5

01‘ the thirteen, Bourke-White, Trumbull, Wofford,

Whee
191*, Durant-it, and Cooks-1 (four intellectuals, one u. s.

Gove
mmht official and one identifier) devoted over twenty

Peres
nt of their books to this theme. Fr0m these figures it

Seems
that pre-‘47 authors and intellectuals generally tend

to be
more interested in this theme. The government officials

Who We
re directly involved with the leaders are also in this

\__

1
“loss starred (it) wrote prior to 1947.

 

102
group. The three identifiers each had significant experi-

ences with the various leaders; Hauswirth and Cook with Gandhi,
Lyon with Nehru and Bhave. Peter Muir, the one adventurer
cited above, might conceivably have an affinity to this in-
tellectual group as his general orientation was more of a
reporter than a tourist. Jones has a special mission-
oriented approach to Gandhi as he sees a correlation between
Gandhi and Christ.

Tk'lus, reasons for this interest have to do with the
occupational interests of the authors-wand with the specific
dates in which they wrote. Authors writing at the time of
Gandhi! 8 rise to power or Nehru's prime ministry are stimu-
1°t°d to write about the national leadership ‘of India, espe-
cially if they have had a political orientation previous to

their Visit or their occupations demand an interest in the

Ind°P°n dense Movement.

It is important to analyze the ways authors interpret
the le adore and why. one is tempted to classify the authors
pro and con as to the leaders as a whole; this, however,
would be an over-simplificatiOn as opinions differ not 01313!
on the Various leaders but also on various aspects of the
“ma leader's personality. More accurate is a classification
of th° Inajor leaders in order to get at those features which

th
e amShore approve or disapprove.

 

 

 

 

'1

 

103

1. Gandhi

Jones, Cook, Hauswirth, Bourke-White, Van Tyne, Durant,
Trumbull and Wheeler actually met Gandhi; the Woffords and
)luir did not, but devote a great deal of space to him. This
is a do cisive factor in an author's evaluation of this leader;
even Wheeler who criticizes Gandhi most strongly is affected.

by meeting him face to face.

Any first impression of weirdness, however, yields
at contact to liking. . . . He wins you with a certain
charm he radiates as naturally as he breathes. One
Presumes that it is the Saint appears at such times.
Perhaps it is the Politician that his enemies see . . .
Borne inner sweetness of the man always wins them again.1

This "sweetness," "lovableness" or "saintliness" is

perhaps the most common characteristic mentioned with approval

by the authors .

We have the astonishing phenomenon of a revolution
1°C by a saint. . . . The unifier of Igdia could not
be a politician, he had to be a saint.

Gandhi is ugly, . . . but I see his smile and think
him beautiful, the kindliest, broadest, sweetest smilelz5

His eyes were liquid, filled with a spiritual light;
there was a wildness, a sweetness of spirit, a compas—
8ion. . .

\

1"”.1166161‘, 10 Cite, pa 2920

 

2Durant, op. cit., pp. 63 and 118.

Van shied” Hauswirth, A Marriage 32 India (New York:
guard Press, 1930), p. I9]: ""‘"""

4Van Tyne, op. cit., p. 99.

104

The one author who vehemently denies this aspect of
Gandhi is the one "anti-nationalist author" who never met
him, Peter Muir. He made it a point 933 to visit Wardha as
“impartial Journalists" had convinced him that "the whole
set-up was a publicity stunt." Thus, ”The Occidental who
does not agree with Gandhi . . . stands to learn nothing from
an interview with India's Hachiavelli."l

Other qualities praised by the authors are Gandhi's
Sincerity (Jones), love of freedom (Durant, Wofford), demo—
cratic philosophy (Bowles, Wofford), simplicity of living,
humility, gentleness (Van Tyne, Wofford), attitude toward
untouchables (Van Tyne, Wofford, Bourke-White), and his
"Christianity" or “Christ-likeness" (Jones, Wofford, Haus-
Wirth) . Cook, as a temporary member of Gandhi's ashrams at
Sabrameti and Savagram, puts her feelings about him in more
emotional terms of which the summing up might be: "I loved
him and was willing to follow him blindly, whatever he said."2

Those qualities which are cited with particular dis-
aPPI’ovz-il are Gandhi's attitude toward the machine and home
Spinning (Hauswirth, Durant, Bourke-White, Wheeler), his
methOds of non-violent non-cooperation which "only result in

violence" (Van Tyne), his fasting as a political weapon

\

Imuir, 33. cit., p. 121.

20001:, o . cit., p. 259.

 

 

 

 

105

(Wheeler, Trumbull), his dictatorial personal power (Muir,
Wheeler) , his vanity and love of public notice (Wheeler), and
his "arbitrary crochets" re: Western medicine, food, and sex
wheeler, Muir, Trumbull).

Wheeler's conclusions are unique among the authors but
they illustrate a general feeling of frustration which many
01‘ the authors exhibit toward Gandhi:

Gandhi is both (saint and politician) and it is
often difficult to say where one begins and the other
ends. The effect is that of true schizophrenia. . . .
.v'e must consider him in this binomial guise or give up
understanding him at all. . . . Schizophrenia might
have been coined for Gandhi. It connotes his grasp on
living realities, his power to see deeply into prac-
tical problems, the selflessness and purity of his
life and work, and at the same time the strange con-
tradi ctions and illogic of his conclusions . . . his
oscillations between a broad deistic faith and the
repulsive salvage of medieval Hinduism . . .

This frustration seems to arise from the trouble au-
thors ha‘n in reconciling those aspects of Gandhian thinking
whiCh fit their own cultural values. The most marked dis-
apprQVal is shown when Gandhi and other leaders deny in word
01' deed the values of efficiency and practicality, progress,
Sciencq, and secular rationality, and material comfort. Au-
thors then either fall back on the idea of "the Beat 13 3°
inscrutable we can't ever understand it, anyhow," or attempt
to find some logical reason for the paradox as Wheeler's idea
of schizophrenia and Bourke-White who decides that Gandhi has

\\———-—-—

JWheeler, op. cit., pp. 150 and 164.

 

 

.Icil.‘ all: l.|

 

 

 

106
grown up hating all machines because India produced the raw
material for the machines of Britain. A third alternative is
that taken by some of the later authors such as Bowles who
simply forgets or ignores those aspects of Gandhian philosophy
which are in conflict with dominant American values and stresses
those which are not.

Only Jones and Cook treat Gandhi in the context of
religion; Jones because he feels Gandhi has helped Indians to
"see the Cross"; Cook because of her deification of Gandhi as
a saint and teacher. The frustrations mentioned above are
“Gt 9 Problem for these two authors, partly because they tend

to I’eject more or less the values of science and material

comfort .
2 e Nehru

Prior to Gandhi's death, Nehru is generally discussed
as a minor figure; afterwards, he is thought of as a power in
his own right, deserving of a more detailed discussion. Lyon,
WOffopd, Bourke-White, Trumbull, Rowan, Bowles and Wheeler
devOte a large percentage of space to him; of these, only
Wheeler writes prior to 1947.

The puzzlement which marks the authors' attitudes to-
ward Gandhi 13 even more marked toward Nehru, especially as

time
and the aura of sainthood have not blurred these atti-

tude
8 as in the former case. From the following quotations

107

a man of moods, bafflements and contradictions emerges, puzz-

ling to the majority of authors because he seems "Hamlet-like"

or torn between West and East.

Nehru is a man pulled two ways. By blood, birth and
tradi tion, he is Indian, but in spirit and temperament
he is Western. His tragedy is that he must think with
an Eastern mind but as Westerners think. While his
face is turned East, every instinct, every appete’nce,

draws him in the opposite direction and he fights this
urge ferociously.1

His weakness lies in implementation; he appears to
be incapable of putting his suggestions into effect at
the administrative level with the ruthless force of
the late Sadar Patel. He shows dictatorial tendencies,
Without a dictator's strength . . . Nehru's moods,
Wherever he may be, are unpredictable . . . he has by

no means lost the totality of tamperament that shows
in Sudden bursts of irritation.

Nehru had seemed easy to anger and a bit dogmatic,
even on points where I agreed with him. 'Is he a vain
man , arrogant, overawed by his estimate of himself?

' . . Is he a truly great man, or has the world created
this myth of greatness for a man who really is no more
than millions of other men who have inherited great
P081tions merely by being in the right place at the
right time? Is 'great' a word one should apply to a
atfittesman who is unable to control his own temperament,
:ho is a slave to his own varying moods, who is beset

Y a fierce pride, who often seems overcome by aware-
ness that he is an Asian being?'3

(In comparing Nehru to Hamlet) Hamlet, too, was
Valiant in action . . . but both Nehru and Hamlet, for
all their prophetic souls, never seem able to start a
fray until all the odds are stacked against them. . . .
For nowhere is Nehru more like Hamlet than in his in-
ability to act foresightedly. Like Hamlet,.he can see

\

1Wheeler, 22. cit., p. 146.
2T1‘umbull, pp. cit., pp. 119 and 122.
SHOW/an, 22. Cite, p. 1690

108

so far and so philosophically into the nature and can-
sequences of any specific act that he is paralyzed.

Of course, no one can put Nehru in a nutshell. He
is many-sided, complex, full of conflicting enthusiasms
and burdened by many sorrows . . . he is the most im-

POI‘tant, most attractive and in many ways the most
P‘MZling character on the Asian stage.

T1118 picture is balanced to some extent by the authors'
approval of Nehru as a tremendous unifying force in India
(Trumbull , Viofford, Lyon, Bourke-White, Bowles). But the
primary image conveyed to the general public is that of a
confusing personality who lacks the ability to get things
done-«8 modern elite variant of the old "inscrutable lazy

native" e tereotype.

3° 0—1729; Leaders

AS is the case with Gandhi and Nehru, authors tend to

approve or those leaders (or certain aspects of leaders) who

uphold the values of freedom, equality and democracy and tend

t
O disapprove of those who seem "dictatorial" or ”backward"

re
aarding science and technology.

Ambedkar, the famous Untouchable leader, comes in for
a
good deal of praise for his stand in fighting for outcasts
r
ights; Tagore for his part in the Independence Movement and

h
is contribution to Indian literature.

\“

The J lHarris and Clare Wofford, India Afire (New York:
°hn Day Company, 1951), p. 22?.

2

 

Chester Bowles, op. cit., p. 101.

109

The Woffords, who are in particular sympathy with the
Indian Socialists, describe such leaders as Narayan, Lohia,
Mehta and others. In their judgments of these men, democracy
and its correlative values are the influencing factors as to
approval or disapproval.

Perhaps the most controversial figure in the recent
1700“ (LyOn, Bowles, Trumbull) is Vinoba Bhave, leader of the
300d“! ( Lendgift) movement. For Trumbull, he is a "mystic
° ° - at times hysterical," a "stubborn aescetic" who gave in
to modem medicine only under protest yet who is doing some
300d in providing a "second Gandhi" for the people who needed
a new Spirit. Chester Bowles wonders whether Bhave can really
accomplish his purpose but is glad he has "inspired many In-
dians With new faith." Lyon's comment is worth (111013318 at
some length not only because it is relatively perceptive about
Amarican interpretations of Indian cultural phenomena but be-
cause it indicates how this theme, as well as those preceding
and following, cannot be divorced from Indian religion and the

Am
Brice!) conception of it.

12h No matter how hard I tried to feel and understand
e zeal with which Vinobaji and his followers ap-

DEOBChed their mission, I found it impossible to per-

th aChe myself either that the economic theories behind

pr: movement were practical or that the psychological

I kSeures being used on the people were healthy. Yet

W111 eIDt wondering if perhaps this wasn't the way in

Oh the new India would go.

dir Was my personal skepticism caused by the fundamental
d1 I‘erence between an American point of view and an In-
an one? Mine, I knew, was a more materialistic

llO
yardstick than many Indians used. Mine was more skep-
tical of human motives and human goodness, I'm afraid.
The Indian who was sympathetic to Vinobaji looked at
life through some kind of a religious lens, although
it was really more of a moralistic lens than a mystic
one.

In summary, it can be reiterated that in their inter-
pretation s of Indian national leaders the authors "like" those
who fit most comfortably their conception of what a national
leader should be. Leaders who fought for freedom and democ-
racy recall to the authors their own American inheritage of
independence from Great Britain. The difficulty occurs when
these Same leaders possess characteristics and ideas which

are in conflict with certain other norms, especially science,

practj-<3811ty, progress, and material comfort.
VII. THE INDIAN PEOPLE

Out of the thirty authors, twenty-four, or eighty per
cent, are concerned with describing the Indian people, i.e.
informants they actually met and talked with, persons they
observed on the streets, and general statements usually be-
ginning "Indians are . . ." or "India is . . ." (excluding
national figures such as Gandhi and Nehru, who are treated
as a Separate theme). Of the twenty-four, fourteen authors
devoted Over twenty percent of their books to this theme.
These au there are evenly divided between post-1947 and

\——0

1Lyon, 22. cit., pp. 510-311.

lll
pre-194'7. Their experiences in time range from brief tours
of three months to practically lifetime contact. Their oc-
cupational groupings break down as follows: six intellectu-
als, three identifiers, two businessmen, two mission person-
nel, and one adventurer. This excludes State Department per-
sonnel, intellectual journalists and the majority of adven-
turers, all of whom stress other themes, though all refer
briefly to "The people of India" in a minor way. Generally
speaking, it may be said that a fairly representative cross-
section of authors are concerned with interpreting "the
Indian People" to Americans.

However, it is necessary to understand just what each
author means by the general term ”the Indian people." The
people authors choose to talk to or mention at some length,
those they call by namb: or those they quote extensively are
termed in this study "Indian informants." Table IV tabulates
these according to the number the author mentions in each of
seventeen occupational groups.

From this table one concludes at once that the largest
number of informants is drawn from the category of middle
Class or Upper middle class men and women, 1.6., doctors,

law
yers’ landlords, teachers, judges, journalists, government

offi
cials, businessmen, engineers, and chemists. Out of 9

tot
3‘1 01‘ 665 informants, 240 or thirty-six percent (3635) were
among this group.

112
The other groups of informants fall far below this

figure. Ranked according: to percentage, the next large groups

are: laharajahs and princes, 10%; housewives, 8%; servants,

7%; sadhus and ascetics, 7%. The figure for Indian housewives

is actually misleading as a few authors who lived for some
time in villages (the Wisers, Jean Lyon, Cynthia Bowles) met
and mentioned a great number of housewives while almost no
male authors mention housewives to any extent. Students

rated seven percent, farmers six percent, and national lead-

ers five percent.

HOWever, these informants do not tell the whole story.
Antho'f‘s 81 so based their generalizations about India on the

990919 they observed casually in the streets, though they may

never have met and talked to these people directly. The most

Significant judgment authors make about these casually ob-

se

rved persons is to note how poverty-stricken or dirty they
800 .
-.eared to them. These conditions are usually deplored and
8 c o 1

omparlson to the United States or a higher standard of

11 ' a
‘1n& is cited or implied.

The preceding discussion has been dealing with a nu-

mer
1°81 breakdown of each author regarding the EJ801119 he
U168 .
“8 “hen he refers to "The Indian People-" The question
now 3111868.

Why do the various tables yield these particular
res
“1138? For example, why are the professional intelligentsia
SO 8 -
trongly represented among informants? Why do all authors

113
mention the poverty of ”me people? thy do so few "adven-

\ . .v ' er A ' " - 7r ,_ ,.
turers stress this particdar theme if 'l‘ne Indian Reeds"?

The answers to these questions involve two factors:
(1) Each author's occupation, including period of time he
stayed 1:) India and his reference group while there, and
(2) the American cultural "lens" which all authors shared in
common to some extent. most often this reference group is

the manife st ideal level of American culture.

Generally speaking, the occupation of each auth

de-

*5

o
termines to a certain extent these kinds of Indians he is
likely to meet and mention. The majority of these occupa-
tions involve work in urban areas with DigliS‘I-SQCN'ZMEZ

I“”5~“‘-Y1~“-"~the "intelligentsia informants." Redding and Rowan,

tV' ., ‘
«0 authors lecturing unoer State Department auspices, nave

thCln

l

flesh percenta~e of these informants as their work took

' .

‘1

3016 1y to urban areas with brief tours into the villages.

Jeal l . .

1 Lyon, a free lance :nriter, wits the largest total numuer
of a a - .
'n‘LOPmG nts, also has a high percentage in this area. How":-
ever
’ even those authors who remained in rural areas during

the =

whole of their stay (as the 'J‘iisers and Gertrude Emerson)
rel .

led on some informants of this type, especially if they

did
not know the language.

The length of time spent in India by each author does

ceasarily determine the variety of Indian informants
that n -.
”ac” author relied upon. For example, Keenan, a manager

114
for Tata Steel, spent thirty-odd years in India, yet notes
three grougs of informants: princes, professional men and
factory workers. Lyon, writing after a four-year stay, notes
the greatest variety of informants. Thus the reference group
of each author is the determining factor; authors tend to
talk to those people they want to see; some (such as jute
salesman King) 30 out of their way to avoid certain groups;
others (a 8 teacher li'olseley) make special efforts to inter—
View 8 Variety of people.

HOW do these factors of occupation, reference group
and length of stay affect the way "Indian People" is inter—
preted as a theme? Again the following statements are general,
“Ot 91-1 authors fit these categories perfectly, and there are
important exceptions. Authors whose jobs brought them in
daily 01086 contact with many types of Indians for over a

ea ' 1 s o a.
y r 3 time tend to have a more oalanceo View: of the Indian

1360 3 ‘
pl” as a whole. That is, they can accept the many-faceted

C!
altural diversity of the Indian population in a more or less
at
jeetive fashion. In this area are the ‘u’fisers and Jean Lyon.l
For
e“ample, Lyon realizes that:

0th 6 Malabar culture was not to be duplicated in
pr e]:- areas, WhiCh Was just the point. There were
c)b‘ably two dozen other cultural segments in India-..

\\\————-

Part 8111113 should be mentioned that the Wisers' book was in

years 1 informal sociological study made after almost fifteen

China an India; and that Jean Lyon had previously lived in
uping her girlhood.

115
if not many more--ss unique as was the Malabar. And
this kind of cultural pattern had . . . to do with
geographical divisions and raw materials and climate
and ethnic groupings and simultaneous parallel cul-
tural growths throughout India.1

A notable exception to this is Edmond Taylor, con-
nected during World War II with U. S. Army Intelligence for
two years in India, who mentions relatively few informants,
yet has perhaps the most sociologically oriented view of the
Indian people.

'I'riose authors those jobs brought them in contact with
a limited number of Indians or with a particular segment of
the Indi an social strata over a short period of time (under
one 17381?) tend to have a less balanced view of the Indian
PeoPler-that is, strongly polarized for or against "the In-
dian 9805313" plus either mark-ed confusion over India's cul-
tural diversity or a lack of awareness that it exists. Typ-
ice]. of this group is Claude Van Tyne, University of Michigan

r
p Ofessor, whose five-month trip reinforces his preconceived

ideas of Indians as "half-civilized."

I‘i’f. . . if prevailing; ideas in our Western world are
stbht India is not wholly civilized. India has a
ate of society, not savage exactly, but simple and

3581311311126 of comforts beyond the conception of un-
ave led Americans. -'

\-\——-‘
lLyon, 93. cit., p. 249.

even Tyne, .03. Cite, p. 2050

116

Eleanor Roosevelt's carefully arranged tour of some
two months leaves her with a strong admiration for India's
progress along democratic and industrial lines; India for her
is making the "superhuman effort" and "literally lifting her-
self by her own bootstraps."

However, several authors who remained for longer peri-
ods of t 1me fall within this category also. For example,
Post Wheeler, a U. S. Embassy official in New Delhi for two
years, remains strongly anti-Indian. India for him is:

. . . a vast swarming sea of pepulation . . .
millions of human beings, toiling and incoherent,
cha filmed by superstition and casts in a bondage for
Which the subtle and profound philosophy of their
dead sages offers no compensation, for the most part
sunk in a poverty too benumbing to bear description.l

Robert Trumbull, M 2113 11-1191 reporter for seven
years in India, attempts to "dc-bunk" and dismiss many aspects
0f Indian culture, making little or no attempt to examine the
meaning beneath the forms he observes.

From the above, it is again clear that length of time
Spent in India does not necessarily determine an author's in-
terpretation of "the Indian peggle," Again, it seems evident
that an author's reference group is a more accurate determi-
nant of attitude. Taylor made a conscious attempt to break

thr
ough his preconceived ideas of Indians; Wheeler, King and

othe
PS did not, keeping to their reference group of an "ideal

\—

1,
Wheeler, pp. cit., pp. 9-10.

117

America . "

Frieda Hauswirth, who devoted the greatest per-
centage to this theme, was never motivated to break through
her stereotyped impressions and own cultural biases. The
reference groups of the "adventurers" as a whole were not

oriented to seeing the Indian people and thus did not stress

this theme .

T116 terms "cultural values" and "cultural biases" have
been men 1; ioned above. Perhaps the most important factor in—
flueneing all the authors is that of the American values
“him they more or less hold in common.

Tihe large number of statements reflecting "moral ori-
entations" (see Table V, pages 24 and 25) indicates that most
authors tended to judge certain aspects of Indian life as
300d 01' bad, right or trong, ethical or unethical. This is

particularly true re: "the Indian people." Generally speak-
ing, a "good" Indian for these authors is a clean, friendly,
h -

ard Work ing, energetic, ambitious person who has "enlight-

Q It
ned ide as regarding caste, Hinduism, and industrial prob-

re
33: and who is "trying to pull himself up by his Own boot"

st
“93°" A "bad" Indian is a dirty, servile, illiterate,

8' a
p that-1°, child-like person who has no desire to change his

800
nomic or educational level, who believes in "Hindu super-

stit
ions, " and who (for eight authors prior to 1947) 8511381388

for an 11164;:

senSit 1V8

pendence for which he is not ready, or a super-

irrational intellectual who has absorbed only the

118
superficialities of the West. (It should be noted that there

are many variations in this appraisal and a few authors such
as Taylor who deviate a great deal from this pattern.)
Obviously, this statement directly involves a number
of other value orientations. For example, there is a marked
emphasis on the values of "science and secular rationality,"
"efficiency and practicality," and on "material comforts."
When a per son comes from a culture where this effort is mark-
edly 1.688 , a certain amount of shock results. Thus the au-
thOI‘S: by and large, tend to look on the Indians as sick,
miserable , backward, poverty-stricken people Who do not apply
theories of Western science-~particularly Western medicine
and technological development--to daily living. Some authors
qualify this thought with an awareness of the West's own re-
cent selentific advance (Wofford, Taylor, Emerson, Williams),
or POint Out in detail the many factors which contribute to
this picture of the Indian people (Wisers), but all the au-
thors are impressed to some extent by India's relatively low
standard or living as reflected in its people. Thus, authors
note the Clhobi pounding clothes, people bathing in river, the

fa .
Pmer “'1 13h primitive tools.

An accompanying value orientation to those above is

that
of "hulnanitarian mores," a "quick, impulsive sympathy

for '.
980919 who are in distress 'by no fault of their own,'"

an e
motion which usually follows an author's shock at Indian

119

poverty. Katharine Mayo, who has the greatest number of com-
ments reflecting "science" and "humanitarian mores," is an
example of the way in which these values interlock. For all
her condemnation of "shabby, thread-bare, sick and poor old
Mother India," she expresses sympathy and pity for those
people, especially women, whom she feels are the victims of
mistreatment.

Returning to the concept of what constitutes a "good
Indian" for the writers, we note still another reason for
the great number of "intelligentsia informants." As Table V
indicates, "personal achievement," "work" and "progress" are
important values to the majority of authors. An American
looking for the embodiment of these values would explore the
educated professional group and comment on the types of people
he found there as to whether or not they "came up to American
standards."

A third of the authors made some direct reference to
the value of the "individual personality," usually noting how
Indians, in their servility or lack of regard for human life,
did “Ot hOld this view. Those authors who stress this theme
of "Indian people" reflect this value of "individual person-
ality" by the assumption that by knowing individuals or ob-
serving Indian people on the street, they can make generaliza-
tions about Indian culture as a whole.

slightly less than half of the authors were disturbed

in so ~
me Way over India's "bewildering complexity" (Muir) or

120
"terrifying diversity" (Wheeler). Statements of this kind

reflect in part the value of "external conformity" or a pre-

mium on adherence to certain common group patterns which is

prevalent in the United States. However, any stranger expe-

riences bewilderment at the diversity of an unfamiliar cul-

ture.

Nearly one out of four authors reflected certain
racist attitudes about Indians in making statements of group
superiority based primarily on skin color. It is interesting
to note that all of these wrote prior to 1947, and that au-
thOT’S Since that time were usually very careful to condemn

A
merican racial prejudice--often in the same sentence with

1. .
concemnaticn of the Indian caste system.
This subject, "the Indian People," constitutes the
ma' ~ - - .
Jor theme for 80,! of the authors. The preceding examina-

tio ’4 -
n 8991118 to indicate that an author's occupation, refererzce

grou '- - ‘
9 8110 value orientation affect his treatment of tnis
theme.

CI-JxPTZS‘}? V
Eli-EXAMINATION OF HYPOTHESES

II) the preceding chapters the Indian cultural themes

American authors presented to the general reader have been

analyzed - This analysis is meaningless unless it corroborates,
negates or re—defines the generalizations with which this
study began. The purpose of this chapter is to re-examine
these in the context of the data gathered in Chapters 11, III
and IV.

I. These sample writers tend to perceive more of
the manifest patterns of Indian culture than the latent pat-
terns.

By "manifest patterns" we refer to the formally insti-
tutionalized values of a society and the codified social norms
by “hiCh individuals and groups express their conduct in a
80°1911y-approved way at both the overt and covert level. By
"latent patterns" is meant the informal value structures of
8 Society' which constitute the imperatives for behavior in
the Context of social life and which are not codified or Open-
1y recognized as factors which govern the decisions and be-
havior of individuals within social groups.

The authors do tend to perceive more of the manifest

Patterns of Indian culture and, furthermore, from observing

these Patterns they make inferences and conclusions about the

t
otal culture of India.

1‘22

Frieda Hauswirth Das sees a play by Tagore and writes:

It vcas the India of great thoughts and great suffer—
ing that had drawn me . . . this was the India I have

been hungering for, these are the blossoms of her cul-
ture -

Low ell Thomas visits the Black Pagoda and concludes:

0110 characteristic of the Hindu temperament and of
the social customs of India is what seems to us its

excessige sexuality. Puritanism is unknown to Indian
ideals.

Row an watches people

. . . washing in the filthy water of the Jumna,
dropping sweat-mingles tears over a funeral pyre,
coughing and throwing TB germs to the minds, strain-
ing under a thousand and three burdens all but for—
gotten by Western man. . . . (here) was the India

my country would have to come close to and understand.5

Mayo is appalled by certain practices of childbirth

and child rearing. She concludes:

The whole pyramid of India's woes, material and

sp1P1tual-mpoverty, sickness, ignorance, political
m 1'IOI-ity, melancholy, ineffectiveness, not forgetting
that subconscious conviction of inferiority which he
oreVer bares and advertises by his gnawing and imag-

inalt‘ive alertness for social affronts--rests upon a
11031:;-'bottom physical base. This base is, simply, his

manner of getting into the world and his sex life
than ceforward.

Few authors go beyond the manifest; some, houever,
attempt 11;. Jean Lyon is one of these. She endeavors to
\

lHauswirth, 93. cit., p. 166.

Thomas, op. cit., p. 551.

3Rowan, 2p. cit., p. 11.

4Mayo, op. cit., p. 22.

123

reach some understanding of the underlying values which shape
the easily observable patterns. For example, instead. of dis-
missing the idea of reincarnation at the manifest level as

"mere apathy" or "fatalism," she tries to get at the view of
life vchi ch is basic to not only a belief in reincarnation but

to the Indian approach to tire, to technology, and to the

test.

Because a search for life's causes and ends has
dominated the lives of India's sears for thousands of
years , the country as a whole has absorbed some of
that cosmic approach. Even the widely held belief in
reincarnation, whether it be held philosophically or
suPatti‘stitiously, gives the average Hindu a longer-
range point of View than we have. . . . It is possible
to think in terms of your own life being but a tem-
porary and brief expression, like a single momentary
drop of the spray which flows over Niagara Falls, of
something eternal. And if you had always thought of
it that way, your feeling of urgency about meeting an
appointment tomorrow at ten, or building a dam, or the
eJ‘Qansion of a faitory would be vastly different from

our American one.

In observing latent patterns, Edmond Taylor is most
successful. His construct of "delusion" refers, in a sense,
to the trap into which most other authors fall, 1.3., basing
general conclusions on manifest patterns only and failing to
Pecognize underlying latent patterns. Indian history, philos-
ophy, Politics, and economies are well known to Taylor but he

does not stop there. Instead he searches for the values

w
hich have resulted in a certain kind of history. Phi-103091337:

\
lLFOn, 92. cit., pp. 348-349.

124
politics and economics. Moreover, he re-examines his own
cultural heritage in terms of the latent level and points up
areas of delusion between America and India. For instance,
Asian technical "backwardness" is often a. point of bafflement
and shock for Americans. Virites Taylor:

Many features of Asiatic backwardness are the re-

sult of basic cultural institutions which the Asiatic

Peoples are loath to change. Thus the problem is more

than one of mere technical training. . . . The back-

wardness of any people is merely the field of activity

in Which it has not specialized. The strength of one

cultural group is always the weakness of another. No

single man, community or culture realizeall the human

capabilities or formulate all the possible human values.

There is neither a, significant difference between the

various occupational groups nor between pre- and post-'47
authors in this regard. Identifiers and intellectuals (except
Taylor) base their assumptions and conclusions solely upon
manifest patterns as often as do adventurers, mission person-
nel, U- S. Government officials and businessmen, whether
Writing before or since Independence. (However, there is 2
Significant difference between those who stay over a year as
regidents and those who stay less than one year as brief
VisitOPS, this idea is further elaborated in a discussion of
hypothesis VII.) These are factors which influence what

themes an author will stress rather than why or how he will

interpret a theme in a particular fashion.

\
1Taylor, op. cit., pp. 396, 403.

125

A gradation of authors' awareness of latent patterns
can be made which cuts across occupational and post-pre'47
lines. It should be remembered that the following are more

or less arbitrary divisions which serve only as a useful ray

of handling the data.
First, a third of the authors perceive merely the man-

ifest patterns without any understanding; of their depth, var-

iance, or meaning". Typical of this group are: Cravath, Kayo,

King, Muir, Thomas, Trumbull, Van Tyne, Wheeler, '~..’illiams,

Hatch, and Durant. Another third occasionally attempt some

broader delineation. £2ny are: Jones, Hauswirth, Muchl,

Morgan, Cook, Rowan, the 1'.'offorCs, Bedding and Mrs. Roosevelt.

An example of the kind of statement made by these thenty au-

thors fol lows:

(After discussing; the manifest patterns character-
1211'18 Indian politics and the Independence Movement)

The hestern mind does not easily grasp the fact
that these resigned and mild-mannered people can be
Stirred, by appeals to their ever-dominant religious
fanacticism, to a high pitch of reckless fury. Their
t(Er'udzity is beyond our comprehension. No lie can be
8:0 crude, no deceit too open to draw them into in-

u 316 Violence unknown in present-day civilized lands,
“ 688 it be . . . in some districts of our South.1

The above authors, sixty-seven percent of the total
Srcu ‘
p, are composed of thirteen {me—'47 autdors, seven post-

'47.
occupationv.'ise, they subdivide: nine intellectuals,

\‘I—.

1
Van Tyne, _c_>_g_)_. cit., p. 141.

three identifiers, one businessman, one

four adventurers,

mission personnel and one U. S. Government official.

A second grouping are those authors who perceive the

range , variance and depth of the manifes pa terns but V-"Lo

seldom go farther to examine the causes of these patterns.

Typical of this 5' cup are the ‘.'.isers, Chester and Cynthia

Bowles, Keenan, and Emerson. Bourke-‘t‘hite, 's'Jolseley and

Stratton all make attempts in this direction and partially

succeed; thus they are classed ‘ith this group. These eight

autrzor rs, or twenty-seven percent of the tots-l, are composed

ere-’47, four post-'47; two mission personnel, tvo

of four

one 7". S.

identifiers, one advertner, one businessman,

ermuen t of f i cia i, and

by one of these autlcrs is t‘. is comment:
Looked at flow sitltut, India resents a picture of

bef-ildering; diversity. . . . All t1ese suggest the im-
JOSE» ibility of any underlyine unit‘,r . . . (yet) anyone
who penetrates even a little beneath the surface of

113C35- Bn life mist be astonished at the remarkable like-

“938 of the ideals, social and spiritual, “Null the
people together.
or the final group, authors who perceive both latent

8nd -? 4- .
manly tiiC'USh-t of as a

~est pattezns , only Taylor can be

case in

POint. Jean

1
n this group 88 she

'\
U10" 81 -1
1 ‘:1 (4 cevaS in

\‘

l
Emerson,

 

22o

Lyon, however, should also be classed

shes a concerted effort in this rir:c-

the majority of cases. Taylor wrote

cit., Forward.

 

F"
f“)
‘3

‘pricr to 1947 and is an intellectual; Lyon is a post-'47
identifier. A typical statement by Taylor which reveals his

Position follows;

'5

(After observing tte manifest patterns c1 HinjuiSm)

induism, without having biology, had a biological
(menacienee, a keen sense of man's citizenship in na-
ture, a zoological.as well as a social ideal of fra-
‘termity, and a feeling for life as a civic mission
saccepted from, and discharged on behalf of, some

'totml cosmic community.1

‘3
1

II. Sample writers tend to polarize their impres-
sions; of India in terms of good or bad, approval or dis-
apgroval.

III. Furthermore, sample writers tend to ap;rove of
those gaarts of Indian cul ure which they feel to es nest like
the idenal patterns of America and to disapprove of those parts
“hie: tliey feel conflict with America's ideal patterns.

(a) Sample writers tend to be particularly
Chis.urbed or note with disapproval physical condi-
tfiions in India whether climate, animals or reptiles
‘01“ lacc of material comforts.

(b) Sample writers feel compelled to deal uith

tP~

1<3 idea of India as "

"a tending

Po
":5

Sp itual nation,
eiiiiher to approve of this "spirituality" as a great
StI’ength or to disapprove of it as a falsehood to be

N
d e ~bunked. "

\_

l
TaEflor, _o_p_. cit., o. 252.

 

(0) Furthermore, if sample vriters pick out
any indigenous strengths, they cite this spiritu-
ality. ‘therwise, they choose "imported ideas" as

desire for technical change, democratic government

an (1 so fo rth .

O
H)
(n

;11 the values stressed by the authors, moral
onhnitation ranks highest. Table V'on pages 24 and 25 indi-
cates ‘that 1447 statements were made by the thirty authors
indicating moral judgments of approval or «disapproval of
Particnjlar Indian cultural patterns, as compared to the sec-
ond rsnaking value, science and secular rationality (544 state-

nents) . Thus it seems clear that generalization II above is

&mstsnntiated. The many examples of these judgments are

k

‘flteéi earlier in Chapters II, III .nd IV} in discussing the

thhrd.11ypothesis, more will be given.

-‘

In dealing with III, however, clarification is needed.
Fm Use (data in Chapters II, III and IV indicate, our sample
‘Mmdstca compare Indian culture to the ideal American culture.

Sinus tile manifest level is most easily perceived and verbal-

ized, 11: is more apparent in the authors' Judgments. However,

the American value strtcture, deeply embedded in the culture

iflithe ZLatent level, plays an essential part in the authors'

.5

eva lua t i on s .-

Fkbr example, take the following statement by Peter
Muir:

It is the fashion to weep for the underdog, but it
is high time to give up fashion in politics, for facts.
The Indian has never done anything to pull himself up
by the bootstraps. On the contrary, he has been fan-
tastically ingenius in contriving his own frustration--
for'hundreds of years before the British came.

The following observation by Post Wheeler offers still

another example of the same point.

In India's hurly-burly of races, tongues and reli-
5;ions, one sees in crude nakedness the leftovers and
83135 ends of outuern systems that will fit no coherent
perttern, a hundred unassimilable crossbreeds, two op-
gnased and irreconcilable cultures warring with each
cytszg a mass population gunk in a poverty that the
West can hardly conceive.

Countless examples could be given of cases in which
mmhcues approve those facets of Indian life which fit their
ideal goatterns and disapprove of those which do not: the
conflict over Gandhi, for example, who is "saintly" but "so
tmscixnutific"; the "hardworking" British as opposed to tle
"s b - n n

no txish and unsympathetic British; approval of progressive
andenlightened" matarajahs but rejection of "filthy, unkept"
sadhus,

ZIII. (a) Sample writers tend to be particularly

ciisturbed or note uith disapproval physical condi-

tlions in India whether climate, animals or reptiles

CIP lack of material comforts.

13115 generalization is borne out in part by the authors'

I) ' I". ' ' 0
.reoscupsrtlon with poverty. Every author makes at least one

statenent about the "poverty-stricken Indian people." Six-

1

teen authors make over five references to this picture.
Table 'V further corroborates this with the fact that all

thirty'authors make some reference to the value of mater'

comfortg 33 statements being made in all. however, climate

expected mould be Significant oh-

‘1’)
( 1

and arxhnals, LLiCh it 1‘

jects 13f disapproval were not reflected with any remarkable

fractuency. Hence this hypothesis should be re-worded to read:
III. (a) Sample Triters tend to be particularly
disturbed or note with disapproval the lack of ma-

terial comforts manifested by the Indians they ob-

serve.

Examples of typical statements made in this area are:

Such Seualor, such dirt . . . I never saw nor want
IND see again.

I found color and sunshine . . . dirt, disease and
poverty.

.A land of sloth, sensuality, saintliness, squalor
Emci splendor . . .0

ZIndia was . . . complex and miserable, involved
anCi squalid . . .4

IGOWhere on earth could I have fgund greater dearth
in Inaterial beaaty of living . . .

39Van Tyne, pp. 233., p. 205.
2'38ertrude Williams, 2p. 231:3, p. xi.
3Thomas, 23. 233., p. 16.

4Muehl, pp. _<_:_i_1_:_., p. 298.
5Hauswirth, pp. 213., p. 40.

(India is) a big dumb, helpless, infinitely

needy family. . . .1
III. (b) Sample triters feel compelled to deal with

the idea of India as "a Spiritual nation." The tend-
ency is to approve of this "spirituality" as a great

strength or as a falsehood to be "de-hunked."

As the treatment of "Religion" as a theme reveals, no

authox~ ignores tie role of relijicn in Indian culture. India

(I)

88 "sgxiritual" in distinction to a "materialistic" America i
a conmuon theme reflected in tie books of all but flour authors
in sonns significant fashion. Of these tnenty-six authors,
fmnflxeen tend to disapprove of this spirituality
valid car over°sted; six tend to aperove of it as a jrert
smmurgth and six attem h a more or less neutral po-
sition, showing "both sides."

Although authors do stress this idea, the hypothesis
should lae re-stated:

IIIIQ (b) Sample authors tend to approve of this

A

"Spirituality" in those areas thict do not conflict

Siirongly with American ideal patterns; and to dis-

E&?prove of those areas which are in conflict with

Aunerican ideal patterns.

Iirus Gertrude Williams is not disturbed by temple
(mrvings ("One might as well object to many unrecognized

\-

IMBYO, cit., p. 302.

CD 0

152

Symbols of the “','est which are SLrvivnls of primitive days")

but was horrified by the "green scum on the temple tanks" and
the "look of tragic hepclessness in many women's eyes."1 The

latter two manifest patterns were too much in conflict with

her values of science and equality. Nilla Cook could accept

the mysticism of Hinduism so completely as to become a dis-

Ciple; she could not accept the equally Hindu caste system.

Some authors, Van Tyne for example, could find nothing in

Hinduism which did not conflict with his values. The follow-

ing sentence reflects the connection hem-and others--make in

relating religion to tile Ind ian standard of living; and "back-

ward” technology.

\I’e sec filthy sacred tanks, te aples racking with
dirt, idols smeared with grease and the yellow powder
01' some crushed flower petal; .e see the mud huts and
thatched roofs in which the tee emingm millions of Indians
live and the bullock carts and s mple plow s and sickles

and flails of the days of Noah.

(0

III. (0) Furthermore, if sample t'riters pick out

any indigenous strengtils, they cite this "spir tu-

Glity." Other? isc they choose "imported" ideas as

C:—'lesire for technical change, democratic "government

and so forth.

This generalization is valid to a certain extent;
eutnors do cite ”imported" ideas of democracy, technical
\.

lGGr-trude YTilliams, op. cit., p. 179.

2
Van Tyne, 9;. Ci ., p. 194-5

153
change and my on as objects of apgroval. However, they tend
to note indigenous qualities other than "spirituality," the
most salient of which are "friendliness" and "hospitality,"
and an "ancient civilization." Post-'47 authors in particular
mention the former. It tends to give theq.the comfortable
feeling that peogle are "basically the same everywhere."

'I really love these geoyle . . . the expression on
their faces, the friendliness when they see you, that's
vfi1at I admire.‘1

. . . the :TOQtCSt east of that love for India is
Ikbr my friends. . . . These frisndshigs have taught me
not simply that East and West can meet but that the
‘vorw'difference between the girl from India and the
girl from America is not so {great as is thought. Deep
chasm I realized my Indian friends and I are very much
the same.“

The openheartedness of Indians took me by sur-
PI’ise . . .5

D
.

1

Impose hle to forget t:
2

rs

en
ca

‘

ePCHJs hospitality of Inc

“SJ

fri 1y ‘czarxrlth, the (<an—
p0 e.

4

F.)

1
a S

Iqowhere on earth could I have found greater tarmth
. 3 f
0f V'elcome nor more uncounded hccsitality.0

.Adflventurers in particular mention the last; Crave
“Ewes, sand Stratton all have criticisms as to Indian reli-

”f ’ I - 1 ‘
tion, technology and politics as they fiance them today nut

N
l .
ldcxrgan, oa. Cit., p. 95.

 

2
<35U3thia Bowles, on. c t., p. 177.
3 ‘ ,
Bourke-‘..nite, OB . cit., p. Xi.
Rom-(— » nu - 1N7
of), VP. w-LU.’ 1.). l. O

5
HRIlswirth, 2g. cit., Po 137-

34
are full of praise for the civilization and philosophy which
as Thonms puts it "dates at least a thousand years before
Christ." Durant and Hauswirth echo this appreciation of the
past:

A civilization five tlousand years old, endlessly

Iflich in philosophy, literature, religion and art,

axui infinitely appealing in its ruined grandeur . . .1

The immense wealth of India's ancient art and cul-
tixre . . . in glaring contrast . . . the sad indif-
fErrence and neglect of beauty of the present day.2

From the material presented above, it seems clear that

this greneralization should be re-torded to read:

III. (0) Furthermore, if the authors pick out any

indigenous strengths, they cite "spirituality,"

"friendliness and hospitality" and "ancient civil-

ization." Otherwise, they choose "imported" ideas

as technical change, democracy and so forth.

IV} The authors tend to stress themes in Indian cul-
ture 1J1 terms of the reference groups which had been most
meaningful to them at home; they seldom use India as 9 refer-
ence group.

V. Furthermore, sample writers tend to compare their
ideals ‘Nith the actuality of Indian culture, seldom looking

(flcselyr at Indian ideals--cr comparing the actual behavior of

\

lDurant, 92. cit., p. 1.

gHeuswirth, 9_p_. cit., p. 85.

Americans with the actual behavior of Indians.

The group with '.'.'hich the great majority of authors
tend to identify is almost invariably the ideal America.
Thro ugh this cultural lens, they observe what they feel is
the actual bekavior of Indians; ‘5} air assessments about that
India is "really like" are based upon that they see thro‘d;_j“.‘u
this lens and, as the data indicated, t‘v'is often results in
distortion and that Taylor calls "delusion." His description
of What happens when a foreigner so looks at India deserves
to be quoted:

In fact, we do think of India as a monstrous land,
ger‘naps even of Indians as monsters. India in our
minds is the land of the fabulous, the terrible, and
the grotesqueu-the land of transposed emotions, there
Suffering is uncleanness; sensuality, ghoulishness;
muddle, horror, and no’thingness. Three centuries of
liter-1'}; nightmares, converted into political propa-
ganda, have distorted our vision before our eyes ever
look upon India. We go to India expecting to see niglrt-
mares and when we see an Indian reality that looks like
8 Western nightmare, we are convinced that we have seen
an Indian nightmare; India seems to us the land. of dark
fable, and ~Linen he have exhausted all other accusations,
We blame India for our own tendency to twist her dark
refilities in our minds nto dark fables; we accuse her
of spawning nightmares.

Jean Lyon and Edmond Taylor, two autP'ors who consciously
8 . ,
“’8“th to free their minds from cultural bias, undergo a

period of cultural shock and delusion at the beginning of

tf‘e . o s ‘ °
‘ 11’ V1 sits. 'shat Taylor terms "tne sahib sickness" lS

Claw“ . . .
* *UCteI'lzed by Lyon as the "mirage of the memsahib" and

\‘I-

 

lTaylor, 22. cit., p. 115.

156
describes it: "It was as though I were possessed of a devil."
Authors who did not recognize this shock in themselves and
made no attempt to change their first impressions of Indian

\J

culture often did not stay longer than one year or if they

did remain for a longer period of time, kept their stereo-
types intact by seeing relatively fev. Indians and remaining
largely in the urban centers.

Two authors, Durant and Cook, reverse generalization V
by attempting to compare Indian ideals with the actuality of
America and Britain. Thus in their judgments almost every-
thin-g; Indian is "go-2d" and almost everything British is "bad."
It should be re-emphasized, however, that those areas which
are approved of never come si'iarply into conflict with basic
American ideals and values. Thus Durant does not approve of
the Gandhian View of Western medicine, or the caste system,
and Cook is disturbed by the extreme austerity and lack of
PhY81cal comforts at certain ashrams. As has been mentioned
before, she also disapproves stroneg of caste distinctions.
Eventually, the disparity between her ideal concept of Indian
CUltUre comes so star-ply into conflict with certain actual
Indian patterns that she suffers a complete mental breakdown
”“5 has to leave India entirely.

VI. The sample writers tend to see three groups of

I"Glanfi’u: the old elite, as maharajahs and princes; the edu-

ca -
ted intellectuals; and the lower classes, as those observed

 

in villages, servants in their homes or clerks in minor posi-
tions in their offices. As a rule, the authors tend to dis-
regard the middle classes.

This hypothesis demands clarification and re-statement.

A

First of all, the words "sgeciiic Indian iniormants" sh :2ch
be substituted for "three groups of Indians" to distinguish
this group from those persons authors observed casually and

did not actually sgeak with. Secondly, tics terms "middle

en n

classe. and "uses“ middle classes include, in India, those

"educated intellectuals

gersons termed in the generalization
1.8., the ore-fessional intelligentsia numbered among; the
Specific informant {groups of almost every author. As {.93
indicated in Ta‘nle III, this was the very group of informants
UPOD Valiich authors relied most heavily. Twenty-nine out of
thirty authors refer to at least one informant in this group;
327-5 of the total number of informants come from this group.
Only Juteman King does not make the acquaintance of a middle
01‘ Upper middle class informant. Thus the statement "authors

11

ten“ t0 disregard the middle classes is not valid in light

or the data.

The hypothesis further states tiat the old =lite and
loner classes (cultivators, servants and minor clerks) are
rloted most by authors. Qualification is required. here. Ac-
cording to Table 111, the next highest ranking; group, after

middle and upper middle, is the old elite or maharajah and

158
prlIHSG group. TMenty out of thirty authors from every occu-
patixnlal group mention at least one prince to whom they
talked at some length. Out of the total number of informants
ten percent fall in this category. Thus the old elite is the
second most important inforxmnt group for the majc rity of

authors and the hysothesis is valid in this resgect.

Jighest ranking group, percentage-wise, is

Cf
*\
(D
H
C
l-‘°
2)
F;
p.)
0
(d

1setives Lith ei¢ht percent of the total number
of informants. However, as as bee: pointed. out earlier,
only thirteen authors, nine of them uomen or couples, v-zcnticn
an informant 1:: this category, and thus the percentage above
is not typical of tie majority of authors.

itenty-cne authors mention at least one saecif

ant infcrxzuant and servants rank seven percent of the tots

FJ

numoer cf informants. T1658 anthers cut across; C-CCL‘)8tix'lfil
557» 9nd post-pre'47 lines; thus these figures can be said to

’n'- a -
be mlPly typical of the authors as s 111016 and "serrczg's"

r"

as an informant group can he ranked third in importance after
and upper classes and tie old elite.

The hypothesis also states that the authors tend to
"see" cultivators and clerks. They may observe these people
on Village tours or in the urban offices and flops; hex-ever,
““33 do not as a rule talk with these groups as specific in-

I -‘. r' o ‘ .
Olmants. T1113 statement is 3011153 out 13:; 8 closer examina-

t ‘ ‘
1““ of Table IV. The eleven authors v-ho do mention cultiva-

tor . .
S 01" farmers as actual informants are primarily the

 

 

3f;

intellectual (4), dentii ier (3), and mission personnel (5)
groups. No adventurers or buswin semen refer to item. (One
U. S. GOVernment official, Ches te1 Berles, mentions two farm-
ers out of his total of eighteen informants.) As for clerks,
twelve authors mention one clerk each to whom they actually
Spoke at arse length. Six of these authors fell in the in-

'k'

tellectusl class; the rest break down as tto s(3ventu1rc s,

tho mission, one businessman an‘ one identifier. From these
figures one assumes that authors other than intellectuals VhO
count clerkq as infer-man ts ere relatively atypic 8.1

In View of tte above, the renerelizetion should be
re-stated as follOWS:

VI. Sample writers tend to mention specific IH(118n
infinnnarms primarily among the middle and upper middle classes.
Next tflieyrtend to cite specifically tlze old elite and the
serwantz groups. Authors end to disr gard, as specific in-
;mearnzs, the lower classes, gr’marily cultivators and minor
clerks.

CPO the above generalization, two more statements should
be added in light cf the data in Chapters II, 111 and IV:
6393018113; the materi al found under the discussion of "In’iiel cn
5&09143" as a theme. It has been pointed out that authors
kmge tile c:ir conclusions not only on t‘“. ose persons they talk
t0(nJ?ecyt1y-but also on the people they oos wrve casually in

4.»
die - ‘ to w
cltS’ Street or rural field. Twenty autnors refer to

140
.fiuners using prinitive methods, twenty-three to sadhus, bad"
ears or untouchables (three categories often confused in
authors' minds). These groups of people, though not specific
informants, cannot be overlooked in an evaluation of the
authors' generalizations about India. Thus a further gen-
eralization can be added to V1:

VI. (9) Furthermore, authors tend to observe
casually lower-class Indians them they do not speak
with directly but about whom they make judgments.
Primarily this group includes, for the authors,
cultivators, ssdhus, beggars, untouchables, and
"poverty-s,ricken" peeple.

It has been stated earlier that authors tend to base
their; judgments upon the observed manifest patterns of Indian
culture. Numerous quotations throughout this study illus-
trate the fact that these observations concern Specific
IHdierl informants and.specific significant experiences in-
VOlVingg these informants, plus those Indians casually noted.
Thus, the following statement can be added to V1:

(b) These two groups of Indian people, specific
irlformants and persons casually observed, figure sig-
Fhiiicantly in the authors' impressions about Indian
CLllture as a whole.

‘VIZI. then samgle tritcrs go to India in an rltruistic

1301‘} ‘r ~‘ . \ o o ‘ .
’ trlbff experience a cultural shock Vulch till not ciunnish

141
ifimey leave xithin tie first year. If, houevep, they re-

mahiand their altruistic patterns are routinized over a long

(‘4

period of years, the cultural shock is greatly lessens .
Although this generalization has some elements of

vsliCit" it meets revision. Anericans going to India in

~ : : . x -4. ° 4- , k~ an -. - D
u.flcl Quest. ,is is Eucstcxlicueo by tie alteriences oi
L“ I. ' -." ' "' ‘- L , A ' ‘ ‘ 'v — L; e t. ~ 1 A, A‘
the #0110“ (‘3) authors: CUBS-o3 l“ Eoklus, lelu..'.L8 LJOM 4.98, would,

Cravath, Hauswirth, King, Lyon, fioyo, Morgan, Mueil, Muir,
Bedding, Roosevelt, Roman, Stratton, Taylor, Thomas, Trumbull,
Van Tyne, Theeler, Zilliams, Tofford, Yolseley and D rent.
Those zine do not she: evidence oi this shock, Eourke-Vhitc,
Emerscnj,fflatch, Jones, Keenan and tPe Tisers, all remained
hquar than one year. Kstch, tte Tisers, Jones and Keenan
stayeci over fifteen years; hovever, their books were written
ixmarmi the end of this period and Vhat cultural shock they
moylievetfelt at the start is not mentioned. Emerson nad
been tc> India on a previous trio before writing h‘s book;
Bourke-Yfliite had had a wide range of exgerience in the Far
East anti in addition had traveled extersively in those areas
of the Ukiited States hit hardest by tie Legression and the
dust stoxans. (It should he noted that previous trips to Asia
zme “0t if) themselves enough to alter or lessen an author's

Sh ». ~
CCk’tflPLuubull, Muehl and Stratton nsd all made orevious

tries °
- “3 [$819, and in the latter two cases: t“ 15513: yet

thev remained in that might be called a state of shock through
out their stay. Lyon, the had agent sort of her childhood in

\ .

China, nonetheless regorts feeling some a ock in India. As

Will be discussed ielom, :Drevicus tri>s, like the lengt? of
stay factor, are not the deter;inant frctois in an al tr's
ability to emerge frog the state of cultural shock.

A fem ev.uile ctn ‘c gi/en to illustrzte t'e roo.e

Point. Tvo authors, Cynthia Styles and Carl Roman, aggroach

the Delhi airport rendering about India. (rites Roman:

I \-.as tro isle ’ 7“" "FM 3-30.1’15JC tiet fr below? 3.165
tljs re 'xcs misary'rnui suffordmtj of a kind anciriegree
riot f1 lly understcofi ‘y yo, or hf the Americans at
licme. Tho hundred rillion of th ose peo_>le below were
in heavily malarial re.s and at least half of them
1Nould fall prostrate .it- fever til: I was in Asia.
i9erlags C,OGS,CQQ of tiem Would die. Ninety :3rcent
CIT Hzose wast millions never sot erouqh of the right

.3
K

t?xh1~s to eat. And of all the to '5 major coun-
tr.ies, India's geoile “new best t; irate of 9319' s

Elite scourge, tuberculos . It nodld kill 500, 030
cxf them tlat one year. Then there xere cholera,
:nnallpox, the gla?ue--to;ether they would wipe out
thuz equivalent of St. Paul, Minnesota, in just a
Vezir. For every 1,030 geogle walking the streets
b61£fl€nw, 137 vere suffering from syphilis or gen-
orrhee.

lBowles, after thinking SOue \Eat similar thoughts, says
t0 11395011“. 0

'Yfiiy don't you etc) thinking about What India may
bf 133(e ar;d xait nut ;11 you get tiers? EX acct any-
thlnté and you till n so shocked or fri3htened.

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145

VII. Sample authors in India tend to experience a
culturual shock during the first several months of their stay
which vvill diminish if they (1) remain longer than one year,
and,(2?) make a conscious attempt to understand the depth and
scope of Indian patterns. Americans who leave within one
year tend to remain in this state of shock throughout their
stay.

In view of this generalization, several questions
arise about the kinds of authors who are able to re-orient
their"thinking and those who cannot. Are they from any par-
ticular sub-type or period?

A look at the names below indicates that occupation-
Wise, the most severely shocked persons (based on an esti-
mated number of statements registering horror, alarm, dis-
8U8t, etc.) are drawn from all the occupational groups with
the eztception of mission personnel: seven intellectuals
(Huehl, Durant, Rowan, Bedding, Van Tyne, Wofford, Trumbull),
to“? adventurers (Mayo, Thomas, Cravath, Muir), three identi-
filers (Cook, Hauswirth, Williams), one businessman (King) and
must}. S. Government official (Wheeler). None of the mission
persol'lnel can be described as severely shocked, one reason
being that all four of them stayed one year or longer. A
perscu) in this sub-type who might be an exception is Wolseley,
Whose stay was shortest of all the mission personnel.

Authors who experience the least shock or who emerge

146

from shock with the greatest degree of success are also drawn
from almost all occupational types (except adventurers): two
intellectuals (Bourke-mute, Taylor), three identifiers
(Emerson, Cynthia Bowles, Lyon), three mission personnel
(Hatch, Jones, Wisers), one businessman (Keenan), and one
U. S. Government official (Chester Bowles). Again, one
reason for the lack of adventurers in this group is that none
of them stayed longer than one year.

Somewhere between these two extremes are Roosevelt,
Morgan, Stratton and Wolseley, four post-'47 authors who ex-
perience shock to a degree but not as severely as those au-

thors in the first category not yet as lightly as those in

the second.

The following table shows the pre-‘47 and post-'47

bPefikdown with respect to severity of shock:

 

Degree of Shock Pre-‘47 Post-'47
Severe shock 11 5
Relatively medium shock O 4
Little or no Shock 6 4
17 13

This table reveals that of the sixteen most severely
shocked persons, eleven are pre-‘47 or 64% of the total num-
ber of pre-‘4'7 authors. However, only five 903t"47 authors
report severe shock or 38% of the total number of post-'47
From these percentages, a conclusion may be drawn

’ Judging from reports of shock in these books, American

147

authors since 1947 tend .t_c_>_ report less shock than these prior

to 1947.
Several reasons suggest themselves for this phenomenon.

One is that India. has tended, in certain manifest aspects,
both political and economic, to coincide with certain American
values since Independence; furthermore, these are the aspects
Which might impress short term visitors who cannot judge their
depth. Another reason is that Americans writing since World
War II may tend to be more cautious about expressing their
feelings of shock in view of the changing roles of the United
States, Russia and India. Authors Wolseley, Morgan, Roose-

velt, and Chester Bowles, for example, may have felt a greater

degree of shock than they report. Also, Americans in the 50's

are not supposed to experience cultural shock but are expected
to be sophisticated; hence, report of shock may be less among

"9081:" authors who selectively "forget" about it. Further-

more , since the '20's there has been a marked change in dis-
semintention of information about India. Authors of the later
period come to India armed with a greater store of background
material which, to some extent, may lessen the initial shock.
The Significance of the pre-post'47 distinction must not be
over—estimated as a factor in an author's ability to emerge
from or experience a light case of cultural shock; rather a

e
8 “eral tendency is evidenced by post-'47 authors to report

lo
as 8heck than those of the pre-‘47 period.

148

Also of relevance in a study of cultural shock are

those experiences which contribute to a sense of shock or

help alleviate it. The next hypothesis deals with particular

types of significant experiences but the relationship of the
significant experience to cultural shock will be dealt with

first.
As has been pointed out, some authors stay several

years in India but remain "shocked" throughout their entire

stay. Closure takes place and no matter what experiences

come their way, they either re-interpret them or ignore them,

retaining their original notions about Indian culture derived

from the period of initial shock. Other authors, however,

have been jolted or changed by significant experiences into

re-orienting their thinking. In this latter case, perception

or social patterns becomes deeper and more insightful.

For example, Jean Lyon becomes increasingly dissatis-

fied with her "memsahib" role in Delhi. She cites the folloW-

ing as the turning point in her thinking:

One day I kicked a little beggar girl. Then I knew

11‘- was time for me to leave Delhi! I didn't mean to

1ck her, of course. She had been dogging me, with
1291‘ penetrating whine, 'Baksheesh, Hemsahib, Bakeheesh.‘
"hen I paid no attention to her she knelt down and
touched my feet. I thought she was going to kiss them.
This so horrified me that I raised my foot to shake
her off. But the gesture turned into a kick. The
11title thing--she couldn't have been more than five--
ran as though a man-eating tige’there after her. ,

I stared after her, frozen by my action. It was a

gorrible feeling, and perhaps everything I havedone
113cc . . . has been a sort of penance. At any rate,

it was after that that I went to my room and spread
out the map. Somehow, some way, I must leave Delhi.1

Taylor's term for his gradual move from a state of

cultural shock to a degree of perception of manifest and

latent patterns is "convalescence from sahib sickness." He

refers to a whole series of experiences which helped him in

this convalescence: a bicycle ride out to a village, a meet-

ing with an Assamese hill tribe trained in guerilla warfare,
a visit to an Indian brothefl, an experience with his bearer.

The latter serves as an excellent example of a man's change

in thinking. One morning Taylor leaves his wallet back at

his tent by mistake. George, his bearer, discovers it and,

being afraid that his sahib will blame him for stealing it,

George makes the long and relatively expensive trip into

town to return it to Taylor's office. Taylor later relates

the Story in a letter to his. wife:

'A curious little story, don't you think?’ I was
Concluding. 'At least it gives you some idea of the
half-infuriating, half-pathetic charm of these people
(the Indians) and the fantastic, roundabout way in

which their minds work.‘

Suddenly I stopped writing. A thought had struck
me with the impact of Newton's apple.

What am I doing? I asked myself. Here I am making
8Weeping generalizations about the Indian mind because

my observation of one man, a Christian at that, and
a bearer, a highly specialized caste which is probably
as different from other Indian castes as fox-terriers
from timber-wolves. Unconsciously I have been creating

\____

lLyon, 22. cit., p. 25.

150

a picture of the Indian people in the image of my
bearer--he is the only Indian I know. I have been
assuming that the culture of the servant class--
the special section of the servant class which
hereditarily serves the white men--is the culture
of India. I have been viewing race relationships

through the eyes of my bearer.

From this incident Taylor is led to explore the "bearer
hypothesis" or the whole phenomena of bearer-sahib relations
extended to Indian-British relations. In turn this leads him
to study the area of racial tension and prejudice per se, in
America as well as India, a study in which American actuali-
ties rather than ideals are used as a frame of reference.

It is illuminating to compare this kind of reasoning
With the reasoning of another author, jute businessman King,
a long term resident pre-‘47. King's most significant con-
tact with Indians is with the clerical staff in his office,
the so-called "babus," an Indian term of derision. He cites
many Jokes and stories about the clerks' appearance, intelli-
genes and ambitions to illustrate the latter's inferiority to
himself and other Westerners. However, King's own "babu" was:

. . . not of the usual betel-chewing, slovenly
Babulog (Babu tribe or kind ) (sic). He was above the
aVerage height, straight as an arrow, and scrupulously
Bast; his keen brown eyes and in fact his whole appear-
ance , inspired confidence. I decided to try and ex-
pe Piment contrary to all advice and treat him like a
P9131 onal human being. . . . Other businessmen were hor-
I‘1--1'3“Il.ed at the trust I put in him: notwithstanding, the
experiment worked and Sen's loyalty became known all
d°Wn Clive Street.

\*

lTaylor, 22. cit., p. 92.
21(Sing, _op_. 9331., p. 50.

151
Despite the fact that King's personal clerk was dif-
ferent from other clerks and indeed other Indians does not
deter King from generalizing about all "babus" and all Indi-
ans. For example, he later relates with pleasure an incident
in which two "babu gentlemen” with first class train tickets
attempt to share a first class train compartment with King.
King encourages his dog to growl and finally bite them until

they "go to the compartment of their own countrymen," leaving

King ”chuckling at a duty well-performed." His general im-

Pression of Indians is that of a fatalistic, filthy, mysteri-
ous people who treat their animals shamefully. Thus, while
one author is stimulated into a re-interpretation of Indian
enlture by a significant experience, another, though experi-
°n01ng an affirmative reaction to one Indian, continues to
think of India in terms of his initial cultural shock and
discounts the experience as an exception.

From the preceding data, then, three additional state-

ments can be added to generalization VII:

(a) There is no significant difference between
Occupational sub-types in regard to degree of cul-

tural shock or emergence from same.

(b) Authors since Independence are prone to

I“sport less cultural shock than do these prior to

Independence because of:

(1) A tendency on the part of post World

War II Americans to selectively forget about

cultural shock due to (a) the idea that

Americans should be sophisticated in regard

to other cultures and (b) the changing roles

of India, Russia and the U. S.

(2) Information about India has been
widely disseminated since World War II.

(5) Since Independence, India has adopted
certain economic and political patterns whidl
correspond more nearly to American patterns.

(b) An author's receptivity to significant ex-
perience influences his degree of emergence from cul-
tural shock. Those authors who effect closure after
or during their initial period of shock tend to con-
tinue generalizing about Indian culture on the basis
of the earlier experiences despite any subsequent
experiences, thus prolonging the state of shock in-
definitely.

VIII. Sample authors tend to draw generalized con-
clusions from particular types of significant experiences
which are meaningful to them as symbolic of the "real India."

ZIt has been stated earlier that Americans observe the
manifest patterns of Indian culture and draw conclusions
nbOUt the total culture of India from these patterns. The
mnthE, Inay observe these patterns casually, as in a visit

t
o atminigsle, a trip to a village or a tour of a bazaar. or

153

they may have direct contacts with specific Indians. Through

these two general kinds of experience, authors tend to infer
they are "coming to know the real India"; from these experi-

ences, the data indicate, they make generalized statements

about Indian culture as a whole. Furthermore, the authors

frequently stress those themes or areas of Indian culture
‘With which they have had these significant experiences and
thus generalize from them to whole culture.

To illustrate this point, a quote can be given from
Hayo's Mother India to the effect that the entire Indian cul-

 

ture is shaped by what are, to her, the appalling patterns of ,

birth and sex. (For full text of this quotation, see page 122

/T
y
under- generalization I, Chapter ~I—PI’.) Mayo's significant ex-

Per‘ien ces are concentrated in the areas of health and disease,
Women and the family, and the treatment of animals. The pat-
terns she saw there so shocked and disturbed her that mrther

exPer-i. ences in other areas of Indian life served only to re-

inforce her earlier conclusions. Thus, after citing the scope

or her experience, she writes:

There are perhaps certain points on which--south,
nC>J:"t:h, east and west-~you gag generalize about India.
St 111 more: that you can generalize about the only
mat ters in which we of the busy West will, to a man,
see our own concern.

This type of significant experience is also character-
istic of the Woffords, Rowan, Redding, Muehl, Muir, Wheeler,

\M
lMayo, 9g. cit., p. 14.

 

154

Durant, Van Tyne, and Trumbull. These authors experience
India through crises and problems: the Independence movement,
Hindu-Huslim strife and the growth of Communist influence.
Their contacts with villages are brief (with the exception of
Muehl's six month tour) and harrowing. Though three of them
(Trumbull, Wheeler and Muehl) reside in India over a period
of several years, they remain in the state of general shock
Which characterizes the "short-termers.” Occupationally they
include seven intellectuals, one U. S. Government official,
and two adventurers. Five are pre-‘47, five post-'47. Their
general impressions of India are summed up as "a land of
chaos, bewilderment and human misery."

A second kind of significant experience is common to
the "short-term-tourist" type. Authors in this group are
m3presented by Lowell Thomas whose tour of ruins, temples,
bazaar-s, cities and festivals is broken by an occasional in-
tGPVIew with a maharajah or a national figure like Tagore.
Cravath and Stratton are also authors whose experiences fit
this category. Though a long-term resident, King's Indian
contaCts are very similar with the exception of the Indian
menial-3 in his office, and the Indian businessmen with whom
he 0011363 in brief contact. Except for King, these authors
are all adventurers. Only Stratton is post-'47. Like the
"Shortuterm problematic" type of experience, this kind of
”parishes often encourages authors to see the manifest pat-

t
ems in the narrowest limits. Stratton is the one 91117130?

155
Who makes some attempt to go farther; however, all these au-
thors conclude that India is essentially "a land of mystery."
Writes Thomas, after seeing a Brahman boy reading the Gita

by the seashore:

Stately, graceful, inscrutable, unconcerned, a
symbol. Why does he stand so? But that is a qus-
tion to which we shall so often find no answer.

And again, after seeing the Black Pagoda:
In a sense the Black Pagoda stands as a symbol

for all of India, a symbol of its mystery, of its
impenetrability to the Western eye.

A third class of significant experience is the "Hindu-
idealizer” type or those experiences with Indian philosophers,
BBCUNJS, and Hindus in general which lead authors to conclude
that 'UHe "real India" is a "spiritual nation." Several au-
thorsa.note this sort of experience casually, but for three
pre-v47 authors, it is particularly significant: Jones,
Williams, and Cook--two identifiers and one mission personnel.
Jones" experiences cover many years, Cook's just a year, and
Williams' a few months, but all share certain similar contacts
with Hinduism such as visits to ashrams and talks with holy
"m“ W13c> impress them. Each has a variant of the "spiritual
Inmiotz" conclusion: Jones that India is ready to receive
Christ , Williams that India is medievally mystic, Cook that
India is superior to other nations becauseof the Hindu
\—

lThomas, op. _c_:_.’_L_1_:_., p. 14.

=§3g§£g., p. 529.

156
religion with which she herself identifies. These authors,

like those in the preceding categories, remain at the mani-

fest level of Indian culture without perceiving the scope and

depth of these patterns.

A fourth order of experience may be called the "long-

term-rural" type. The Risers, Hatch, Emerson, and Cynthia

Bowles base their generalizations on this type of experience;
it involves a great deal of time spent in rural areas, talk-
ing with village people, staying in their homes, and building

Up close associations with villagers of sundry backgrounds.

Writes Bowles: "The villages . . . are the real heart of

India." And although her experiences were of a wider range,

Margaret Bourke-“hits would agree with her: "He (the Indian

Peasant) is India." Bourke-Vahite's most significant experi-

ences were among the villagers or displaced villagers in refu-

gee camps or urban factories; therefore, in a sense, she, too,

can be placed under this heading. Four of these five authors

”'40 post-'47, three pre-‘4'7) are among those who perceive

the range and scope of manifest patterns but seldom if ever

Penetrate into latent patterns. (Hatch is the one exception,

being among those who see only the narrower aspects at the

manifest level.) Tao of the authors are mission personnel,

twO ares identifiers, and one is an intellectual. Relatively

fewer intellectuals have "long-term-rural" contacts with In-
dians than do mission personnel and identifiers; more intel-

lectuals comprise type one, the "short-term-problematic" than

157

any other type of experience.
A fifth kind of experience might be characterized as

the "V.I.P. treatment" type. By this is meant the round of

dinners, meetings, tours of economic development projects,

etc. that inevitably claim the time of American celebrities

visiting post-'47 India. Chester Bowles and Mrs. Roosevelt

are, in some respects, involved in this type of experience,

although Bowles, because his stay was longer, manages to have

a wider range of experience and a correspondingly deeper un-

derstanding of Indian manifest patterns. Both these authors

tend to generalize about India in terms of "the slowly emerg-
ing modem nation" and "the world's largest democracy." Both
see the "real India" as a new country much like the United
States after the American Revolution; not mysterious or un-
knowable but "like us."

It is impossible to put each author in the above clas-
sification of experience types. Hauswirth, Keenan, Morgan
and Wolseley had unique experiences because of their particu-
lar occupations: Hauswirth as the wife of an Indian, Keenan
88 an executive in an Indian business, Morgan as a reporter
on the activities of American student teams to India, and
Wolseley as a teacher in an Indian college. Lyon and Taylor
had such a wide range of experience that it might be said
they included almost 911 the types; they looked at India from
the 8“files of problem and crisis, rural and urban areas, tour-

1
3‘3 Sights and temples. Their conclusions are correspondingly

158

many-faceted.

To generalization VIII can be added a series of corol-

lary statements.

VIII. Americans tend to draw generalized conclusions
from particular types of "significant experiences" which are
meaningful to them as symbolic of the "real India."

(9) Of these types of experience, the "slprt-
term-problematic" type, the "skort-term-tourist"

type, the "Hindu idealizer" type and the "V.I.P.

treatment" type tend to keep authors at the manifest

level of Indian culture and hinder them from seeing
deeply into manifest or latent patterns.

(b) The "long-term-rural" type, on the other
hand, tends to lead authors to see the range and

scope of Indian manifest patterns.

(c) Those persons who have the greatest range

<3f experience, combining several of the above types

:in their orientation, tend to see both the range and

ascope of manifest patterns and sometimes the under-

lying pat terns.

It should not be assumed from the above that to produce
mlAmer§;<38n who understands Indian culture it is necessary to
place him in an Indian village for two years, or systemati-
muly<pI‘D‘Vide him with a variety of experiences with Indians.
No such formula is suggested by these generalizations; rather

th~
e] are I'"erely statements of general tendencies as evidenced

159

by the sample used in this study.
Judging from the occupational and post-pre-‘47 break-

downs cited in the preceding discussion, two further state-
ments can be added to VIII:

(d) Intellectuals tend to have experiences of
the "short-term-problematic" type rather than other
types. (Seven of eleven.) Adventurers tend to have
experiences of the "short-term-tourist" type (four
out of five). Other occupational groups are split
as to experience type.

(e) Experiences of the "Hindu-idealizer" and
"short-term-tourist" types are of primary signifi-
cance to authors writing before 1947. The "V.I.P.
treatment" type is experienced by post-'47 author-
celebrities. Other than that, post-pre-‘4'7 has
little bearing on the type of experience an author
is likely to have.

IX. Sample authors tend to look at India in terms
or sets of problems which they assume could and should be
Solved through technological change and education.

X. Sample authors tend to see themselves in the role
of the t6 acher who will bring or is bringing scientific
knowledge and democratic ideals (since '47) and Christianity
(before '47) to backward areas.

Hypothesis IX as stated above is confirmed by the data.

0f
the thirty authorS, twenty-five make direct statements

160
referring to certain economic, social and political "problems"
of India. Of these, eighteen believed that these could be
solved by education and/or technological change. Examples of
such statements follow: 5

Any students from the white, industrialized, Western
fifth of mankind, going among the Indian continent's
fifth, could hardly fail to observe the shockingly
evident problems we describe. . . .India's chief re-
quirement is capital; a significant share of it could
come from the Viest in the form of machinery and men.
If enough heavy goods and enough engineers went to
India, industrialization might be accomplished smooth-
ly enough so that democrats could stay in the saddle.

Economic progress . . . is . . . the result of
national policies of protection, encouragement and
education. Alleviation of India's economic ills can
only come through an enlightened self-interested
Policy of internal development, such as all Western
nations follow.

The problems of Indians everywhere were to raise
the standard of living, spread education, give land
to the peasant, improve health and medical facilities:
in every way build for the richer and better life which
citizens had believed the coming of freedom would mean
for them.3
Because of the prominent role of science and education
as the means of progress in American society, the authors'
V1°W901nts are not surprising. Americans idealizing their
own traditions of hard work and success suggest the same
solutions to Indians; if advanced technology has "made America

great," then surely it is a formula for a "backward" nation.

\\____.
1W(afford, 2p. cit., pp. 2, 287.
aEmerson, 2p. cit., p. 246.

3
Bourke-White, 92. cit., p. 4.

161

Some authors suggest other solutions. Durant is con-
vinced that if only Independence were granted, all India's
problems would be solved as the British are largely re sponsi-
ble for them in his view. Van Tyne, on the other hand, thinks
the British should remain as "Indian problems cannot be solved
merely by giving India a liberal constitution." Jones, in
his role as a Christian evangelizer, writes:

I believe that the best way to make India free
economically, socially and politically is to give
her Christ.

Still other authors recognize the complexity of India's
"problems" and either believe that they are impossible to
solve (Wheeler) or that drastic reforms will have to take
Place within the Congress Party before any solutions can be
reached (Liuehl).

Taylor's stress is unique in that his "problems" are
not those of an economic or political nature but those of de-
1u31V8 cross-cultural thinking which affect the West as well
as India. His solution calls for men trained not only in the
arts 01‘ science but in the art of inter-group cooperation in
Order that cultural myths and prejudices can be cleared away
and international understanding take place.

Other than Muehl, all of the above exceptions to the
80161"cs-«education solution are pre-‘47. However, this is

only 31:: out of a total of seventeen pre-‘4'7 authors, or 35%.

“\‘g

 

1E. Stanley Jones, 93. cit., p. 40.

162
The majority of authors, both pre- and post-'47 of various
sub-types, advocate the science-education solution to Indian
problems as they see them.

The "problem" mentioned most often by the majority of
authors is that of "tradition" or "custom." Twenty out of
the twenty-five authors concerned with "problems" refer to
this. Other areas of social life defined as "problems" such
as poverty, caste, language, animal treatment, health, illit-
eracy, crime, apathy, land reform, etc. are thought of as the
result of this major "problem."

I had seen myriad manifestations of this tyrant,
tradition, which chains men to yesterday when the world
had moved into tomorrow. There was the dowry system,
the passionate fussing and fighting over mother tongues,
the caste system. . . . There were little things like
the Calcutta women eating alone on the kitchen floor
after we men had finished, or Indians insisting that
fingers must be used to eat food off a banana leaf,
rather than using plates and silverware, because fin-

gers and banana leaves are more sanitary.

Almost every economic, social and national evil
I‘OOtss back in cramping custom.‘5

India's most serious handicap is her bondage to
tI'adition, her inability to escape from precedent
and the dead hand of the past-.3
The above hypothesis can be called valid as stated
with the addition of the following:
\w

lRowan, 31. Sign p. 112.

2E. Stanley Jones, 23. cit., p. 40.

sGertrude Williams, 23. cit., p. 41.

163
(a) The "problem" cited by the majority of
authors is "tradition" or "custom."

Hypothesis X is substantiated in part but needs clar-
ification. As has been pointed out in Chapter 111, under
treatment of "Americans in India" as a theme, prior to 1950
the group of Americans in India was so small as to warrant
no special comment from authors or Indi ans. Americans did
not actually see themselves as a group in any role prior to
this time.

Furthermore, this study does not include Americans en-
gaged in evangelistic mission work in India because no books
could be located \zhic‘r. represent this point of view. Hatch,
the W1 sers, Jones and ‘fi’olseley are all Christian-oriented and
receive funds from church organizations; however, they are
not "missionaries" in the common employment of the term. The
VJisers and Hatch are interested in converting Indians not to
Christianity but to sanitation and scientific agriculture.
Jones, closest to an evangelist, distinguishes between Christ
and Christianity, claiming that he wants Indians to embrace
the ideals and personality of the former rather than the forms
and inst 1tutions of the latter. Thus the statement "Bringing
ChriStianity (before 1947)" must be discarded as not covered
by this study.

There is, however, a tendency for post-'47 Americans
to View themselves in the teaching role in India, primarily

a
a technologically trained persons who will "help Indians to

164
help themselves." This teaching role merges with two other
closely related role s--those of the humanitarian benefactor
and good friend. As was emphasized earlier, Rowan, Trumbull,
Bourke-White, the Woffords and Wolseley all make some refer-
ence to these roles, while the Bowles, Morgan, Mrs. Roosevelt
and Bedding stress them in particular. Students who "make
friend s” with Indians, engineers who help build dams and im-
prove agriculture, missionaries who do literacy work, doctors
and nurses who teach public health--the as are the Americans
Who are singled out for praise by the authors. However, it
is not enough that Americans be teachers but that they should
also be friends with Indians. For example, Hrs. Roosevelt
praises the Chester Bowles family for "the warmth they bring
to diplomacy."

The Bowleses lived as they do at home, and approached
People in the same friendly manner as they would their
friends in Connecticut. By their essential democracy,
by being themselves, they made friends for America.1

Writes Morgan:

They (American students) found the Indian students
friendlier than any group of people they had ever met
and, in turn, offered them what Asians want most from
WeSterners, friendship.2

Thus, a more accurate statement of hypothesis 1 is:

X. Post-'47 sample authors tend to see themselves

in the merged role of teachar-benefactor-friend who is bringing
\w
1Roosevelt, op. cit., p. 116.

2Morgan, 92. cit., p. 175.

165
scientific knowledge and democratic ideals to a technologically
backward nation.

XI. Sample authors of the pre-Independence days were
not so concerned with identifying with Indians and adopting
Indian manifest patterns as are the Americans of the post-
Independence period.

By "identification" is meant the adoption of local
customs as, fbr*instance, eating Indian food, using fingers
to eat, sitting on the floor, using local transportation other
than private automobiles, wearing Indian clothing, learning
Hindi. It includes a deviation from the norms of Western
foreigners in India who remain more or less apart from the
Indian community and maintain as much as possible an alien
life style. In this study the word "identify" refers not
only to the overt adoption of local customs by authors but
also to statements which indicate that an author wishes to
identify whether he put his covert desire into practice or
not. In some cases this involves a certain amount of guilt
or anxiety on the part of the author concerned, when, for
reasons of physical discomfort or standards of sanitation,
he deems it impossible to adopt a certain form of behavior.

Of the thirteen post-'47 authors, only two (Trumbull
and Stratton) Show no desire whatever to identify in some way
With Indians. Eleven, or 85%, do. The gamut of identifica-

tion runs from Cynthia Bowles who eventually adopts the

166
language, dress and living conditions of her Indian classmates
at Shantinekaten to Mrs. Roosevelt who is worried because she
finds herself too stiff to sit cross-legged on the floor.
Writes Bowles:

I do not believe that you can have a truly informal,
close relationship with a person or his family or his
village people on this basis (formal meetings). It
seems to me that you must be accepted by the person or
by the group in action, speech and dress.1

The authors above tend to agree with her though some
discover that the flesh is weak though the spirit be willing.
The following incidents illustrate this point:

This was my first encounter with the strange dishes
of India. Being a fussy eater even in the United States,
I had many uneasy moments at Kesh's house. . . . He was
particularly fond of puras and although I was stuffed to
the eyes by the time we got to them, I ate two rather
than offend an old friend.2

After several hours we were thirsty; besides we were
hungry fox'sonething cool, clean and Western. To our
shame, our stomachs had not adjusted to the highly
spiced, heavily oiled food of the Indian whom we were
visiting. . . . ve were given two greasy glasses of
the sweet sickly yellow soda water common to Indian
bazaars (with) a few chunks of dirt-covered ice. . . .
There was no way out but to take a deep breath and
commence an explanation of the germ theory.3

Do the pre-‘47 authors tend in the opposite direction
of non-identification? Of the seventeen pre-‘47 authors,
seven, or 41%, have some desire for identification; ten, or

1Cynthia Bowles, op..g1§., p. 54.

2Rowan, 22, gig}, p. 27.

5Wofford, .2; 333., p. 55.

 

 

 

157
59%, do not. The former group ranges from Cook who became,
for a short time, a Hindu ascetic, to steelman Keenan who
finally decides to learn Hindi. He writes:

But I soon realized that there was a gulf between

me and my men and that there would be until I learned
their language. In the whole lot of Indians only two
spoke English. Whenever I needed to give an order I
called one of them to me . . . but the men seemed to
remain aloof and aloofness and distrust are closely
associated. I picked out two good teachers.

There is an important difference between the pre-‘47
authors and those of the post-'47 period. Among the former
the re is no feeling of anxiety or guilt because one decides
not to adopt a certain Indian practice. For example, Haus-
Wirish, married to an Indian, "never saw any reason" to adopt
the sari but retained her "JJestern dress as more practical.
V511 Tyne, Mayo, King, Thomas, Muir, ‘a’meeler, and Cravath
V"Quid not dream of adopting Indian manifest patterns. Why
should they? They do not see themselves as ”the ambassadors
or international friendship" as do the post-'47 authors, par-
ticu larly the intellectuals. They are not as worried about
What Indians think of them.

Thus, a re-statement of this generalization would be:

XI. Americans of the post-Independence period tend
to be more desirous of adopting patterns of Indian culture

than those of the ppe-'4'7 period. Furthermore, there is a

\Bgdency for post-'47 authors to feel a certain amount of

 

fi
lKeenan, 2p. cit., p. 6.

168
anxiety or guilt when they find themselves unable to adopt
certain patterns.

In addition to the eleven generalizations with which
this study began, a twelfth can be added.

XII. Certain types of Americans tend to become "par-
ticularistic idealizers," i.e. selectively idealizing a par-
ticular theme in Indian culture.

As has been noted, authors commonly generalize about
Indian culture from certain themes which they isolate from
the total culture as representative of Indians as a whole.
Authors Durant, Roosevelt, Chester Bowles, Cook and Jones not
only engage in this but in addition idealize particular themes
Which they select from the total culture.

Durant chooses the Independence movement and Gandhi as
the focus of Indian culture; his admiration of India is great
because he is so in sympathy with "its ruined grandeur and
stPUggle for freedom." Roosevelt and Bowles choose the "new
deInocracy"; India as a free nation after 1947 is idealized.
E‘ Stanley Jones idealizes the "wonderful spiritual capacity"
of Indians, "the most God-stirred people on earth." He refers
to their "religious genius," their "philosophic earnestness
and spiritual receptivity." Because of these things, India
is “great." This spirituality as reflected in Hinduism and
ofindhian asceticism is idealized by Nila Cook. Within this

framework she sees the people worshipping with her in the

169

temple as "beautiful, golden, ageless"; her guru as "majes-
tic"; the village where Grndhi sends her as "beautiful."

Two intellectuals, one mission personnel, one identi-
fier and one U. S. Government official are included; two post-
'4'7, and three pre. However, that they have in common is a
predisposition to ”like" India. They do not conceive them-
selves as "muck-rakers"; instead they want to appreciate "the
real India," and in attempting this, isolate the theme about
Which they feel most comfortable and idealize it, selectively
Choosing those aspects of it which fit their value-orientations
8nd dissociating those which do not. These authors can be

called "particularistic idealizers. "

CH..P TIER VI

SOME SUGGESTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR AMERICANS IN INDIA

In examining the findings of this study as a whole,

the fO‘ilox-xingv; questions seem appropriate: What contribution

can 8 study of these thirty books make to the area of cross-

cultural education? that can the results suggest to Americans

in India about ways of understanding; a complex social struc-

ture? It is the purpose of this chapter to answer these

QUe S tions.

It is important to remember that t‘r'ere are in residence

in India approximately 5,550 Americans out of a tots of about

78,000 foreigners. Thus, the suggestions \zhich follow are not

1P1.‘eslevant but have a direct bearing on the behavioral pat-

te ”he of an increasing number of people. Not only are Ameri-

cans in India affected, but in-turn the Indians with whom
they come in contact and, indirectly, the general American
Public,

About sixty percent of the authors in this study can

to have a gzgenuine eagerness to learn about India and

This is a

be Said

8 pDeitive yearning to identify with her [360910.

potential foundation upon which to build a constructive pro—

‘921” -,_
“ 81“ of cross-cultural education. If peoyle are to £79111 8

"V9

or‘ld view" they will need help; it is encouraging; to real-
12

e that this help can capitalize on a desire to attain this

V1 8W

barn

.:..

( Lv

11‘

1'71

‘v'Je’have seen illustrated in these thirty books pat-

terns of cross-cultural behavior which might be described as

common cultural "traps" or, to borrow a phrase from Taylor,

"Operating under delusions." There is, for example, a tend-
ency on the part of some authors to freeze in the first ex-
perience of cultural shock and to judge all subsequent eXpe-

I'ience by that initial period of distress. These persons

sometimes see themselves in the role of the "muck-raker" or
II
de-‘Dunl«rer" who feels a compulsion to do an expose of certain

a‘E'Sily perceived manifest patterns. Others try to emerge

from cultural shock by isolating a particular theme in Indian
culture and selectively idealizing it as symbolic of the total

culture. Still other persons, concerned with the technolog—

ical differences between India and the United States, assume
the hole of the teacher-benefactor friend who is bringing? 3

"better life" to a "backward nation," and fail to see the

COInplexity of Indian cultural diversity. Another type of

"blindness" affects persons caught up in moments of chaos
and crisis which tend to obscure the basic structure of
In di an culture.

Perhaps the most common "trap" into which authors fall
is tihat of comparing the Indian "actual" to the American
"idea 1," using as a reference group an idealized America which
em“bodies significant values at the manifest and latent levels.

Thus many authors are led to a cursory examination of Indian

172
manifest patterns but are unable to see the scope, depth and
range of these patterns nor their underlying latent level.

On the basis of these superficially observed patterns at the
manifest, level, they judge India and Indians. Furthermore,
these judgments tend to fall into polarized stereotypes;
thosea jpatterns are "good" which more nearly correspond to
the ideal American culture; those patterns are "bad" which
deviate from this ideal.

Turning from this summary we look at three authors who
demon strate a more perceptive approach to the cross—cultural
exJQEBJr'ience, William and Charlotte Wiser, Jean Lyon and Edmond
TaleI‘.

The Risers limit themselves to the relatively narrow
range of cultural patterns found in a north Indian village.
"""ith1n this area, however, they probed deeply, perceiving the
depth and scope of manifest patterns at the manifest level.
Thfiigr book is an excellent example of the advantage of long-
term intensive study; no quick trip but a five-year stay,
living almost the entire time on the edge of one village,
building up reciprocal relationships with villagers which
enabled them to go freely into the homes of all castes as
accepted members of the community. Such relationships are
not created in "a day in a village" but demand time to break

t}
lbough the natural suspicion and reserve encountered by any

s
tbariger to a community.

175
The Wisers are careful not to project the culture of
their particular locality on the whole of India.

We realize that conditions vary greatly . . . in
different parts of the country and sometimes in dif-
ferent areas of the same province. All we can say is
that we know these things to be true of our village.1

They avoid the traps of both the "particularistic
idealizers" and the "muck-rakers." The village is neither
glorified as a symbol of all that is good in India nor is it
attacked as representative of all that is wrong with India.

Because American culture has built into it at the
latent level the idea of cultural blending rather than cul--
tural diversity, authors tend to be disturbed to find a cul-
ture such as India's which operates in exactly the opposite
fash 1011.2 Speaking to this point, Edmond Taylor writes:

One of the most depressing Indian nightmares arises
from the Westerner's contemplation of the racial, po-
litical and social diversity of India. It is not simply
that there is conflict between group and group and that
the conflict is bitter; it is even more,that the con-
flict appears to be aimless. . . . This impression of
unmeaningful strife, this seeming chaos of clash, is
heightened by our inability to translate exactly even
the cleavages of Indian society in terms of the factors
which divide man from man in the West. . . . These
Indian forms of social cleavage and grouping are be-
WI’leering but in themselves no more illogical or irrec-
Oncilable than any in the West.3

\
1Wiser, pp. cit., p. vii.

pr 2This point is made by Kerve Irawadi in "A Cultural

003 n
L. as in India, Societ in India ed. A. Ayiappan and
B:‘B. Ratnan (Madras, ELM? ’

3Taylor, 92. cit., pp. 117-9.

174

The authors assume a single culture; faced with di-
versity there is a tendency to want to oversimplify and solve
"the problem" by applying Western terminology to Indian situ-
ationa. However, Americans can be prepared for India's great
cultural diversity beforehand through being told the histor-
1031. religious and cultural backgrounds of the various sub-

types which together make up the Indian nation. This prepara-

tion may tend to reduce somewhat the number of generalizations
abo‘Jt "Indians" and "India" and lessen the impression of chaos
and confusion.

The Wisers' experience, as well as that of Taylor and
Lyon, indicates tipat this understanding is not necessarily
dependent on a close identification with Indian behavioral
pat terns. Americans need not adopt the entire life style of

the ir- Indian informants, though six authors found a knowledge

or language helpful. Neither a knowledge of the language nor

the preparation mentioned above are panaceas for the cure of

cultural shock and "sahibism."
If "identification" in the sense of adopting an Indian

life style is neither necessary nor practicable for objectiv-
Lty. what significant experiences would be helpful as illus-
trated by Taylor and Lyon? Although there is no formula of
Specific experience which will lead to cultural objectivity,
some guides to behavior can be suggested. First of all, both

a ‘
ut’lors realized their misconceptions about Indian culture at

t}
1'8 outset. Writes Taylor:

175

The truth is, that I, like most other Westerners,
Simply had no awareness of the East and was uncon-
sciously steeped in an Occidental insularity as fan-
tastic in its way as that of a British general I once
encountered in Bangkok who was overcome at the dis-
covery that 'hardly any of these Siamese blighters

Speak English.!1

With this admission of ignorance comes a corollary idea:

If I could not study India I could at least clear
away the degris of myth and prejudice which obstructs
suCh StUdyo

At the beginning, both Taylor and Lyon remained in New
Delhi, a common experience for newly arrived Americans. Both
encountered there a degree of shock and distress Which grad-
ual 1? diminished as they began to build up social relation—
ships with Indians of the professional intelligentsia.

Both authors agree that to remain solely in the urban
centers spending most of one's time with the foreign commu-
nity and the Indians directly connected with it will only
Strengthen cultural delusion. Both took extended trips away
from these communities, for the most part alone or with one
other non-Indian. These trips involved relatively long peri-
ods 01‘ time (several weeks or monthS) and almost always in-
cluded an exposure to rural life. They covered several geo-
itgraphical areas from Kashmiri villages to the Halabar coast.

For Lyon, especially, these trips involved close relationships

\
11bid., p. 16.

22333., p. 113.

1|

‘1

 

 

176
With 8 Wide range of Indians of various social strata, re-

ligions and sub-cultural groupings.

What lessons did these authors learn from these varied

experiences? For example, Jean Lyon watches an Indian on the

train perform his Hindu pujas in Indian clothing; he then
changes to Western-style clothing and she discovers that he

15 8 learned horticulturalist in the English tradition.

She
wri he s :

Up to then, I had been searching for the new India
by burrowing through a good deal of t} e old. But I
hadn't quite realized that each modern-minded Indian

built his modernism on an entirely different foundation

than mine, until I saw this horticulturalist emerge
from his morning pujas.

It was this experience tEat made me decide to take
a look at some of the customs and practices and faiths
that made up the layers under the surface. New India
Was obviously more than elections and reforms. Elec-
1ons and reforms were only a recent graft upon old
roots and if I was to have any idea of how the grafted
fruit might develop, I knew that I must have a better
idea of the roots.1

In her examination of these "roots," she gradually discards

he” sinus of the "layers of Indian personality" 98 not taking

into consideration India's cultural diversity.

No, India was more like a banyan tree. There was
a sort of main trunk which was the subcontinent it-

self. . . . Over the centuries this parent tree had
kept adding roots and trunks. . . . There was no way

Of segregating the India that is now emerging from
tflae India that has existed for thousands of years.2

\

1Lyon, 22. cit., pp. 167-8.
2Ibid., p. 250.

177
She concludes that American values "may be valid for us but
they are not valid for others."

India really wants us to recognize . . . that there
can be some sort of synthesis between East and West
W111.ch could benefit us both. . . . Neither half of the
World is exactly purposeless. What each needs is an
appreciation of the other's purposes--a sort of per-
Speetive on them.1

Edmond Taylor, going a little deeper into the area of
cmas-cultural education, phrases his conclusions in a some-
what different way.

Perhaps my whole aim could be expressed most simply
by saying that the book records the stages of an attempt
to realize one world in one mind, not merely a political
and geographical world but a felt unity of human experi-
ence.

. . . The study of the causes of man's disunity be-
comes an adventure of the mind and a discipline of self—
knowledge when it is used to discover the roots of dis-
unity in ourselves, to lay bare the resistances, the
hesitations and the contradictions hidden beneath our
OWn verbalizations of the ideal of human unity.2

The great lesson from all this was not so much that
East was superior to West in some respects—-and West
Superior to East in others--but that cultural exchange
Was superior to cultural monopoly, cultural debate to
Cultural monologue.

Thus, living in the East had made me realize hov.‘
much cultural, racial or other prejudice prevents the
psychological attainment of one world, by the individ-
ual, even when he considers himself unprejudiced. I
had also learned what a valuable discipline of the mind
and spirit it is to attempt to put aside cultural

\
1Ibid., p. 555.

n. 10.

L

2Taylor, op. cit.,

31b1d., p. 255.

178

prejudices and learn the values of other people. I had

no illusion about how little I had learned of the Orient,
and wished I had a deeper knowledge of it, but I had
proved to my own satisfaction that it is not necessary
to know a subject thoroughly to derive enrichment from

trying to understand it.
Is this cultural objectivity the direct result of the

specific experiences mentioned above? Obviously not in a

causal sense, or authors whose itinerary followed roughly the

same routine as Lyon's and Taylor's would have had corre-

sponding conclusions. The important fact is that these three

authors, the Wisers, Lyon and Taylor, had a vside range of ex-
perience, whether that experience took place in the narrowly
circumscribed area of one village or on extended trips through-

out India. Such experiences, extended over one year's time,

tend to encourage a cultural objectivity.

To the above space-time patterns should be added one

additional factor necessary for the emergence from cultural

shock and the development of cultural objectivity. This fac-

tor may be called "the open mind." There is in some authors

9n impatient desire for closure, for a system or formula which
Will "solve the mystery of Indian culture." Lyon and espe-
cially Taylor suggest that closure of this kind is delusive
and dangerous. \‘Ihether the area is religion, politics, the
family, or the village, Americans should be careful to guard

Egairisat the hasty judgment whidh assumes full knowledge of

comp 1 ex phenomena .

k
u
—

lIbido, p0 3’44.

179
If a mind is kept open to new experience and resultant

new ideas, the simplest act can invite deeper understanding.

An excellent example of this is given by Taylor when his
bearer removes his mosquito netting one night saying, "'V.-':°~.nter

now, sahib, mosquitoes all ggonefl" The author reflects upon

this net as a symbol of Western scientific thought, a symbol
of the barrier between himself and "the malignant, invisible
hosts of the plagues of Asia--diseases which are linked with
the native in our minds." He concludes:

This fear . . . is probably an important ingredient
in the almost pathological hatred of the East Vhich so
xaany Westerners, especially germ-conscious Americans,
develop then they are forced to live here.

Is there any one sub-type which could serve as a model
for the others or does each have within it weaknesses and
Strengths which the others could avoid or adopt? The data
indicate that no one group can serve as a model for all of
the others: however, each can learn from the cross-cultural
eDCL‘Jerienoe of the others. For example, there is a tendency
on the part of most adventurers and some identifiers to dwell
on In dia's past either in terms of architecture or religion
or Civilization in general. If Americans can examine Indian

history in an attempt to discover the historical basis for

certain modern manifest patterns, the results could be re-

A

warding. The mistakes made by adventurers could be avoided
\ -
11b1d., p. 22.

 

180
in that neither glorification nor condemnation of the past
should color this attempt; instead, a variety of sources
could be utilized to gain some understanding of the dominant
themes and forces in Indian history. Taylor and Lyon both
make some use of this approach and find it rex'Jardin-g though
not enough in itself.

Adaptive and behavioristic identifiers, as a whole,
tend to become disturbed in their efforts to adopt certain
m?- nifest patterns; mainly because their inability to do so
in some cases creates tensions and emotional problems for
them. Carried to an extreme, this can result in a complete
mental breakdown such as Coot suffered. On the other hand,
SYmbolic identifiers, who selectively adopt certain outward
cL'lltural symbols, tend to gain insight into the range and
S<3<>pe of manifest patterns which escape those intellectuals
and adventurers who, so to speak, travel on the surface of
India and never adopt any manifest patterns. Edmond Taylor,
81 though classed as an intellectual for purposes of this
Study, overlaps sox‘.1ev~.-'hat into this "symbolic identifier" type
as he, like Lyon, Cynthia Bowles and Emerson, selectively
internalizes some manifest patterns. His interpretation of
reincarnation and Karma as a meaningful experience in which
h° can personally participate is but one example.

A common factor influencing the experience of symbolic

i , ,
dentifiers, buSinessmen, and mission personnel is a length

181
of stay which has one year as a minimum. Church and business
organizations do not tend to send persons abroad for short
periods of time, a handicap from Which many intellectuals and
adventurers suffer. Given a longer period of time in India,
it is conceivable that such persons as Rowan, Bedding, the
Woffords, Roosevelt and Durant might have emerged with dif-
ferent kinds of attitudes, so long as they did not fall into
the "trap" of premature closure which affects Trumbull, King,
Wheeler and others. Still another suggestion which identifi-
ers and mission personnel can give is that of the extended
Stay in the rural area. Especially intellectuals on short-
term visits need to beware of the conclusions which "a day
in a village" may lead them to draw. The village is a com-
919:: cultural phenomenonwhich requires more than a brief
ellperience if it would be understood.

The two U. S. Government officials and the two busi-
neSessmen offer some interesting; points of contrast. Chester
Bowles and John Keenan can be taken together as examples of
men Who include in their experiences close contact with Indi-
8113 as well as foreigners, while King: and Rheeler meet very
few Indians outside their servants and a few maharajahs.
Both Lyon and Taylor found developing close relationships
W1th Indians helpful; however, it should be emphasized that
an 0h relationships in India develop best ever a relatively
long period of time, unlike the United States where intimate

friendships are made more quick1Y°

182

The foregoing discussion points up the fact that no
one sub-type can serve as a model for all, but of the full
spectrum of Americans abroad, each can make a contribution
to the collective experience and each can offer suggestions
to the others.

Before closing, it is pertinent to mention the areas
for further research to which such a study as this can point.
We have not measured here the impact of popular non-fiction
books on the general public. We do not know, for example,
What particular segments of the people they reach nor the
degree to which they affect these segments as against other
mass media as the novel, the television program or the popu-
lar lecture. Still another avenue of communica tion yet un—
tapped is the returning; American tourist Who discusses his
expe riences and shows the slides of his Asian trip to groups
t‘hI‘oughout his community. What kinds of Americans are these
and how are they influencing local opinions? Are they, in
the long run, more effective than the popular non-fiction
authors in disseminating fact and fancy about Asia?

A whole new area is opened by the question: ‘c'r’hat
sffeet do Americans in India have upon Indians? Are these
books by American authors finding; an Indian market and, if
so. what are the reactions to them? A similar study with a

b O
1“Oader scope would be an examination of the various media

about America reacln’r..g~ Indians in an effort to find the

185
images of American culture which are presented. Newspapers,
films and books of all types could be utilized in such a
study.

The above questions fall outside the scope of this
Peper; however, they suggest fields for study which can be
Valuable in guiding Americans in the process of cross-cultural

education.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY
TTEIRTY POPULAR NON-FICTION BOOKS AHALYZED IN THIS STUDY

Bourke-White, Margaret, Half-Way to Freedom. New York:
Simon and Schuster, t . _

13611165, Chester, Ambassador's Report. New York: Harper and
Brothers, 1954.

 

BOWIes, Cynthia, it Home in India. New York: Harcourt,
Brace and Company, I935.

 

Cook, Nilla Cram, E; Road to India. New York: Lee Furman,

Cravath, Paul 13., Letters Home from India and Irak. New York:
J. J. Little and Ives Company, 1955.

V

Durant, Will, The Case for India. he‘s: York: Simon and
Schuster, I930.

Emerson, Gertrude, Voiceless India. New York: Doubleday,
Doran and Company, 1930.

 

He'Cch, D. Spencer, Further U ward in Rural India. Madras:
Oxford University Press, 1933

.. r . .
dQuiet-irth, Frieda, A Marriage to India. New York: Vanguard
Press, 1930.

Jones, E. Stanley, Christ 2;; the Indian Road. Net York: The
Abington Press, I925.

Keenan, John, Steel Man in India. New York: Duell, Sloan

and Pierce, 1933.

King, David Wooster, Living East. Nev-x York: Duffield and
Company, 1929.

 

LyOn, Jean, Just Hal}: a World Away. New York: Thomas Y.
Crowell Company, 1951}

 

Edelfo, Katharine, Mother India. New York: Harcourt, Brace
and Company, I5. 2'7.

MOI‘SBI‘J, Thomas, Friends and Fellow Students. New York:
Thomas Y. Crowell Company, I§56o

185

Mueflul John Interview with India. New York: The John Dav
’ , __ .1
Company, 1950.

 

HuiJr, Peter, This is India. New York: Doubleday, Doran and
Company, I923.

 

Bedding, Saunders, An American in India. New York: The

Bobbs-Eerrill Congany, Enc., lfibz.

Remosevelt, Eleanor, India and tie Awakening east. New York:

—-—I——~——-—

Harper and Brothers, 1953.

 

Ilomznq, Carl, The Pitiful and the Proud. Net York: Random
House, 1956.

Stzuatton, Arthur, One Man's India. Net York: K. T. Norton
and Company, 1356.

 

Taqfilor, Edmond, Richer §1_Asia. Boston: Roughton Mifflin
Company, 194 .

frhCMuas, Lowell, land 2: the Black Pagoda. New York: Century
Press, 1930.

 

Tfiuammull, Robert, As I See India. New Ybrk: William Sloane
Associates, 195?.

 

Vhri Tyne, Claude, India in Ferment. New York: D. Appleton
and Company, l§§3.

VVFwseler, Post, India Against the Storm. New York: E. P.
Dutton, 194E.

 

 

,.
"1Clliams, Gertrude, Understandinngndia. New York: Coward

 

n153er, Charlotte Viall and Iilliam H., Behing_Mud Walls.
New York: Friendship Press, 1946.

 

‘WCDITford, Harris and Clare, India Afire. New York: The John
Day Company, 1951.

 

 

‘1‘
“C33.seley, Roland, Face to Face with India. New York:
Friendshig Press, 1954.

 

SUPP SHENTAL POOKS USED IN THIS STUDY

Berwalson, Bernard, Content Analysis in Communication Research.
Glencoe, Illinois: Free Press, I95§TI

 

 

BOCfli Review Digest. New York: H. K. Tilson Company, 1920-

1927.

 

gunnilative Book Index. New York: H. W. Cilson Company, 1928—
1956. A worId IIst of books in the English language.

 

Jtumes, Dorothy B., The Portra al of China and India on the
:American Screen—T18. - 55 . —Cambrid5e, Mass.: .3k5t3r
ITEP InternationaI-Studies, Nassachusetts Institute of
Technology, 1955. The evolution of Chinese and Indian
themes, locales and.characters as portrayed on the
American screen.

 

 

 

KLHlitZ, Stanley J., editor, Twentieth Century Authors, First
Sugplement. New York: H. T.I*ilson Comgany, 1955.

linflitz, Stanley J., and Howard Haycroft, editors, Twentieth

Centurv Autlors. New York: h. T. Uilson Cemoan* ‘1912.
J A- ’

 

‘_ 1 r a "V
.deirton, Rooert h., Social Theory and Social Structure.
Glencoe, IllinoIs: ‘Froe Press, 1949.

 

84Willer, Robert E. et al., editors, Literary History of the
United States. Vol. I; New York: Kecmillan Co.,‘IQZET

 

 

uhflsain, Hark (Samuel Clemens), Followina the Equator. New

York: Berger and ErotLers, I897.

 

PERIODICAL ARTICLES

libtavadi, Kerve, "A Caltural Process in India," Society in

India, ed. A. Ayiappan and L. K. a. Ratnan, Madras:_—l956.

‘CDSenthal, A. M., "'Hother India,’ Thirty Years After,"
July, 1957, Foreiyn Affairs.

1,
:8a13

3318

y, Anna fiery,

thesis, Columoia University, 1958. New
A
from the AHLPICHD Revolution to

Press, 1938.

"“'\ .‘ ' “v-L’
:‘Jlrfthl, '1.-4‘I‘J,

(1115—1800)."

H

"1"

5; n a , .1 .-
l‘li-IC o 1‘. bttlp J

1550)." Ph.d
n

som American ideas aoa

1&7
UNPUBLISRE rrmr“**

. C
“1-1;“; L.¢'..11 ‘J

Americans in Russia (1'776-1917). " Ph.d.

York: Comet
study of American travelers in Russia

L'I . _-‘. “> ., . -~’»..
the Russian .ATWJIJLIUH.

+ i L} \ -' 1 [I ' . A m v N -. ‘.-. V -. - "O
t ,«CCE \.J i136 J.,?‘J 11”"‘3’31’51‘ ii: 731': L...‘ J
3 .fi 1‘ ‘2 (V 3 ~' 1 0 ~ («‘9‘ .'

L :1 . ‘ " . t L ' 9 LL. L ‘- ’ ‘IQL (3-1 L O, (‘4! L g Q ‘1 '“I- t e ‘M’ ‘3 l 1 r‘ r {‘1 ,
‘. a, A . .q ,0 a n o )1
If] Pb \_, t7 1’01 0:11.161] t "2‘. Swine 1; ‘ ”.1. I“ {1 1(13 as

thesios, Yale Eni varsity, 1940. A st.dy
inst a European Tackdround.

APPIIDIX

A.

(U

APPENDIX

CULTURAL THEfiiS

 

«'-

Background (facts about author's life and trip).

1. Biography (including home town, age, race or
ethnic group, education, occugation, books and
articles published, marriage data, father's oc-

cupation, grevicus travel, esveciall to Asia,

and organizations author is a member of.

20 T1313.
13. ’Sfiy in India, innkmaiiccse auspices, rem? role
author assumes in India.
b. TVere traveled in India. (Includes regions,

soecific cities, V111&;GS, and target obsa°va-

‘

tion in each.)

c. New. loin, trig was as a whole and length of
time in eacn 31808.
5. For what grojected audience mas Look written.
4. Iniorments (Kinds of Indian informants, reliance

on other foreigners, and the Universe from whidi

authors eneralize).

Geography and Physical Conditions. (Author’s anarcness
of and reactions to the following: climate, to;o:raohy,
and animal life.)
People.

1. Character of "the Indian Fee is." (This refers to

‘

statements ieginning "the Indian people are . . .

or "India is . . ." imglying 3onera 117 ations a out tne

geogle as a Hole. "Si. gn‘ific ant experience" from video

author generalized were cited in each case.)

2. Specific Way of life.

a. Social or Janization.
b. Social structure (includes caste and class).
c. Sub-cu tures.

d. Technology, both old and new.

e. Religion (other than cac.e and purdah): Hindu.
f. Religion oLhe:-than Hindu (KISIIU, Sikh,

Parsi, Jain).
9:. Women (in r:ludes purdah) .

h. Family system.

1. Population.

j. Language (includes types QDL distribution).
k. Disease.

1. Press, no ,papers, magazines.

m. Police.

n. Standard of living.

0. Color consciousness.

p. Villages.

q. Ar caitccture.
r. Cities.

8. History.

'U

190
Politics (includes garty structure or jarliament in

general).

1. Elections.

2. Leaders (includes Gandhi, Nehru, Brave and others).

3. Nativism (includes R.S.S.Movement, mahasabhe, others).
4. Nationalism (before ans after 1947).

5. Neutralism.

6. Communism.

7. Partition or Hindu/Huslim strife.

8. Authority and Lureaucracy.

Reactions to other foreigners.

1. Other Americans.

2. British.

Accommodation author makes to Indian culture.

1. Cultural shock at first.

p

2. Later: Awaren ss oi strengths and differences, if
any.
3. How much of culture author incorporates into self--

or lack of same at Svubclic and svb’ccfiive love 3.
: J

4. Author's reference TPOUfio

C ‘-

Over-all thCnO of book and its message to Anericans.

Demco-293

Date Due

 

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