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Salient. An Organ of Student Opinion at Victoria College, Wellington, N.Z. Vol. 19, No. 2. March 10, 1955

Breakdown of Hinduism

Breakdown of Hinduism

But these are the extremists. There are others who are prepared to accept completely foreign cultures; who regard their old cultures as dead—the cause of their country's poverty and backwardness. Some wish for a synthesis between the two. The majority of the educated classes no longer believe in the old religions (example: the Constitution of India is founded upon Christian principles). This is causing the breakdown of orthodox Hinduism, with its associated caste system, the rigidity of its social barriers, the age-long domination of the Brahmans. These people, with no positive beliefs, are groping for a philosophy of life, and may well turn to communism.

Asian students defined the University as "a supra-national autonomous unit, owing allegiance only to the Good, the True and the Beautiful, which are values rooted in an eternal order, with God as the central concept." They believed this concept is as valid for Asian universities as it is for European universities, but between the reality and the idea "falls the shadow," us Poet Eliot writes, and the gap is wider in Asia than in Europe.

The origin of the Asian universities is found in utilitarian motives—the purpose they served was to train professionals and administrative personnel. The European universities, founded in medieval times, emphasised the humanities. A result of this utilitarian origin is the fact that Asian universities are now schools rather than places for research. In an effort to increase the numbers of administrators, the universities sought quantity rather than quality. Many were admitted who should not have been, and standards dropped considerably.

Inaugurated under Government auspices, the Government had control of both the curriculum and the method of teaching in the universities.