78 ESSAYS li\ NATIONAL IDEALISM.

with, it some hope of a new manifestation of the Indian
genius in relation to the real things of life. The signific-
ance of the movement, however, consists just in this, that
such a hope is indeed bound up with it.

I have spoken of foreign trade ; but what is far more
important, from the art point of view, is- the Indian
.attitude towards Indian art. For Indian art can never be
«reat, can never mean to Indians or foreigners what it
once meant, until it is again made for Indians and can
count upon their sympathy and comprehension as a birth-
right. An art, which is primarily concerned with supply-
in0" the particular requirements of peoples entirely out of
real touch with its producers, must always be slavish and
.artificial. It is as evil a thing* for us to supply the
American market with bales of cheap and vulgar phulkarisf
-embroidered in offensive colours and mean designs and
sloppy needlework, as it is for Manchester to send us
bicycle-patterned saris. The only true remedies that can
be effectual are the re-generation of Indian taste, and the
re-establishment of some standard of quality. Nearly
thirty years ago Sir George Birdwood said truly that—

"Indian native gentlemen and ladies should make it a point
of culture never to wear any clothing or ornaments but of native
manufacture and strictly native design, constantly purified by
comparison with the best examples and the models furnished by
the sculptors of Amaravati, Sanchi and Barhut."

Indian art ca,n only revive and nourish if it is beloved
loy Indians themselves._______________________

* If anyone should doubt that the attempts to wrest the
Indian market in textiles from the hands of the village printer and
dyer has had any but a grossly degrading effect on the English
manufacture and English workman, let him study the specimen of
English prints reproduced in the Journal of Indian Art, Vol. V1I9
as examples for comparison with Indian work. Fdr the converse
result, see Vol. II, p. 27, of the same Journal, exhibiting degene-
rate Indian embroidery.

I' See Mrs. Steel, Journal of Indian Art, Vol. II. 1888%