Reviews

ENGLISH

"Inside Asia"–By John Gunther.

John Gunther has been to Asia and has chosen the best possible time for the publication of his book, Inside Asia. He admits having been persuaded by the book-sellers to change the title from Outside Asia to Inside Asia. There are very good reasons for his having wanted to call the book Outside Asia. In his new book he had to deal with three continents in one, as pointed out by him; and barring India, he had to overcome language difficulties in most places. He was at home in Europe when he wrote the "twin volume," Inside Europe. The problems of Europe are basically the same from one end to another as a result of industrial advancement, and he finds them "absent in Asia." It is possible to point out some inaccuracies in the book and one may also be able to prove that much of the matter in it is superficial and second-hand, but no one will be able to say that Gunther has committed serious mistakes anywhere in it. The worst that could be said about the book is that it is uneven and that much space is taken up by trivial though often interesting details about personalities.

Having attempted the impossible, he has achieved much. It could be said that Dr. Lin Yu Tang, Pearl Buck and Mowrer are deeper, better informed and more accurate than Gunther on China, but they deal only with China. Gunther’s is a political Baedaker–an Encyclopaedia of Eastern politics. We cannot help marveling at his avidity to learn and at his digestion. He himself says, "I read blue books till I was blue in the face." With an American thoroughness he gets his teeth into details, and there is on the whole an absence of prejudice in the book. He is sure that "much of Asia is ruined by ruins." This perhaps is his only prejudice.

The book is not only readable, but absorbing; and many, especially in America and Europe, who would not have otherwise bothered about Asia, are treated a to brilliant survey of the Eastern problems. It is a superbly-got-up "Who’s Who," and the author is able to describe the "basic trends" and "the dominant chords one finds in the vast and complex Asiatic orchestra." Like its companion volume, Inside Asia is "built on the thread of personality." It is however more than a mere portrait-gallery: it is a comprehensive description of the policies of the actors concerned. It gives a good bird’s-eye-view of the East. The author traveled thirty thousand miles and traversed about twenty different countries in each of which he was able to see most of the leading political personalities.

He starts with Japan. From the Emperor of Japan down to the guinea-pigs of Manchukuo there is an examination of various men and things. "Japan is ruled not by the Emperor but in the name of the Emperor" who is "an embodiment, a projection of a conglomerate mass of theories and traditions," and who "is not a dictator." "The Emperor has legal powers far exceeding those of a normal constitutional monarch"–but "is outside politics." He is the richest man in the world and we are told that the Imperial household has five thousand employees working in the palace and "eleven pages of the official hand-book are necessary to name the chief officials, whereas the foreign office fills only ten." We are introduced to the ruling clique, discreetly referred to as "they" in Japan. ‘No one knows precisely who ‘they’ are, because ‘they’ themselves do not precisely know," says Gunther. "They are like a college of cardinals if cardinals change more often." The Japanese are bitter against the Chinese and cannot forgive them on account of the debt they owe them beginning from their very alphabet. We are introduced to "a country of discipline, conformity, Shintoism, imperial ambition, earthquakes, no humour, a wonderful sense of mimicry and raw fish." The politico-religious fervour of a Japanese enables him to show reckless physical courage which makes possible frequent ceremonial Hara-kiris. Next to the Emperor is the last surviving Genro Prince Saionji, a unique ninety-year-old statesman who still pulls wires. The ramifications of the Japanese army which even issues pamphlets to educate the people, and the rivalry between the army and the navy as also between the army and the business heads is clearly brought out. The chapter on the Manchukuo experiment is instructive and interesting, and we see the Japanese going one better on the Western imperial powers in adroitness and efficiency. Japan, exploiting the new technique of fighting without declaring war, has created a new Japanese China, thus destroying the unity of the old and vast Chinese Empire. This section ends with a chapter on the Russian position in China which could be best described by the quotation from Walter Duranty: "A war between Japan and Russia would be as popular as could be imagined. The whole world will be cheering for both sides to lose."

From Japan we go on to China, and here the author deals with the country with affection and respect. He devotes three pages pointing out the differences between the Japanese and the Chinese, and in the end the Chinese come out of it in flying colours. The sketches of the Generalissimo Chiang Kai Shaik and his wife, respectfully called the "Madame," are excellent. Of the latter he says, "she goes everywhere; she does every thing; she is like Mrs. Roosevelt." There is an admirable description of the Sian kidnapping. We are able to understand how the Generalissimo is the spear-head of Chinese nationalism and is supported whole-heartedly even by the Reds in spite of the fact that he, more than anyone else, has killed most Reds in China. Gunther includes a quotation from Dr. Lin Yu Tang in his first chapter on China which runs thus: "In the west the insane are so many that they are put in an asylum: in China the insane are so unusual that we worship them." We then get an insight into the "great Chinese characteristic of rationality." We are also treated to a historical resume of Ancient China and these resumes wherever they occur are brilliant. The great obstacles to Chinese progress, namely, "squeeze," which means corruption, and "face," which means the keeping up of personal dignities at any cost, are pointed out in many places. We are introduced to one of the most powerful of families in the world, the Soongs. And then to the Chinese Reds who wear blue. And to the various Chinese Generals, politicians, war-lords and puppets. We also get a glimpse of the successful guerilla warfare that China is able to wage against Japan. We cannot help asking, How long could the trek to the west be the means of outwitting the Japanese? The Chinese chapters end with a Chinese miscellany. The Chinese, says Gunther, are "the most civilised people on earth," who "keep ink in a box and send invitations on blotting paper," and he goes on to say many more things. The last note in diagnosis of the Sino-Japanese relations contains three insoluble dilemmas.

The next port of call is Philiphine Islands and we are straightaway introduced to the elastic, electric Manuel Quezon, a sort of Beau Brummel among dictators, who "is a light- hearted play-boy among Eastern statesmen." We then halt at the Singapore naval base; and after dealing with the naval base, Gunther writes some notes on the British Empire which, like many similar American surveys, is as spicy as it is informative. We then go round Malaya and the Dutch Colonies and from there to the incredible Kingdom of Siam. "A boy rules it, yellow-robed priests proliferate in it, and the Siamese triplets run it." We then hasten on to French Indo-China governed by puppet kings over which Paris is the Boss.

The stage is now set for India which is described by Gunther in the map as "the country of one-fifth of the human race, Mr, Gandhi, two hundred and twenty languages, British Imperialism at its shrewdest, fierce religious tension, the greatest mountains in the world, the pucca Sahib, poverty almost worse than the Chinese, and the miserable complexities of castes." Appropriately enough he starts with Mahatma Gandhi and is frankly unable to place him, He says: "This man who is at once a saint and politician, a prophet and superb opportunist, defies ordinary categories." It is obvious that the author has studied a lot of literature about Gandhiji and has tried to understand him and the Gandhi-gambit. His portrayal of Nehru naturally enough is a much better performance because, as he says, Jawahar is "an Indian who became a Westerner; an aristocrat who became a socialist; an individualist who became a great mass leader." He pays a great tribute to the Pandit when he says that "he is certainly one of the finest characters in public life he has ever met." He discusses province after province, and characterises Madras as a home of two things, "first of most of the intellectuals of India, and second of Hinduism in its most intensive form." He calls Rajaji a Brahmin Savanarola. He has some harsh things to say about religion in India and is shocked by untouchability in South India which he says is "jimcrowism on a fantastic scale." It is a pity that this book was written before the enactment in Madras of the Temple Entry legislation. He, however, praises the Travancore Temple Entry Proclamation. We also have an Indian Miscellany, and he shows wonderful grasp of details when dealing with the structure and the personalities of the Indian National Congress. He then deals with the Princes of India and is critical of most of them, excepting a few.

After a reference to the Aga Khan, Mr. Jinnah, Pandit Malaviya and the Liberals, he summarises British rule in India, and presents the pros and cons of the rule. He ends up by quoting Basil Mathew and asks, "Is India a subject State because it is weak, or is it weak because it is a subject State?" The best answer, he says, "evades the issue. It is both." The frontiers of India are next dealt with, and from there we proceed to Tibet and learn all about the Tibetan Topsy-Turvy. There is a brief reference to Burma, "the biggest rice-exporting nation in the world."

We then hop on to Persia which "killed Alexander the Great and produced the Ardebil carpet and exists in several dimensions." There are some goodish stories about Reze Shah whose "foreign policy," he says, "is simple and traditional: to play Russia and Britain against each other." There is an enumeration of the Shah’s reforms. The Shah, we are told, after canceling the old oil concessions, has been able to get a new and very favourable agreement.

The closing chapters then deal with the Arab world and one cannot skip his account of Ibn Saud. Of Baghdad, Gunther says that "it is probably the only capital city in the world without a university." He then deals with the other kings of the middle East as also with Syria and Lebanon. Lastly he deals with the land of Israel and the grievances of the Arabs and the Jews in Palestine.

There is a chapter devoted to Dr. Cain Weizmann who, on Lloyd George’s request, synthetically made acetone out of chestnuts during the last war and in return for this help wanted a national home for his people. The author then concludes the book with a brief survey wherein he gathers all the threads. Altogether it is an admirable book.

C. R. PATTABHIRAMAN¹

Lytton Strachey, A Critical Study: –By K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, Professor of English, Belgaum, Bombay University. (Price Rs. 2-8.)

Of Lytton Strachey, who heralded the new form of biography in English literature, there have been many estimates from informed critics. If Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch and others of his bent of mind considered Strachey as a sort of ‘idol-breaker,’ there are staunch admirers of his like Andre Maurois and Nicolson, themselves fine specimens of the new type of biographers, who have only praise for the freshness of the art-form in Strachey. Certainly, no one truly moved by any interest in the study of human psychology can feel merely satisfied with all that is said and written about Strachey, when Strachey’s own pages live for him. Perhaps, it may sound strange, if, on reading any such appraisement of Strachey, the reader feels only discontent and gets at Strachey himself once again to renew his old friendship. To be more accurate, the sight of a new book or pamphlet on Strachey may only kindle the desire in one to re-read ‘Queen Victoria,’ ‘Elizabeth and Essex,’ or ‘Eminent Victorians.’

But this is far from detracting the reader from profiting by a perusal of an earnest attempt like this to understand Lytton Strachey and his art. Appreciation implies criticism as well, and when we find the theme has seized upon the writer, we need no further guarantee of the author’s genuine interest in the subject of his study. Sri K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar assures us easily of his sincerity, and hence the uncommon reward for his labours. He has not made his criticism ‘a side-line of authorship’ like some modern writers, who by ‘a simple but ingenious device criticise each other.’ His critical study becomes absorbing, if really we realise his intimacy with the subject.

Perhaps no full length study of Lytton Strachey has appeared hitherto. Hence also the more valuable a book entirely devoted to him; and we are proud of this achievement by a country-man of ours, more, if not solely, for the reason that he has forestalled a work of its kind from the pen of English writers.

In estimating the method of Strachey in biographical studies. Sri Srinivasa Iyengar has been much aided by impartiality and equipment in presenting to the reader both sides of the picture–the favourable opinions of Strachey’s admirers and the adverse comments of his detractors. The proper function of criticism is to manifest a true spirit of detachment combined with efficiency in presentation. In information Sri Srinivasa Iyengar lags no whit behind any of the good students of English literature. As for the necessary mental equipoise to judge, his success in covering the canvas with sufficient light and shade producing completeness of effect, proves more than sufficiently his capacity for the task. Beyond this no fair critic is expected to strive for. If in the chapters successively on ‘Eminent Victorians.’ ‘Queen Victoria,’ ‘Elizabeth and Essex’ and ‘The Miniatures’ the author has tried to impress forcibly on us the peculiar literary genre of Strachey by quotations copiously drawn from his books, he has not failed to remind us in the succeeding chapters on ‘Irony in Strachey’s works,’ ‘Strachey’s style,’ ‘Strachey and the Victorian Age,’ ‘The Old Biography and the New,’ ‘The other side of the Medal,’ and ‘Strachey and After,’ the points of view of the dissenters and to give his answers to some of them. Maybe Sri Srinivasa Iyengar has his own good grounds for disapproving of the ‘Life of Napoleon Bonaparte’ by Abbott. But we are not persuaded to acquiesce in his total lack of reference anywhere to that mighty and stirring biography, though belonging to the older type of ponderous compilation.

Very often we discover a pleasure, generally rare of its kind, when Srinivasa Iyengar blends his own language with that of the extracts taken from Strachey. Take, for instance, this sentence of his, while explaining a passage from ‘Elizabeth and Essex’ "Strachey’s portraits are essentially dramatic in mould and psychological in temper; and their very life-blood is an irony that ranges the whole gamut from savage satire, passing through wit and humour, and reaching the other end of dissolving pathos" (p. 85). Again mark the power of expression, effortless no doubt, when he writes:

"Without a correct knowledge of the workings of the human mind, of the peculiar crevices and odd juts of pointed-rocks that disfigure it and complicate its workings, the dramatist can make no headway in his art. There has generally to be a ‘hero’ and one….not a hero; there has to be, if possible, the hero’s party warring against the not-a-hero’s (or villain’s) party; the hero himself has to fight an inner battle, the two sides of his nature–Dr. Jekyll’s and Mr. Hyde’s–struggling for mastery; and thus, the exigencies and stringencies of the art required, true drama, shall be fashioned. Such an artifice, if it glows into inevitable beauty, is certainly worthy of all praise. It makes for symmetry, for compression, for concentration; and the point the writer has in mind is driven home unfalteringly and unknowingly." (p. 86). Indeed unfalteringly and unknowingly do we feel tempted to mistake Srinivasa Iyengar’s sentences for Strachey’s.

We cannot but exclaim in conclusion how sound and significant ring the words of Srinivasa Iyengar himself, as he closes his book: "After all, Lytton Strachey had not occurred in English Literature in vain. The new orientation he gave to the art of biography–that too has not been in vain." (p.206).

K. CHANDRASEKHARAN

Why Socialists Fail (An objective study of all Socialist Revolutions). By M. R. Raju. (Printed at P. P. P. Works, Madras. Price Re. 1.)

Mr. Raju is a bold thinker. And he is not afraid of being original. Many people have tried to explain the defeat of the Socialist movement in various countries. The rise of the Counter-Revolution in many European countries and the strength of the Fascist movements all over Europe have for a time baffled Communist thinkers, because Marx had not provided for, and Lenin had not perfected, the theory that Fascism is the apex of Imperialist-Capitalist politics.

Mr. Raju finds that he can trace the failure of the Socialist movements to a very simple source, namely, lack of military organization. One would have thought that the lack of military organization in a political party or a national movement can explain the failure not merely of Socialist movements, but of movements of many other varieties. But Mr. Raju thinks that the success of the Fascist movements is again traceable to a similar simple source, namely, the existence of a nearly efficient military organization as a part of the political movement.

One, however, feels that the success or failure of significant movements like Bolshevism and Nazism is not ultimately to be traced to the efficiency of a military organization or the range of a newly-designed Howitzer. Movements succeed or fail according as they mobilise the existing discontent against established government or create the discontent in sufficient measure. The lack of organized military support is dreadful no doubt at the climax of a Revolution, but what helps a Revolution is not a written contract with the army or the perfection of military drill in the Coloured Shirt movements so much as inevitable and almost downright sympathy and support from the individuals of the army and the people of the country. A written contract with the army or its leader or even with the military organisation or its leader (for, after all, a movement needs more than military drill to catch the imagination of the masses) may help to install a temporary dictatorship–and both the Soviet and the Nazi dictatorships may come under this category, though one might wish the Soviet to be different–but a more permanent success of a movement would require more than military competence.

Mr. Raju is not enamoured of recent Russian policy, but this is entirely because he fails to see that even Communism, inspite of its loyalty to Marx and Lenin, and in spite of its understanding of the evil significance of Fascism, may yet need to have recourse to measures of expediency in a moment of crisis, which might mislead the not-too-observant into believing that Fascism and Communism have really become "blood-brothers." It may be a different question to ask whether such a high ideal as communism prides itself on being can fulfill itself through subterfuge and strategy of an obnoxious kind, but obviously Stalin and his group have their own sense of ethics.

Mr. Raju has an interesting chapter on Gandhian Means Versus Marxian Means. It is a frank and avowed disapproval of Gandhiji and all he stands for. Mr. Raju climbs the pinnacle of History, and proclaims: "Jesus Christ in his mission of tolerance and peace failed; Buddha failed. Is Gandhi going to succeed in a capitalist-controlled social system with the predominant profit-making motive for man’s actions?" This may be good History, but it can be bad political prophesying. For the defect of Gandhism is not merely that the means are unthinkable in an unidealistic world, but that the type of means chosen might circumscribe even the objective of political action. Satyagraha may not in itself be defective, because Gandhiji claims for it that it can be perfected as a weapon of warfare, but Gandhism is defective because it does not clarify the objective it aims at or, where it so clarifies, the proclaimed objective is altogether unsatisfactory. Gandhism wedded to a village economy can be different from Satyagraha wedded to modern industrialisation. Here again, Mr. Raju throws all the blame on Gandhiji because Gandhiji’s philosophy stands in the way of a military organisation. Which shows how carefully Mr. Raju has nursed the illusion that military training can achieve miracles. Military training given to the wrong sort, to the so-called possible Counter-Revolutionaries, is directly aiding the enemy camp. There can be no sanctity in military training in itself. What should be found fault with in Gandhiji, if at all is that his objective is not desirable, or not sufficiently clarified. Mere faith in military training, that is, mere faith in violence, can be as futile as a political faith as mere faith in non-violence, because neither violence nor non-violence can in itself be the definition of one’s objective in political action, and each of them is the glorification of the means above the ends.

BURRA V. SUBRAHMANYAM

1 By Courtesy of the All-India Radio.