Frog and the Nightingale Essay

The harbour is widely regarded as a unblemished in India since its commencement publication in 1946, and provides a broad spatial relation of Indian storey, philosophy and market-gardening, as viewed from the eyes of a liberal Indian fighting for the independence of his rural area. In The Disco truly of India, Nehru argued that India was a historic tribe with a right to sovereignty. (Calhoun, Craig, Nations Matter Culture, History and the Cosmopolitan Dream, R disclose leadge.In this book, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru tries to muse the history of India st inventioning from the Indus V wholeey Civilization, and thus covers the countrys history from the arrival of the Aryans to government under the British Empire. He says that India in the by was country which snappyd in harmony and peace, but the entry of society worthlesss had a very bad effect on mountain. The effect of these various people on Indian culture and their incorporation into Indian society is examined.This book also analyses in depth the philosophy of Indian deportment. This book was utilize to the Prisoners of Ahmednagar jail. The book became the basis of the 53-episode Indian television series Bharat Ki Khoj, first broadcast in 1988. PREFACE OF THE BOOK BY JAWAHARLAL NEHRU- This book was indite by Jawaharlal Nehru in Ahmadnagar build up prison during the five months, April to September 1944. several(prenominal) of his colleagues in prison were good enough to read the musical compositionuscript and flip a number of valuable suggestions.On revising the book in prison he took advantage of these suggestions and made close to additions. No one, he need hardly add, is responsible for what he has written or ineluctably agrees with it. But he expresses my deep gratitude to his fellow-prisoners in Ahmadnagar Fort for the innumerable negotiation and discussions they had, which helped him greatly to clear his own mind rough various aspects of Indian history and culture. Prison is non a p leasant place to live in even for a short period, a good deal less for extensive years.But it was a privilege for me to live in close conform to with men of outstanding ability and culture and a wide gentleman outlook which even the passions of the moment did non obscure. His eleven companions in Ahmadnagar Fort were an interesting cross-section of India and re yielded in their several ways not scarcely politics but Indian scholarship, centenarian and pertly, and various aspects of current India. Nearly all the principal living Indian languages, as sloshed as the classical languages which ware baronfully influenced India in the previous(prenominal) and present, were represented and the standard was lots that of high scholarship.Among the classical languages were Sanskrit and Pali, Arabic and Persian the modern-day languages were Hindi, Urdu, Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu, Sindhi and Oriya. Jawaharlal Nehru had all this wealth to draw upon and the only limitatio n was his own dexterity to profit by it. Though he was grateful to all his companions, he specially mentioned a few namesMaulana Abul Kalam Azad, whose wide erudition ever delighted me but some epochs also rather overwhelmed me, Govind Ballabh Pant, Narendra Deva and M. Asaf Ali.The book cadaver as written in prison with no additions or transposes, draw for the postscript at the end. He doesnt know how other authors feel close to their authorships, but always he had a strange sensation when he read something that he had written some time previously. That sensation is heightened when the writing had been done in the close and abnormal atmosphere of prison and the incidental reading has taken place outside. He could recognize it of course, but not wholly it fixms al nearly that he was reading some familiar bandage written by another, who was near to him and yet who was different.Perhaps that is the measure of the change that had taken place in Jawaharlal Nehru So he has fel t about this book also. It is his and not wholly his, as he is constituted right away it represents rather some past self of his which has already joined that recollective succession of other selves that existed for a while and faded away, leaving only a memory fag end . aliveness in the Jail During his keep on in the jail as a prisoner, he talked about the ruins that were in that respect but were covered up by soil or suck collapsed.He talks about a courageous, beautiful lady, named Chandbibi, who fought against akbar to protect the fort(where he was staying as prisoner). But at the end she was killed by her own troops man. He asks himself that what is his ancestral gift? he discovers that, India is his ancestral gift. It is in his blood. he is the ancesteor of victories and defeats of the past kings, brave works of serviceman from the earliest past to now. He is the heir of all these. A few of his chapters which tell about Jawaharlal Nehrus spiritedness in prison and th e various changes in IndiaTime in Prison The Urge to Action Time seems to change its nature in prison. The present hardly exists, for there is an absence of feeling and sensation which blood threesomeer separate it from the dead past. Even news of the active, living and dying military personnel outside has a certain dream- handle un-reality, an immobility and an unchangeableness as of the past. The satellite objective time ceases to be, the inward and subjective sense remains, but at a lower level, except when thought pulls it out of the present and experiences a kind of reality in the past or in the future.We live, as Auguste Comte said, dead mens lives, encased in our pasts, but this is oddly so in prison where we try to find some nourishment for our starved and locked-up emotions in memory of the past or fancies of the future. thither is a stillness and everlastingness about the past it changes not and has a touch of eternity, like a painted picture or a statue in bronz e or marble. Unaffected by the storms and upheavals of the present, it maintains its dignity and repose and tempts the troubled affectionateness and the tortured mind to seek shelter in its vaulted catacombs.There is peace there and security, and one may even sense a touchual quality. But it is not conduct, unless we bottomland find the decisive connect between it and the present with all its combats and problems. It is a kind of art for arts sake, without the passion and the urge to action which are the very immobilize of life. Without that passion and urge, there is a gradual oozing out of try for and vim, a settling down on lower levels of existence, a shadowy merging into non-existence. We become prisoners of the past and some part of its immobility sticks to us.This transportation of the mind is all the easier in prison where action is denied and we become slaves to the mundane of jail-life. Yet the past is ever with us and all that we are and that we feature comes from the past. We are its products and we live im-mersed in it. Not to understand it and feel it as something living within us is not to understand the present. To combine it with the present and extend it to the future, to break from it where it cannot be so united, to make of all this the pulsating and vibrat-ing cloth for thought and actionthat is life. Any vital action springs from the depths of the being.All the foresighted past of the individual and even of the race has prepared the background for that mental moment of action. All the racial memories, influences of heredity and environment and training, subconscious urges, thoughts and dreams and actions from early childhood and childhood onwards, in their curious and tremendous mix-up, inevitably drive to that new action, which again becomes yet another factor influencing the future. Influencing the future, partly determining it, by chance even largely determining it, and yet, surely, it is not all determinism.Whether t here is both such thing as human freedom in the philosophic sense or whether there is only an automatic deter-minism, I do not know. A very great deal appears certainly to be determined by the past complex of events which bear down and frequently overwhelm the individual. Possibly even the inner urge that he experiences, that spare exercise of free will, is itself conditioned. As Sc holdnhauer says, a man can do what he will, but not will as he will. A belief in an absolute deter-minism seems to me to lead inevitably to complete inaction, to goal in life.All my sense of life rebels against it, though of course that very rebellion may itself have been conditioned by previous events Lifes Philosophy- The ideals and objectives of yesterday were still the ideals of to-day, but they had lost some of their lustre and, even as one seemed to go towards them, they lost the gleam beauty which had warmed the heart and vitalized the body. Evil triumphed often enough, but what was remo ved worse was the coarsening and distortion of what had seemed so right.Was human nature so basically bad that it would take ages of training, by dint of damage and misfortune, before it could behave sensibly and raise man above that creature of lust and violence and hoax that he now was? And, meanwhile, was every effort to change it radically in the present or the near future doomed to failure? Ends and heart and soul were they tied up inseparably, acting and reacting on each other, the wrong intend distorting and some-times even destroying the end in view? But the right heart might well be beyond the faculty of infirm and inconsiderate human nature.What then was one to do? Not to act was a complete con-fession of failure and a submission to evil to act meant often enough a compromise with some form of that evil, with all the adverse consequences that such compromises result in. Science does not tell us much, or for the matter of that any-thing about the purpose of life. It is now widening its boun-daries and it may obtrude upon the so-called invisible origination before huge and help us to understand this purpose of life in its widest sense, or at least(prenominal) give us some glimpses which illumine the pro-blem of human existence.The old brawl between scientific discipline and religion takes a new formthe performance of the scientific method to emotional and religious experiences. Some vague or more precise philosophy of life we all have, though most of us accept unthinkingly the general attitude which is characteristic of our propagation and environment. Most of us accept also certain metastrong-arm conceptions as part of the faith in which we have grown up. How amazing is this sprightliness of man In spite of innumerable failings, man, throughout the ages, has sacrificed his life and all he held dear for an ideal, for truth, for faith, for country and honour.That ideal may change, but that capacity for self-sacrifice continues, and, b ecause of that, much may be forgiven to man, and it is impossible to lose hope for him. In the midst of disaster, he has not lost his dignity or his faith in the values he cherished. Plaything of natures mighty forces, less than a speck of dust in this vast universe, he has hurled defiance at the elemental powers, and with his mind, cradle of revolution, sought to get the best them. Whatever gods there be, there is something godlike in man, as there is also something of the devil in him.The future is dark, uncertain. But we can see part of the way leading to it and can tread it with firm steps, store that nothing that can happen is likely to overcome the spirit of man which has survived so many perils remembering also that life, for all its ills, has joy and beauty, and that we can always wander if we know how to, in the enchanted woods of nature. Indias Strength and Weaknesses- The search for the sources of Indias strength and for her deterioration and decay is long and intricate .Yet the recent causes of that decay are obvious enough. She fell behind in the march of technique, and Europe, which had long been backward in many matters, took the lead in technical progress. Behind this technical progress was the spirit of science and a bubling life and spirit which displayed itself in many activities and in ad-venturous voyages of discovery. fresh techniques gave military strength to the countries of western Europe, and it was easy for them to spread out and hold the East. That is the story not only of India, but of almost the whole of Asia.why this should have happened so is more difficult to unravel, for India was not lacking in mental alertness and technical skill in earlier times. single senses a progressive deterioration during centuries. The urge to life and endeavour becomes less, the crea-tive spirit fades away and gives place to the imitative. Where triumphant and rebellious thought had tried to penetrate the my-steries of nature and the universe, t he wordy commentator comes with his glosses and long explanations. Magnificent art and cutting give way to meticulous carving of intricate detail without splendour of conception or design.The vigour and rich-ness of language, powerful yet simple, are followed by highly ornate and complex literary forms. The urge to adventure and the exuberant life which led to vast schemes of impertinent coloni-zation and the transplantation of Indian culture in far lands all these fade away and a contract orthodoxy taboos even the crossing of the high seas. A rational spirit of inquiry, so evident in earlier times, which might well have led to the further growth of science, is replaced by irrationalism and a blind idolatory of the past.Indian life becomes a sluggish stream, living in the past, moving slowly through the accumulations of dead centuries. The heavy burden of the past crushes it and a kind of comatoseness seizes it. It is not surprising that in this condition of mental stupor and p hysical weariness India should have deteriorated and remained rigid and immobile, while other parts of the world marched ahead. Every people and every nation has some such belief or myth of national destiny and perhaps it is partly dead on target in each case.Being an Indian I am myself influenced by this reality or myth about India, and I feel that anything that had the power to mould hundreds of generations, without a break, must have cadaverous its enduring aliveness from some deep well of strength, and have had the capacity to renew that vitality from age to age. No people, no races remain unchanged. Continually they are coalesce with others and slowly changing they may appear to die almost and then rise again as a new people or just a variation of the old. There may be a definite break between the old people and the new, or vital links of thought and ideals may join them.History has numerous instances of old and well-established civilizations fading away or being ended sudd enly, and vigor-ous new cultures winning their place. Is it some vital energy, sonic inner source of strength that gives life to a civilization or a people, without which all effort is ineffective, like the vain attempt of an aged person to plav the part of a youth? Behind the past quarter of a centurys engagement for Indias independence and all our conflicts with British authority, lay in my mind, and that of many others, the desire to revitalize India.We felt that through action and self-imposed suffering and sacri-fice, through voluntarily facing risk and danger, through refusal to submit to what we considered evil and wrong, would we re-charge the battery of Indias spirit and waken her from her long slumber. Though we came into conflict continually with the British Government in India, our eyes were always glum towards our own people. Political advantage had value only in so far as it helped in that fundamental purpose of ours.Because of this govern-ing motive, frequently we acted as no politician, moving in the narrow sphere of politics only, would have done, and foreign and Indian critics expressed surprise at the folly and intransigence of our ways. Whether we were foolish or not, the historians of the future will judge. We aimed high and looked far. Probably we were often foolish, from the point of view of opportunist politics, but at no time did we forget that our main purpose was to raise the whole level of the Indian people, psychologically and spiritually and also, of course, politically and economically.It was the building up of that real inner strength of the people that we were after, knowing that the rest would inevitably follow. We had to wipe out some generations of shameful subservience and timid submission to an arrogant outlander authority. Epilogue of the book- Jawaharlal Nehru has covered a thousand hand-written pages with a fuddle of ideas in his mind. He travelled in the past and peeped into the future and sometimes tried to bala nce himself on that point of intersection of the timeless with time. His life has been full of happenings in the world and the war has advanced rapidly towards a triumphant conclusion,so far as military victories go. In his own country also much has happened of which he could be only a distant spectator, and waves of unhappiness have sometimes temporarily swept over me and passed on. Because of this business of thinking and trying to give some expression to his thoughts, he has drawn myself away from the piercing edge of the present and moved along the wider expanses of the past and the future. The discovery of Indiawhat had he discovered?It was presumptuous of him to imagine that he could publish India and find out what India is to-day and what it was in the long past. To-day India is four hundred meg separate individual men and women, each differing from the other, each living in a private universe of though and feeling. If this is so in the present, how much more difficult is i t to grasp that multitudinous past of innumerable successions of human beings. Yet something has bound them together and binds them still. India is a geographical and economic entity, a cultural unity amidst diversity, a bundle of contradictions held together by strong but invisible threads.