India and Indian Studies «India and Indian Studies»

The cultural and social structure of India is clearly determined by two fundamental phenomena: renewal on the one hand, and continuity and tradition on the other hand. A number of remarkable changes have in recent years been brought about in modern India by Western industrialization- uninterruptedly and in various forms and dimensions, and much of what we would consider as genuinely Indian has been constantly transformed, especially in the great cities inhabited by millions of people. Naturally, certain reforms were already introduced in the colonial period. But ever greater reforms succeeded each other, after India, now more than five decennia ago, obtained svatantratŸ, independence, and become a free nation. This in many respects painful development, this process of being reshaped, is counterbalanced by the other phenomenon I just mentioned, that is to say, continuity and tradition, which have not seldom been found to be nurturing and protective. There are many Indians, particularly in th