Luke’s Reviews > The Discovery of India > Status Update

But it is a curious realism that sticks to the empty shell of the past and ignores or refuses to understand the hard facts of the present, which are not only political and economic but also include the feelings and urges of vast numbers of people. Such realism is more imaginative and divorced from to-day's and to-morrow's problems than much of the so-called idealism of many people.

The future historians of England will have to consider how far England's decline from her proud eminence was due to her imperialism and racialism, which corrupted her public life and made her forget the lessons of her own history and literature.

You know a book's good when your brain registers you nearing the halfway point and goes "TOO SOON."

I have no doubt at all that among the causes of India's decay in recent centuries, purdah, or the seclusion of women, holds an important place. I am even more convinced that the complete ending of this barbarous custom is essential before India can have a progressive social life.

We cling still to the ways of dogmatic religion, adhere to outworn practices and beliefs, and yet talk and presume to live in terms of the scientific method.

It is unfortunate that, despite delving into the figures of Cyrus and Darius the Great(s), my current Art History class does not mention at all the civilization of the Indus Valley.

The use of the word 'Orientalist' in a vaguely positive fashion requires a grain of salt in this otherwise wonderful work.