THE INFLUENCE OF MODERN EUROPE ON INDIAN AKT. 77"

for an hour and a half will again suffice for daily bread- -
winning. Men must live by manufacture, agriculture,,,
or trade, or by the practice of some profession. But for
all that, India is India still, and shall not even her mete-
rial production be controlled by the spirit of her real self ?
If she is to grow wealthy, let it be by as fa,r as possible-
ministering to the higher needs of men as in the past; let
it be possible for the Swadeshist to buy Swadeshi
manufactures because they are better, more beautiful or
more enduring than the work of others. Let India supply
the world again with beautiful fabrics, holding the market
by sheer superiority of design and workmanship— a thing
still possible if the existing traditional capacity of Indian
craftsmen were rightly organized. There is a real demand-
in other lands for things worth making things, made well;
if in England it still pays even a few groups of men to--
turn out linen, tapestry or carpets by hand, (for the sake-
of the fine quality of material, and still more for the art
qualities of the 'accomplished work) it should still be -
possible for those who can work much cheaper, (and could
still command the services of craftsmen possessing here-
ditary skill sufficient to make the fortxine of any manufac-
turer in Europe) to find a market for their own best work.
The aim must be for quality not quantity. There is no •
country in the world where so much capacity for design
and workmanship exists ; but we are recklessly flinging
this, almost our greatest treasure, to the winds, and with
it all spontaneous expression in art.

In the opinion of thinking men it must appear that
it is not worth while being a nation at all, or making any
attempt at political freedom, if India is to remain in the
end thus enslaved at heart by purely material ideals. The •
national movement has 110 justification if it does not carry