Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol. 7

INDIA is one. But wherein lies that unity, what is its nature?

Many are of the opinion that India has no 'unity'; the condition that prevails at present and the possible development may at the most be termed 'union'. Union is the agreement and harmony of many antagonistic entities, but unity is the organic oneness of the same entity. To-day we proclaim India an undivided nation, but as a matter of fact India is not exactly of that type. She is a collectivity of many diverse sub-nations, a continent. Bengal is a state or a sub-nation, the Punjab is a state or a sub-nation, the Tamil Nadu and the Andhra Pradesh are each a state or a sub-nation but the unity of the whole of India is merely a geographical formula. Or perhaps it can be said that India is one to some extent in her culture, religion, conduct of life and social discipline. Consequently India may at the most be compared with Europe. India is one in the sense that Europe is one, – not as one country or one nation, not as a homogeneous group of people, like France or Germany or England, but for the commonalty that exists in general in the way of thinking, the mental formation and in the mode of living. Of course there are Muslims in India. Their genius is trying to strike a different note, still the foundation of India and her original character are the Aryan genius. The Muslims can be admitted in the way Jews have a place even in Christian Europe.

Is this sort of unity all that is there? It would seem so when we look from a superficial point of view, from the outside.

Page 242

But if we try to look deeper we shall find the true power that is at play behind the external form.

The unity of India lies in her soul-power. The unity that we see in the education, culture, behaviour, conduct and the mould of her character are the outer manifestation of an inalienable unity which is derived from a still profounder living being. Behind India stands the 'One Being', purusam ekam. That is the person who alone brings about harmony, unity and oneness in the diverse, innumerable and variegated life of India. The unity of India does not lie in the mental plane alone, gradually it is taking shape in the vital and is going to get embodied even in the physical.

It is the descent of the soul-power of India that is pressing to fuse India into a single nation. The political unity of India is not only possible but inevitable, and the secret of that consummation is to be found in this mystic fact. Indeed, if we compare India with Europe from this point of view, the difference of the two will stand out in bold relief. The political unity of Europe appears to be a very difficult and even an impossible problem. The union of Europe is an armed peace. One kind of union was attempted at times in the past, but the union which Caesar, Charlemagne and Napoleon wanted to bring about was but the sole supremacy of a particular country and nation; that means the union of the devourer and the devoured. Another type of union too is at present visible in Europe – that is the formation of groups in their self-interest, each group combining to pool its resources against others. None of these unions is real unity. The compromise, the compact arrived at among different interests are not the infallible unity of the soul; the undivided personality of the collective being has not emerged there.

In fact every European country has a well-developed and distinct personality of its own; each wants to secure a separate fulfilment, each is self-sufficient and distinct from the rest. There is a mutual give-and-take among them, often they

Page 243

move together for a common cause; but the collective existence of each is boldly and strongly demarcated. Look at England, France, Italy or Germany. The geographical boundary of each stands distinctly like the contour of an individual human body. The collective existence of Europe, awake and alive, belongs separately to each of the European countries and nations and in no way represents the collective being of all Europe.

On the other hand, if we look at India we find that the whole of India possesses a well-defined and distinct geographical outline. But the boundaries of the separate states of India are not so well-marked; their geographical features do not look well-built and complete wholes. No doubt, each of them has its own speciality, but their collective beings do not stand out prominently in contrast to one another. If we think of Asia in connection with India, then the difference between India and Europe will be clearly noticed. In the case of India the visualisation of a single indivisible state is easy and natural, but the same cannot be said of the whole of Asia; the countries of Asia like those of Europe have their different ways of life and modes of being. Europe has a similarity to Asia, but not to India.

If India is to be compared at all then the object of comparison cannot be Europe but a country of Europe which is called a 'nation'. India cannot be classed with Europe, but Great Britain, for example, can be mentioned for comparison. Britain is a homogeneous country or nation. Its collective being has a separate living individuality. As in Great Britain there are Scotland, Wales and England, so in India the separate states like Bengal, Maharashtra and the Punjab are the different limbs of the collective being of India. But the thing is that just as Asia is far larger than Europe, the states of India are larger than the European states. To European eyes China and India appear like continents. Not only is India larger in size but from the point of diversity also India displays a

Page 244

greater profusion that is almost endless. Those very differences and diversities that are to be found on a smaller scale within any European country are there in India on a larger scale. The divisions which are considered insignificant and therefore overlooked in a nation of Europe stand prominently here because of their amplitude, their immensity in size; such divisions too are accepted as somehow useful.

So it comes to this that the unity of India is vaster and more complex than the unity of any of the nations of Europe. But for that reason it cannot be concluded that this unity is no unity. Rather we know that science is proving the fact that the higher the being rises in the scale of evolution the greater complexity does its individuality acquire. Such diversity and variety are visible in India because a higher and greater synthesis is thus worked out or about to be wrought in a distinct manner and on a larger scale.

The collective union of Europe, its living truth, is not the unity that exists among the countries or nations of Europe. Of course an attempt is being made to bring about a sort of oneness through the length and breadth of Europe; but that oneness is still a conception, still an ideal, not even a living ideal yet. The inner being has not as yet become conscious and alert about its own personality. But in the case of India the awakening of her inner being has stood by far the first. India's personality of collective existence is indeed a living truth. The unity of the whole of India is, as it were, axiomatic and God-given. The oneness that is trying to become awake and conscious in India is not the unity and the personality of the whole of India, but rather, the oneness of the different personalities of the states of India. Therefore we notice contrary ways of life-manifestation in India and in Europe. In Europe the collective personality has awakened and the sense of unity has been established first within the limited areas of different countries. Having established these two things Europe is progressing towards the larger unity in its totality. The trend of Europe is the

Page 245

gradual ascension to the total consciousness of the inner being from the consciousness of the external physical parts. But in India what happened is the gradual descent to the external physical parts from the total consciousness of the inner subtle being. India first discovered her own inner being. This being of India is ever awake, so in India the manifestation of that being and the descent of her power are making the different states gradually become conscious and discover their own individualities. Perhaps Europe has had to start from a political union or oneness in order gradually and finally to attain to the unity-of the soul, and achieve her own individuality. India has long acquired the unity of the soul and this self-conscious individuality is the last word of India's oneness.

Page 246