Enemy at the Gates
“For barbarism is always around civilization, amid it and beneath it, ready to engulf it by arms, or mass migration, or unchecked fertility. Barbarism is like the jungle; it never admits defeat; it waits patiently for centuries to recover the territory it has lost.”
– Will Durant
The Indian civilization may be said to be the only one of its ancient contemporaries to survive in the essentially same form since it expanded into being. The Egyptians may have left the pyramids, the Greco-Roman civilizational mores may have survived and have obtained a preeminent position in today’s world order, and the Chinese civilization may argued to be the only other survivors of the ancient world; but not many will disagree that if you transport an average Indian from rural India back a couple of thousand years in time, he will feel quite at home and familiar with the daily lifestyle of those he will see around him. The same cannot be said of the others.
This is not to insinuate that nothing has changed substantially in terms of modern thought processes being introduced and adopted but the cultural vitality and characteristic traits of the Indic culture as a whole has displayed a stunning persistence throughout time. India has seen many invasions from nearly every quarter, right from the Greco-Persians and Turkic tribes from the north-west, lured by the prosperity of the great Indian plains; pouring through the gates of the Khyber Pass. Through the dense tropical jungle and rolling hills various tribes from Burma have arrived in the Brahmaputra-Barak valley. Despite these repeated invasions occurring over millennia, the question remains, what was the root cause that the Indic culture managed to withstand the press of these formidable challenges?
While the geography of the Indian subcontinent is opined as a reason by some, to me, it appears to be one of the reasons, not in any way to be considered as the most important even in passing. The root cause of this last bastion of the truly ancient civilizations still standing while its contemporaries have been either exterminated or transformed into nearly unrecognizable forms, may be the ability of the inhabitants of this land to absorb new thoughts and ideas and amalgamating them to their own while staying true to its root. This remarkable trait of acceptance has allowed this culture to assimilate the good and to weed out the bad from all influences, be it internal or external.
As the eons unfold one year at a time, I wonder as to how long can this culture survive in the face of repeated onslaughts and nearly insurmountable odds. This is a question that only time can answer. However, of this. I am certain that whatever the answer may be it will be made or unmade through our collective action and inaction.
It will do us a lot of good to remember that barbarianism is standing at our gates, and no walls can stop the hordes without the defenders defending it.
