THE EGOTISM OF THE WEST
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR, —I have been a careful reader of your distinguished and impartial columns for many years, but I cannot recall ever before having seen published therein such a potpourri of nonsense as an article entitled " The Egotism of the West," by Mr. Vasudeo B. Metta, in your issue of January 14th.
This gentleman, a Hindu, assumes the role of spokesman for " the East," not, be it noticed, for Hindustan, where he might be on tolerably safe ground, especially when he is dealing with " the Oriental mystic who leads a life of medi- tation in a forest," " the ideal of asceticism," " religions culture," and all the other well-worn trappings of Hindu " superiority " which cut little ice these days, whatever they might have done among the whiskered disciples of Max Muller, Edwin Arnold, and Co.
The whole of Asia is not victimized by the Indian sun, and therefore does not go in for that meditation which suggests an inferior liver rather than a superior soul. All that is or was noble in Asia followed her three greatest Sons—Jesus, Mohammed, and Zoroaster=who were Egoists divinely inspired, and whose call was not to meditation but to service and warfare against the evils which beset mankind. " No Man shall come to the Father save through the Son " was Christ's manifesto ; " There is no God but God and Mohammed is His Prophet " was the proud proclamation of the Founder of Islam ; while Zoroaster gave as his supreme message to his brethren—Work. The Heaven he painted was one in which men worked with golden implements. But Zoroaster reserved his religion for the Iranian people, and no other have ever followed it. His ideal was nationalistic, exclusive, and imperial, hence the splendours of the great dynasty founded by Arda.schir which challenged and defeated the legions of Rome.
" The Chinese, Indians, or Persians were never proud of themselves as ' nations,' " your contributor cheerfully con- tinues, with the intellectual insouciance suggestive of the Indian Bar library. Really ! I refer him to the inscriptions and engravings on the famous Rock of Behistun ; the staircase of Xerxes at Persepolis (where incidentally is depicted a sacred Cow or Bull being led by vanquished Indians as a tribute to the Great King), and the rock-sculptures at Nakht- i-Rustom, of which all we Iranians are intensely proud, for they tell of the defeat of Rome. Those inscriptions are a long paean of Imperialistic pride, racialism, and martial splendour. With dazzling effrontery Mr. Metta turns next to Islam, and speaking of its splendid peoples at the height of their glory assures us that " for them the difference between themselves and others was spiritual ; they were Muslims and the others non-Muslim." As polite as that ! Up to the time of the Young Turk Revolution non-Moslem subjects of the Sultan were dubbed in official documents " Rayah " or the " Herd," and until Queen Victoria spoke a word in the ear of the Shah, Zoroastrians in Persia were called " Guebres " or infidels ! To this day in Persia you bear a cabman say " That man is as great an ass as a Turk," and
when the latter wants to be unusually impolite he will. mutter " So and so is an Arab in my sight."
No Hindu can ever approach the subject of the relations of the peoples of the two ancient continents without betraying an inferiority complex. In this case the betrayal is the more offensive because it drags in other peoples who can get on very well without a treatment of hot air from Hindustan, " Europeans and Americans of to-day look with contempt on the Chinese or Persians, &c." I was in China just over two years ago and met at least a hundred Americans at " the longest cocktail bar in the world "—in Pekin and at Hong- Kong. I recall having expressed my loathing for the Chinese based on nothing but the indescribable filth of Canton. I found myself contradicted all along the line. Far from any suggestion of contempt I found a genuine admiration for many aspects of Chinese character and an almost universal feeling that, provided the rights of the foreigner were not violated. there should be a frank effort to revise Far Eastern policy.
If Mr. Metta finds time to return home via Iran he will find there an amusing society in which Swedes, Turks, Persians, Britons, Frenchmen, and Americans meet gaily or serenely, and without the creation of that atmosphere of lugubrious bluff which pervades every assembly in India where one attempts to mix the races. I have travelled, Sir, all over the globe and found nothing but a feeling of romantic respect for the historic Persian race. Similarly, I have noticed that, outside his own cult, the Hindu is not the most popular man east of Suez.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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