SWADESHI.

nation. The imitation o£ European ways of living, whether
in respect of dress, food, architecture or what not, has led
i;o the adoption of many European luxuries which are quite
unnecessary, and sometimes positively injurious. We shall
-certainly be much wiser to do without these useless or
injurious things altogether—with economy to ourselves—
•than we should be in making them locally, even worse than
•they are made in Europe. There is, for example, a large
•class o£ goods, cheap and nasty, which are manufactured
solely for the Eastern market, and which no one with edu-
cation or taste would use in England. Yet these are pur-
chased eagerly by Indians who desire to furnish in the
European style, and in such quantities that their drawing-
rooms are more like shops than living-rooms. Not long
ago an Indian Prince consulted an European friend as to
~bhe furniture in his palace. He said, i Look here, you are
.an old friend, I want you to go through my palace and
.reject everything European which is not worth having, and
which only excites the ridicule of Europeans.' The result
was that over two lakhs worth of rubbish was sold in
^Calcutta. It would be difficult to say how many lakhs
worth would be disposed of if a similar process were carried
out on a wider scale.

Probably ninety per cent, of European articles pur-
chased by Indians are either ugly or -useless or both. The
rich offend as badly as the poor, indeed more so, as they
•can afford to buy a larger quantity of useless and ugly
things. All of these things cost money, and it is a waste
of money not merely because the money goes out of India.
It is a spending of substance for ' that which is not bread/
We shall certainly gain nothing by transferring the seat of
their manufacture to India.

Humanity is not in want of manufactures.