Men of inimitable intellect and refinement of spirit

The Indian in the maize East African, Kenya

Shakespeare’s “Ind” began to capture the Western European imagination in medieval times as a country of untold wealth, often identified with the legendary Prester John, whose “Christian kingdom” was first placed in the Far East but, after the 14th century, was identified with Ethiopia. The Venetian merchant Marco Polo had visited China in the late 13th century and thus shown one way of reaching India — directly eastwards by caravan. But it had proved tortuous, time-consuming and treacherous...

The leading Indian nationalists could make that choice because they were exceptionally well-educated and cosmopolitan minds. In The Discovery of India (Jawaharlal Nehru), The Foundations of Indian Culture (Sri Aurobindo) and the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, they reveal themselves as men of inimitable intellect and refinement of spirit. By adopting the term “India,” they hoped to convince Jinnah and his followers of the need to enter independence as a single political entity. Thanks to characteristic British duplicity, they failed, and the consequences still overwhelm us today. nationmedia.com/eastafrican Magazine Monday, April 23, 2007