THE INFLUENCE OF MODERN EUROPE ON INDIAN ART. 75<

in Indian society and ideas which hare from within contri-
buted to the same result.

The internal influences are complex, and closely
related to the external. Architecture is the mistress of all
arts; and where architecture is neglected the lesser arts
must also perish. Even Native States no longer give-
employment to the hereditary builders ; and so blindly do
individuals also imitate the examples of Europeans, that it
is the echo of the English suburban villa which shapes the
ideal of the house in the modern Indian mind. If England
has in her public buildings set before us examples of
bastard Anglo-Classic and Neo-Gothic architecture, we have-
made haste to blindly copy example. If Brussels carpets-
come from Europe, it is we who buy them in preference to-
the productions of Indian, looms. If coloured crystal balls
are made in England, it is we who buy them to c adornr
our temples. If English dress appears unlovely and absurd
on us, it is we ourselves who are responsible for the wear-
ing of it. Nothing can possibly be more fatal to the arts
than this attitude of snobbishness, or, at the best, weakness,,
which leads us to imitate without consideration. The Art
of Life is now less and less for us ruled by principle, but
more and more by impulse; and so it is natural that in our
attitude towards art itself we are undisciplined and unprin-
cipled. For this we are ourselves responsible ; the fact of
foreign rule need not compel the Indian to acquire a foreign
mind ; and as long as we so carelessly contribute oiirselves-
to the decay of art amongst us, our complaint against

(E. B. Havell, the c Studio ' Vol. 44, p. 116). In the words of the-
group of arti^s already referred to (Morris, Crane, etc., 1879) " we
cannot conceive that any thoughtful person will deny the responsi-
bility of England in the matter, or the duty which a great country
owes to the arts."