Europe and its struggles 5

Europe had and still has many great characteristics. The European nations (or atleast the most prosperous of them) were diligent, knew how to make most of the material life and lay emphasis on a balanced life full of work and enjoyments. They had invested a lot in education, culture and scientific discoveries. Their great universities and institutions are a testimony to the progress made in different fields. A large majority of the great scientists of late nineteenth and early twentieth century were from Europe. In music, literature and art and architecture Europe continued its progress in the post Renaissance period till the early twentieth century. Europeans were fiercely nationalistic and did everything to build their country often sacrificing their personal lives for the society and the country. Most of the great schools of thoughts between fourteenth and twentieth centuries came from Europe. Proliferation of scientific thoughts made the learned and educated Europeans liberal and free from the dogmas. This in turn helped them in warming up to the other cultures and some of the great minds turned towards East – including great names like Schopenhauer, Max Mueller, Paul Duessen etc. So Europe had all the qualities to become the world leader, which they remained for around two centuries. But where did they fail?

The nemesis of European imperialism was not at all an external threat. Like Rome, their predecessors, the danger lay within. Drunk with power some dominant European nations thought that they could be the supreme rulers and they needed a pretext, a something to obfuscate the obvious from imaginary. They got that in anti Semitism which was so prevalent in the Christian world for the past 2000 years. Anti Semitism was a smoke screen, but that served two major purposes – 1) Getting a united platform based on a common objective and sympathizers even among enemies 2) As an ideal smoke screen it could be used to hide all other misdeeds and transgresses. The Aryan Invasion Theory, which became so popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and which is still accepted by a section of the secular intelligentsia despite all contrary evidences, was used to justify the actions, and was probably conceived, nourished and nurtured to provide a sense of superiority to European political class – the image of blue-blooded Aryans who once dominated the world and who were the purest of the races. In fact as DNA analysis and archeological evidences have now proved, that there was no such race any time anywhere and the term Aryan merely meant “noble” in Sanskrit which referred to the character of people who were by nature pure and followed virtuous and duty bound life as clearly outlined in Mahabharata and theVedas.

But then possibly it was a all part of a larger, divine play, like everything else, to destroy the arrogance, impertinence and demonic characters which raised their heads – in the form of imperialism, oppression of other nations, racial superiority and exploitation. This divine play also possibly pointed out the pitfalls of rampant materialism sans any higher and lofty ideals. It also pointed out how dangerous it was to rely on intelligence alone, as intelligence devoid of any higher purpose is akin to beastliness, even though it can bring in wonderful material progress.

Suffice to say that the Second World War destroyed Europe and they could rebuild themselves only because of American largesse (sadly the European nations are not very grateful, are they?). The good news is that it destroyed imperialism and created a new power balance in the world and it unshackled many nations which otherwise did not stand a chance to get out of their bondage.

Didn’t Swami Vivekananda predict the same when he said after his trip to Europe that 1) Europe was sitting on a volcano and it might explode any time 2) India will become independent through a unique and novel way, unprecedented in the history. The results of World War 2 provided that unique way.