The Foundations of New India

India today is the scene of a great experiment. What her leaders are seeking to do is to create a new civilization which absobs and assimilated important elements from the rest of the world but builds on her own historical foundations. It is more than a process of modernization. It is an attempt to extend the base of her own life by the acceptance of ideas like freedom, equality, government by consent with the participation of all sections, which were alien to her inherited social conceptions. It also seeks to build on the foundations of modern science, technology and large-scale industrial production. A welfare state which enables its members to live a materially good life, provides them with the goods and services which will make their lives easier, better and less subjected to the strain of poverty, illness and other avoidable hardships, while at the same time cultivating her own ethical and spiritual values, is the ideal for which India is working today.