69

talk with their whole bodies. The exaggerated postures of Indian medieval sculpture are not artistic fantasy but stem directly from the physical stance and movement of the Indian's body.

Their brown shaded smooth skin gives a gentle unity and silhouette to their bodies. The general impression is one of extreme compactness yet within that compactness an infinite variety of modulated form and design. [This balance of body has combined with the simple draping of fabric, complements the general grace of bearing.]

more expressive eyes - the isolation of the sexes, where conversation is not permissible causes the development of silent facial and body gestures with subtle communication.

Space, like time, engenders forgetfulness; but it does so by setting us bodily free from our surroundings and giving us back our primitive, unattached state. p4 Magic Mountain

May 16, 70

There is a provincial stagnation in Indian thinking of the present day. Bad education and lack of cheap free flow of information

70

are particularly to blame. But I also wonder if the caste system (the main social structure) is not also a cause of the lack of quality of thought. A system which condones the cataloguing of people into relative fixed stations in society can hardly condone a free flow of ideas. [I mean beyond the direct influence such as that sudras or sweepers can get no chance for decent schooling.] Does the caste system promote a similar rigidity in thinking also?

Most of the Indians I talk to (and this is in English, a language most are not at ease with) speak in simple-minded, black and white generalities, with the one-sided fierceness of one who knows he alone possesses the truth. That their conversation is drenched in ignorance is not as disturbing as its narrowness and lack of sensitivity. There is rarely an exchange. Indians never listen to what you say, only to what they are saying.

Of course, Remarkable men with original minds can spring from any layer of the culture, but the odds in India are much stronger against this growth, and also an Indian capable of independent thought is rarely capable of independent action.