THROUGH INDIAN EYES
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY, EASTERN AND WESTERN, sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Government of India; ara and Unwin, two vols. English price, 4m IVE years ago the Minister of Education in India suggested the preparation of this work. He pointed out that in Europe "even the general history of: philosophy starts with the Greeks, and ends with modern Euro- | pean philosophy, touching merely the fringe of Indian and Chinese thought." And this, he added, is what is taught by the universities in India. He therefore proposed to set up a committee of eminent thinkers, with Dr, Sarvapelli Radhakrishnan as chairman, to write a history of philosophy which would give proper emphasis to India’s contribution to world thought. The result, not surprisingly, is that India is brought to the forefront, while the West moves into second place. In the first volume 545 pages ate given to India, and barely 60 pages to China’ and Japen. Volume two (448 pages) deals with the Middle East and Greece, moves on to medieval thought, and
leaves a little more than 200 pages for modern and contemporary philosophy in the West, No complaint can be. made of this treatment. The editors have merely reversed the usual process: indeed, they have been more generous to the West than Western editors have _ generally been to the East. And European readers should’ be grateful for the opportunity now given them ‘to see the philosophy of India through Indian eyes. What they will make of it,.is another matter. Indian thought is profoundly metaphysical, and is so tied up ‘with difficulties of language that there is constant need of interpretation. Not much, for instance, can be learnt from sentences like the following: "The idealism of the Yogacara (Vijnanavada) School is to be understood as a significant modification of the Madhyamika negativism (sunyata)." Moreover, Indian philosophers are so deeply immersed in their own thought that when they come to speak of Western philosophy they give it a subtle coloration which makes familiar ideas seem new and strange. These two volumes will undoubtedly be valuable in India, but readers outside that couns
try will find them difficult.
H.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 740, 18 September 1953, Page 14
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359THROUGH INDIAN EYES New Zealand Listener, Volume 29, Issue 740, 18 September 1953, Page 14
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