The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
“From keen irritation and annoyance . . . we passed to a feeling of contempt touched by a sorry sense of amusement that the Absolute (or the Spirit or whatever else the Author wishes to call it) should indulge in the bad joke of this conflict. . . . We consider both Mr. Archer and Sir John Woodroffe in this episode a nuisance. . . . There is an absence of clearness even of logic. . . . A person who presents such a position as this is not really and truly the friend of India.”—The Indian Philosophical Review (Professor A. Widgery).
“Rechauffé of more or less familiar arguments—without the illumination of any new thought—vague, obscure— illogical antithesis and loose and disingenuous assertions— extravagant abstraction—cannot be exempted from the charge of bias. His interpretation of the West suggests that with all his metaphysical abstractions he is unable to distinguish form from reality—vapourising, nebulous. The aspect of these essays is when not obscure, familiar; their style is provocative without being very stimulating. The confusion of issues, the multiplication of sketchy extracts without context, the breach of simple rules of logic and a running speech that gives no reason for the division into Chapters, make altogether a book which is very hard to read and still harder to remember when read.”—The Englishman.
“Sir John Woodroffe is a guide whom the reader may follow with confidence. He has lived many years in India and has shown himself to be in real sympathy with the spirit of the East; on the other hand he had not lost touch with the ideals of his own people nor been blinded by the essential beauty of Indian tradition so as to be unaware of actual present defects; nor does he forget that those who write against or in praise of India must do so with exactness, discrimination, and the latter with the avoidance of mere puffing general statements. He is definite and balanced and gives one the impression of being thoroughly reliable.”—The Theosophist (A. de L.)
“I admire the spirit of absolute fairness with which Sir John Woodroffe has approached the task—should be studied carefully by every Indian who aspires to lead the people and to mould the aspirations of his countrymen.”— The Indian Review (Hon. Mr. Justice Seshagiri Aiyar).
“The whole book is replete with useful suggestions to every one who is interested in a proper understanding of Indian culture—Sir John who has devoted many years to the study of Indian religion and who brings to his task a judicial frame of mind and abundant sympathy has no difficulty in proving the utter hollowness of Mr. Archer’s conclusions.”—The Vedânta Kesari.
“Sir John Woodroffe rightly earned the gratitude of the people by his recent vigorous repudiation of the many unjust aspersions made on India and the Indians by a foreign critic.”—(Hon. Justice Sir Abdur Rahim in his Convocation Address of 1919 to the Mysore University.
“We have not seen any one who loves Bhārata as Sir John Woodroffe does. His pre-eminence consists in this that he has said that the service (Sevā) of Bhārata is the service of God (Shrī Bhagavān).”—Utsava (R.D.M.)
p. xiv
By the same Author
BHĀRATA SHAKTI
COLLECTION OF ADDRESSES ON INDIAN CULTURE
“The thoughtful sayings of an honest foreigner, a true Muni or “Freethinker” as he himself interprets the Hindū terms . . . ought to be in the hands of every Indian. It would give him thought and self-respect. The Christian Missionary and the Christian Orientalist are the two great factors of Indian denationalisation. We fight the third factor the politician more or less successfully. We have fought the Missionary and defeated him generally, but the scars of his early attacks we are unconsciously bearing as acceptable badges . . . Thus when we run down—we are unwittingly showing ourselves as Chelās of the mediocrity of Europe. Like a living organism we must cast off the foreign matter trying to bore a home into our intellectual system. Sir John does not spare the Indian mind in its analysis. He has very ably shown that our so often professed Vairāgya is more often our incapacity and sometimes philosophic confusion. The little book is one of those productions which would go to make a new age in this country. It is a protest against cultural suicide of a civilization designed by its past to live for ever.”—The Modern Review.
“Sir John Woodroffe rarely says anything which has not an element of originality in it. He makes a powerful plea against the cultural conquest of this country by the nations of the West . . . a vigorous plea which we commend to the notice of every true born Indian.
p. xv
Sir John’s sympathy is bold and fearless as his scholarship is deep and erudite—he has a clear and perspective view of our culture.”—The Amrita Bazār Patrikā.
“The whole of the booklet is studded with shining gems of thought and thrilling insight into truth . . . this sterling faith in the profound individuality of India, in the glorious future which She is bound to work out for Herself, in the great mission She is to fulfil in the world, animates every word spoken in the addresses compiled in this book. We cannot, in fact over-estimate the necessity of every student of India, of every worker in Her cause, furnishing himself with a copy of this compilation and it is our ardent wish that the great exponent of the wonderful Tāntrik lore of India would more often make time to come forward, as in these addresses to contribute his weighty ideas to the keen intellectual struggle going on in our country round practical problems of re-organising our life and thought.”—The Prabuddha Bhārata.
“Each of these papers is overflowing with thoughtfulness and desire to do good to Bhārata. We ask every English educated man to read it. It will give us reverence for our natural culture and will save us from the thoughtless spirit of imitation.”
“From keen irritation and annoyance . . . we passed to a feeling of contempt touched by a sorry sense of amusement that the Absolute (or the Spirit or whatever else the Author wishes to call it) should indulge in the bad joke of this conflict. . . . We consider both Mr. Archer and Sir John Woodroffe in this episode a nuisance. . . . There is an absence of clearness even of logic. . . . A person who presents such a position as this is not really and truly the friend of India.”—The Indian Philosophical Review (Professor A. Widgery).
“Rechauffé of more or less familiar arguments—without the illumination of any new thought—vague, obscure— illogical antithesis and loose and disingenuous assertions— extravagant abstraction—cannot be exempted from the charge of bias. His interpretation of the West suggests that with all his metaphysical abstractions he is unable to distinguish form from reality—vapourising, nebulous. The aspect of these essays is when not obscure, familiar; their style is provocative without being very stimulating. The confusion of issues, the multiplication of sketchy extracts without context, the breach of simple rules of logic and a running speech that gives no reason for the division into Chapters, make altogether a book which is very hard to read and still harder to remember when read.”—The Englishman.
“Sir John Woodroffe is a guide whom the reader may follow with confidence. He has lived many years in India and has shown himself to be in real sympathy with the spirit of the East; on the other hand he had not lost touch with the ideals of his own people nor been blinded by the essential beauty of Indian tradition so as to be unaware of actual present defects; nor does he forget that those who write against or in praise of India must do so with exactness, discrimination, and the latter with the avoidance of mere puffing general statements. He is definite and balanced and gives one the impression of being thoroughly reliable.”—The Theosophist (A. de L.)
“I admire the spirit of absolute fairness with which Sir John Woodroffe has approached the task—should be studied carefully by every Indian who aspires to lead the people and to mould the aspirations of his countrymen.”— The Indian Review (Hon. Mr. Justice Seshagiri Aiyar).
“The whole book is replete with useful suggestions to every one who is interested in a proper understanding of Indian culture—Sir John who has devoted many years to the study of Indian religion and who brings to his task a judicial frame of mind and abundant sympathy has no difficulty in proving the utter hollowness of Mr. Archer’s conclusions.”—The Vedânta Kesari.
“Sir John Woodroffe rightly earned the gratitude of the people by his recent vigorous repudiation of the many unjust aspersions made on India and the Indians by a foreign critic.”—(Hon. Justice Sir Abdur Rahim in his Convocation Address of 1919 to the Mysore University.
“We have not seen any one who loves Bhārata as Sir John Woodroffe does. His pre-eminence consists in this that he has said that the service (Sevā) of Bhārata is the service of God (Shrī Bhagavān).”—Utsava (R.D.M.)
p. xiv
By the same Author
BHĀRATA SHAKTI
COLLECTION OF ADDRESSES ON INDIAN CULTURE
“The thoughtful sayings of an honest foreigner, a true Muni or “Freethinker” as he himself interprets the Hindū terms . . . ought to be in the hands of every Indian. It would give him thought and self-respect. The Christian Missionary and the Christian Orientalist are the two great factors of Indian denationalisation. We fight the third factor the politician more or less successfully. We have fought the Missionary and defeated him generally, but the scars of his early attacks we are unconsciously bearing as acceptable badges . . . Thus when we run down—we are unwittingly showing ourselves as Chelās of the mediocrity of Europe. Like a living organism we must cast off the foreign matter trying to bore a home into our intellectual system. Sir John does not spare the Indian mind in its analysis. He has very ably shown that our so often professed Vairāgya is more often our incapacity and sometimes philosophic confusion. The little book is one of those productions which would go to make a new age in this country. It is a protest against cultural suicide of a civilization designed by its past to live for ever.”—The Modern Review.
“Sir John Woodroffe rarely says anything which has not an element of originality in it. He makes a powerful plea against the cultural conquest of this country by the nations of the West . . . a vigorous plea which we commend to the notice of every true born Indian.
p. xv
Sir John’s sympathy is bold and fearless as his scholarship is deep and erudite—he has a clear and perspective view of our culture.”—The Amrita Bazār Patrikā.
“The whole of the booklet is studded with shining gems of thought and thrilling insight into truth . . . this sterling faith in the profound individuality of India, in the glorious future which She is bound to work out for Herself, in the great mission She is to fulfil in the world, animates every word spoken in the addresses compiled in this book. We cannot, in fact over-estimate the necessity of every student of India, of every worker in Her cause, furnishing himself with a copy of this compilation and it is our ardent wish that the great exponent of the wonderful Tāntrik lore of India would more often make time to come forward, as in these addresses to contribute his weighty ideas to the keen intellectual struggle going on in our country round practical problems of re-organising our life and thought.”—The Prabuddha Bhārata.
“Each of these papers is overflowing with thoughtfulness and desire to do good to Bhārata. We ask every English educated man to read it. It will give us reverence for our natural culture and will save us from the thoughtless spirit of imitation.”
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