Precis exercise on “Aim of University Education” If then a practical end must be assigned to a University course, I say it is that of training good members of society. Its art is the art of social life, and its end is fitness for the world. It neither confines its views to particular professions on the one hand, nor creates heroes or inspires genius on the other. Works indeed of genius...

Precis exercise on “Good Conversation” Really good talk is one of the greatest pleasures and yet how rarely one comes across it. There are a good many people among my acquaintances who, on occasions, are capable of talking well. But what they seem to lack is initiative and deliberate purpose. If people would only look upon conversation in a more serious light, much would be gained. I do not of course...

Precis exercise on “Use and Abuse of Sports” Like every other instrument that man has invented, sport can be used cither for good or for evil purposes. Used well, it can teach endurance and courage, a sense of fair play and respect for rules, coordinate effort and the subordination of personal interests to those of the group. Used badly, it can encourage personal vanity and intolerant esprit de corps. In either...

Precis exercise on “The Influence and Greatness of Gandhi Ji” Whether in the long run Gandhi’s gospel of ahimsa-love and peace will triumph is a different matter. Gandhi’s attitudes were too spiritual to be generally adopted in India or in any other country. Even under Nehru, India championed ‘neutralism’ between the West and the Communist East but hardly ‘nonviolence’ in a Gandhian sense. She welcomed foreign capital and pursued Five Year...

Precis exercise on “The Aim of Education” Education ought to teach us how to be in love always and what to be in love with. The great things of history have been done by the great lovers, saints, men of science and arts, and the problem of civilization is to give every man a chance of being a saint, a man of science or an artist. But this problem cannot be...

Precis exercise on “False Sense of Superiority” Almost every country in the world believes that it has some special dispensation from Providence, that it is of the chosen people or race and that others, whether they are good or bad, are somewhat inferior creatures. It is extraordinary how this kind of feeling persists in all nations of the East as well as of the West without exception. The nations of the...

Precis exercise on “The Duty of an Artist” On the duty of the artist in the coming years, much has been said, indeed, rather too much. He is always being preached at and being told that he ought to preach. Naturally, he will be interested in his surroundings and want to comment on them, he will express the feelings of his people and reflect their attitude and he will, if generous-minded,...

Precis exercise on “Gandhiji and Nehru on Religion” Gandhi’s secularism meant something totally different from irreligion. He regarded all religions as true and could say with complete sincerity, ‘My veneration for other faiths is the same as for my own.’ Nehru’s views cannot be identified with Gandhi. He had little patience with religion in the communal manifestation or what he called ‘organized religion.’ He wrote in his Autobiography: The spectacle of...