द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

10 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE
there is nevertheless a powerful nationalist movement in th
country to-day and a strong sense of unity, it is due entirel
to the fact that the people have for the first time in their histor
begun to feel that they have been conquered and simul
taneously they have begun to realise the deplorable effect
—both cultural and material—which follow in the wake o
political servitude.
Though geographically, ethnologically and historically
India presents an endless diversity to any observer—there i
none the less a fundamental unity underlying this diversity.
But as Mr. Vincent A. Smith has said: 'European writers a
a rule, have been more conscious of the diversity than of the
unity of India. . . . India beyond all doubt possesses a dee
underlying fundamental unity, far more profound than tha
produced either by geographical isolation or by politica
suzerainty. That unity transcends the innumerable diver-
sities of blood, colour, language, dress, manners and sect.'¹
Geographically, India seems to be cut out from the rest o
the world as a self-contained unit. Bounded on the north by
the mighty Himalayas and surrounded on both sides by the
endless ocean, India affords the best example of a geographica
unit. The ethnic diversity of India has never been a pro-
blem—for throughout her history she has been able to absorb
different races and impose on them one common culture and
tradition. The most important cementing factor has been
the Hindu religion. North or South, East or West, wherever
you may travel, you will find the same religious ideas, th
same culture and the same tradition. All Hindus look upon
India as the Holy Land. The sacred rivers like the sacre
cities are distributed all over the country.² If as a pious
Hindu you have to complete your round of pilgrimage, you
will have to travel to Setubandha-Rameswara in the extreme
south and to Badrinath in the bosom of the snow-capped
Himalayas in the north. The great teachers who wanted to
convert the country to their faith had always to tour th
whole of India and one of the greatest of them, Shankara-
¹ Vincent A. Smith, The Oxford History of India, Introduction, p. 10.
² These and other facts and arguments will be found in Prof. Radh
Kumud Mookerji's The Fundamental Unity of India. (Longmans, 1914.