What India taught Max Muller

K. Natwar Singh

Friedrich Max Muller was born in 1823 in eastern Germany and died in Oxford in 1900. The road between Lodhi Colony and India International Centre is named after him.

He was 25 when he arrived in Oxford. It was his home till his death. He was one among the most erudite and original scholars of Sanskrit scriptures in Europe. He was a professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University. He did yeoman’s work to popularise the Rigveda in Europe. In England, there was not much interest in the Vedas or the 49 volumes of the Sacred Books of the East.

He wrote a widely read book, India: What Can it Teach Us. Here is a quotation from the book: “If I were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power and beauty that nature can bestow —in some parts a very paradise on earth — I should point to India. If I were asked under what sky the human mind has most fully developed some of its choicest gifts, has most deeply pondered on the greatest problems of life, and has found solutions of some of them which well deserve the attention of even those who have studied Plato and Kant, I should point to India. And if I were to ask myself from what literature we who have been nurtured almost exclusively on the thoughts of Greeks and Romans, and of one Semitic race, the Jewish, may draw that corrective which is most wanted in order to make our inner life more perfect, more comprehensive, more universal, in fact more truly human, a life, not for this life only, again I should point to India.”

Max Muller is over-generous, but there is much truth in what he wrote. 

Nirad C Chaudhury titled the biography of Max Muller, Scholar Extraordinary, The Life of Professor the Rt Hon Friedrich Max Muller. Chaudhury’s book was published in 1974 by Chatto and Windus. I was then posted in London and read it with admiration and interest. Nirad Babu was then living in Oxford. We met from time to time. I respect him, though he could at times be dogmatic and infuriating. He wrote better English than most Englishmen. He was a scholar of the first rank. Max Muller could not hope for a better biography. Most readers of this column would not know that Nirad C Chaudhury died in Oxford on August 1, 1999, at the age of 101.

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President Donald Trump is the most powerful man in the world. It is a fact that no one can deny. However, he will go down in history as the man who made the Presidency stand on its head. Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary, says his decision to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the Iran nuclear deal — “will have significant geopolitical consequences. Some will be direct in nature, others in the nature of collateral damage.”

Perhaps for the first time since the 1956 Suez crisis, western powers have been so divided. This is a worrying situation. It will adversely affect the global order. India is broadly “taking the side” of the UK, France, Germany, China and Russia. All these countries will abide by the Iranian deal, the brainchild of President Barack Obama. How much harm (sanctions) can America inflict on these countries?

In the 50s, 60s and 70s, China and the USSR survived America efforts to throttle the two. Today’s China is different. So is Russia. It is to be seen that what will be the ultimate fallout of Trump’s unilateral decision.

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In 1962, the King of Greece came to India on a state visit. Dr S Radhakrishnan, welcoming the distinguished guest, said, “Your Majesty, you are the first King to come as our guest. Alexander (the great) came uninvited.”

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Incidentally, I turned 90 on May 16.