¹ An examination of any basic text in political theory will provide ample proof of this neglect. The same conclusion will be reached from a review of past programs of the American Political Science Association.

² Toynbee, Arnold, “Civilization on Trial”, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 179, pp. 34–38 (June, 1947)Google Scholar.

³ Toynbee, Arnold, The World and the West (New York, 1953)Google Scholar, Ch. 3, “India and the West.”

⁴ Rao, P. Kodanda, “The Laws of Culture”, The Aryan Path, Vol. 23, pp. 504–8 (Nov., 1952)Google Scholar.

⁵ P. Kodanda Rao, commentary on this paper at the APSA meeting in Chicago, Sept. 9, 1954.

⁶ Lukacs, John A., The Great Powers in Eastern Europe (New York. 1953), p. 700Google Scholar.

⁷ Müller, Max, History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature (London, 1859), p. 31Google Scholar. It need hardly be emphasized that the great German philologist and Orientalist who edited the Rig-Veda and many other ancient Hindu classics was profoundly impressed with the Indian contribution to civilization. In one of his lectures at Cambridge University he declared “… in that study of the history of the human mind, … India occupies a place second to no other country.” Müller, Max, India: What Can It Teach Us? (London, 1883), p. 13Google Scholar.

⁸ Dunning, William A., A History of Political Theories, Ancient and Medieval (New York, 1902), p. xixGoogle Scholar.

⁹ Gettell, Raymond G., History of Political Thought (New York, 1924), p. 28Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Mukerji, K. P., The State (Madras, 1952), pp. ix, xi, xvii, 239, 267Google Scholar.

¹¹ Ray, Samaren, “Indian Political Thought from Manu to Gandhi”, The Radical Humanist, Vol. 18, pp. 332, 336 (July 11, 1954)Google Scholar. Ray points out that even the greatest of Hindu classics, the Mahābhārata, “represents the Brahmanic side of the great controversy in ancient India between the Brahmins who wanted to maintain their supremacy on the authority of the Vedas and those who challenged the absolute authority of the Vedas and tried to build up a rational outlook and society on human values and realism.” Professor D. Mackenzie Brown has reminded me that Ray's interpretation reflects a Positivist point of view, and that many students of Indian philosophy would disagree with this interpretation.

¹² Jayaswal, K. P., Hindu Polity (Calcutta, 1924)Google Scholar; Law, Narendra Nath, Studies in Ancient Hindu Polity (London, 1914)Google Scholar, Inter-State Relations in Ancient India (Calcutta, 1920)Google Scholar, Aspects of Ancient Indian Polity (Oxford, 1921)Google Scholar; Ghoshal, U. N., A History of Hindu Political Theories (Calcutta, 1923)Google Scholar; Prasad, Beni, The State in Ancient India (Allahabad, 1928)Google Scholar; Sarkar, Benoy Kumar, The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus (Leipzig, 1922)Google Scholar. Sarkar published two significant articles on Indian political thought in American journals in 1918: “Democratic Ideals and Republican Institutions in India”, this Review, Vol. 12, pp. 581–606 (Nov., 1918)Google Scholar, and “Hindu Political Philosophy”, Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 33, pp. 482–500 (Dec., 1918)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. To the best of my knowledge the former article is the only one dealing with the subject of Indian political thought which has been published in this Review.

¹³ Spear, Percival, India, Pakistan, and the West (London, 1952), p. 204Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Ibid., p. 188.

¹⁵ Panikkar, K. M., Asia and Western Dominance. A Survey of the Vasco Da Gama Epoch of Asian History, 1498–1945 (London, 1953), pp. 317, 489Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Northrop, F. S. C., The Meeting of East and West (New York, 1949), p. 415Google Scholar; see also Toynbee, , The World and the West, p. 80Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Toward Freedom: the Autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru (New York, 1941), p. 353Google Scholar.

¹⁸ “Syed was cautious and never looked beyond self-government under British protection. He never ceased to cooperate with the British …. But he was clear that there was a Muslim national consciousness quite different from the Hindu …. In his whole attitude was implicit the concept of Pakistan.” Spear, , India, Pakistan, and the West, pp. 190–91Google Scholar. See also Graham, G. F. I., Life and Work of Syed Ahmad Khan (London, 1888)Google Scholar.

¹⁹ See Singh, Iqbal, The Ardent Pilgrim: An Introduction to the Life and Work of Mohammad Iqbal (London, 1951)Google Scholar. The author questions the validity of the close identification of Iqbal with the idea of Pakistan: “Though it is now customary and conventional to refer to Iqbal as the Philosopher and Poet of Pakistan, the Pakistan idea in its materialisation represents the absolute refutation of the very basis of Iqbal's political philosophy” (p. 162). Yet he admits: “Cumulatively, Iqbal by his poetry, by his political and philosophical writings, succeeded in creating an ambient and infectious mood of irrational, revivalistic fervor in which the Pakistan idea could grow and come to its fruition” (p. 156).

²⁰ Northrop, , The Meeting of East and West, pp. 416–17Google Scholar.

²¹ Toynbee, , The World and the West, p. 34Google Scholar.

²² Radhakrishnan, Sarvepalli, Eastern Religions and Western Thought, 2nd ed. (London, 1940), p. 20Google Scholar.

²³ Ibid., p. 351.

²⁴ See especially Mukerji, The State, Appendix I, “The Hindu Conception of Dharma.” Dharma is clearly a concept which is hard to define. It bulks large in the philosophies of India, and it has been described in many different ways. A passage in a Brāhmana refers to dharma as those “principles of justice whereby the weak maintain themselves against the strong with the help of the king.” Quoted in Bandyopadhaya, N. C., Development of Hindu Polity and Political Theories (Calcutta, 1927), p. 273Google Scholar. Most Indian commentators insist that dharma has a practical as well as a philosophical significance. Thus Sri Aurobindo wrote: “This subjection of the sovereign power to the Dharma was not an ideal theory inoperative in practice: for the rule of the socio-religious law actively conditioned the whole life of the people and was therefore a living reality and it had in the political field very large practical consequences.” The Spirit and Form of Indian Polity (Calcutta, 1947), p. 13Google Scholar.

²⁵ Radhakrishnan, , Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 353Google Scholar.

²⁶ Sarkar, , The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus, p. 167Google Scholar.

²⁷ See especially Altekar, A. S., State and Government in Ancient India (Benares, 1949), pp. 1–3Google Scholar.

²⁸ Sarkar, , The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus, pp. 214–26Google Scholar.

²⁹ Mukerji, , The State, p. 350Google Scholar.

³⁰ Bandyopadhaya, , Development of Hindu Polity and Political Theories, p. 323Google Scholar.

³¹ Bhandarkar, D. R., Some Aspects of Ancient Hindu Polity (Benares, 1920), p. 150Google Scholar.

³² Sarkar, , The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus, p. 201Google Scholar; Gettell, , History of Political Thought, p. 26Google Scholar.

³³ Bhandarkar, , Some Aspects of Ancient Hindu Polity, p. 134Google Scholar.

³⁴ See Kautilya's Arthaśāstra, trans, by Dr.Shamasastry, R., 4th ed. (Mysore, 1951)Google Scholar, Book 1, ch. 19, “The Duties of a King”; also Altekar, , State and Government in Ancient India, p. 17Google Scholar, and Nalin, Indira, “The Head of the State in Ancient India”, unpublished paper prepared for the South Asia Seminar at the University of Pennsylvania, 1953Google Scholar. For the Western divine right theory of kingship, see Figgis, J. N., The Theory of the Divine Right of Kings, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, Eng., 1914)Google Scholar.

³⁵ Bandyopadhaya, , Development of Hindu Polity and Political Theories, p. viiGoogle Scholar.

³⁶ S. P. Singh has suggested the insertion of the following statement after this sentence: “But nirvana or moksa cannot be attained without duty. Duty becomes a part of the political and social life of the modern age.” Letter to the author, dated Sept. 23, 1954.

³⁷ See Ghoshal, A History of Hindu Political Theories.

³⁸ Mukerji, , The State, p. 352Google Scholar.

³⁹ N. G. D. Joardar, “The Study of Indian Polity,” unpublished paper prepared in connection with the program at which this paper was first presented.

⁴⁰ Mukerji, , The State, p. 363Google Scholar.

⁴¹ Ibid., pp. 340–41.

⁴² Ibid., p. 192.

⁴³ Kogekar, S. V., “Present Status of Political Science Studies in India”, in Kogekar, S. V. and Appadorai, A., Political Science in India (Delhi, 1953), p. 6Google Scholar. This is a reprint of an article which originally appeared in the International Social Science Bulletin, Vol. 4, pp. 124–29 (Spring, 1952)Google Scholar.

⁴⁴ Appadorai, A., “Progress of Political Science in India”, in Kogekar, and Appadorai, , Political Science in India, p. 15Google Scholar. This is a reprint of a paper which was originally published in Contemporary Political Science (UNESCO, 1950)Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Schweitzer, Albert, Indian Thought and Its Development (New York, 1936), p. 228Google Scholar.

⁴⁶ Mangudkar, M. P., “Gandhi's Contribution to Modern Political Thought”, The Radical Humanist, Vol. 17, pp. 545, 548, 575–76 (Nov. 15 and 29, 1953)Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ The concept of the relation between ends and means is deep-rooted in the Hindu political and religious tradition. Gandhi did his best to elevate it to a practical principle of statecraft, while at the same time he emphasized its deeper meaning. Madame Pandit has given a striking illustration of the Mahatma's faith in this concept. Her last interview with Gandhi occurred about a month before his assassination, while she was preparing to return to Moscow for the last two months of her service as Indian Ambassador to the Soviet Union and shortly before she was scheduled to go to the United States as Indian Ambassador. Since she visited Gandhi on a Monday, which was his day of silence, the Mahatma communicated his thoughts to her in writing. The message which he asked her to convey to the governments and peoples of Russia and America was as follows: “What India is trying to say to the world is a constant challenge to our power of interpretation and can be repeated to both Moscow and Washington. It is the essence of our creed and fundamental to an understanding of our way of life as well as our political stand. You know what I think—the end in itself is not important—unless the means we follow to achieve it are right. The countries of the Western world would do well to try to understand this. It is what you must explain to the people of America. Until the implications of this are clear to them, there will be no appreciation either now or in the days ahead of the stand our country will take on important issues.” Pandit, Madame Vijaya Lakshmi, “India to America: The Position of India in World Politics”, in “Perspective of India,” Supplement to the Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 192, pp. 107–09 (Oct., 1953)Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ N. G. D. Joardar has offered the following trenchant observations regarding the doctrines of ahimsā and satyāgraha: “The eagerness to stand for truth in all aspects of life, which is the essence of satya-graha, and to carry out the program without any kind of violence in thought and speech, far less in action, which forms the kernel of ahimsa are excellent principles, worthy of admiration. But they are essentially the privilege of the spiritual elite. The man in the street has neither the insight nor the courage to follow the doctrines. They charm him, however, and he blindly follows the lead of somebody who sets himself up as the apostle of the twin principles. I believe that satya-graha and ahimsa are as aristocratic as the position of the Brahmins in the caste system. In bringing the mountain-tops of the spiritual world to the sordid affairs of politics, Mahatma purified it to some extent but I do believe that its practice does not coincide with the voting role of the majority rule which is the basis of democracy.” These views would undoubtedly be challenged by many interpreters of Indian ways of thought and action; but certainly Gandhi's views on ahimsā and satyāgraha were of an exalted nature which few lesser persons could even comprehend in their full dimensions, much less accept and implement. One may also suggest that in Gandhi's mind the two concepts were refined and clarified, and given a scope and an application which were without parallel in Indian history. Possibly, also, Gandhi's interpretations differed rather fundamentally from the traditional approach. Albert Schweitzer has expressed this opinion: “In Gandhi's ethical life Ahimsā becomes a different thing from what it was in the thought of ancient India …. The ancient Indian Ahimsā is an expression of world and life negation …. But Gandhi places Ahimsā at the service of world and life affirmation directed to activity in the world.” Indian Thought and Its Development, pp. 227, 231.

⁴⁹ In January, 1953 about a dozen of the world's leading thinkers came to New Delhi, at the invitation of the Government of India, to participate in a “Seminar on the Contributions of the Gandhian Outlook and Techniques to the Solution of Tensions between and within Nations.” It was a well-deserved tribute to the greatest of modern Indians, whose thoughts and message extended far beyond the borders of his own country.

⁵⁰ Northrop, , The Meeting of East and West, p. 405Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Radhakrishnan, , Eastern Religions and Western Thought, p. 115Google Scholar.