CWCD 5/5
Oriental Hotel
Yokohama
10th July, 1893
Dear Alasinga, Balaji, G.G., Banking
Corporation, and all my Madras Friends,
Excuse my not keeping you constantly informed
of my movements. One is so busy every day, and especially myself who am quite
new to the life of possessing things and taking care of them. That consumes so
much of my energy. It is really an awful botheration.
From Bombay we reached Colombo. Our steamer
remained in port for nearly the whole day, and we took the opportunity of
getting off to have a look at the town. We drove through the streets, and the
only thing I remember was a temple in which was a very gigantic Murti (image)
of the Lord Buddha in a reclining posture, entering Nirvana. . . .
The next station was Penang, which is only a
strip of land along the sea in the body of the Malaya Peninsula. The Malayas
are all Mohammedans and in old days were noted pirates and quite a dread to
merchantmen. But now the leviathan guns of modern turreted battleships have
forced the Malayas to look about for more peaceful pursuits. On our way from
Penang to Singapore, we had glimpses of Sumatra with its high mountains, and
the Captain pointed out to me several places as the favourite haunts of pirates
in days gone by. Singapore is the capital of the Straits Settlements. It has a
fine botanical garden with the most splendid collection of palms. The beautiful
fan - like palm, called the traveller's palm, grows here in abundance, and the
bread - fruit tree everywhere. The celebrated mangosteen is as plentiful here
as mangoes in Madras, but mango is nonpareil. The people here are not half so
dark as the people of Madras, although so near the line. Singapore possesses a
fine museum too.
Hong Kong next. You feel that you have reached
China, the Chinese element predominates so much. All labour, all trade seems to
be in their hands. And Hong Kong is real China. As soon as the steamer casts
anchor, you are besieged with hundreds of Chinese boats to carry you to the
land. These boats with two helms are rather peculiar. The boatman lives in the
boat with his family. Almost always, the wife is at the helms, managing one
with her hands and the other with one of her feet. And in ninety per cent of
cases, you find a baby tied to her back, with the hands and feet of the little
Chin left free. It is a quaint sight to see the little John Chinaman dangling
very quietly from his mother's back, whilst she is now setting with might and
main, now pushing heavy loads, or jumping with wonderful agility from boat to
boat. And there is such a rush of boats and steam - launches coming and going
out. Baby John is every moment put into the risk of having his little head
pulverised, pigtail and all; but he does not care a fig. This busy life seems
to have no charm for him, and he is quite content to learn the anatomy of a bit
of rice - cake given to him from time to time by the madly busy mother. The
Chinese child is quite a philosopher and calmly goes to work at an age when
your Indian boy can hardly crawl on all fours. He has learnt the philosophy of
necessity too well. Their extreme
poverty is one of the causes why the Chinese and the Indians have remained in a
state of mummified civilisation. To an ordinary Hindu or Chinese, everyday
necessity is too hideous to allow him to think of anything else.
Hong Kong is a very beautiful town. It is
built on the slopes of hills and on the tops too, which are much cooler than
the city. There is an almost perpendicular tramway going to the top of the
hill, dragged by wire - rope and steam - power.
We remained three days at Hong Kong and went
to see Canton, which is eighty miles up a river. The river is broad enough to
allow the biggest steamers to pass through. A number of Chinese steamers ply
between Hong Kong and Canton. We took passage on one of these in the evening
and reached Canton early in the morning. What a scene of bustle and life! What
an immense number of boats almost covering the waters! And not only those that
are carrying on the trade, but hundreds of others which serve as houses to live
in. And quite a lot of them so nice and big! In fact, they are big houses two
or three storeys high, with verandahs running round and streets between, and
all floating!
We landed on a strip of ground given by the
Chinese Government to foreigners to live in. Around us on both sides of the
river for miles and miles is the big city -- a wilderness of human beings,
pushing, struggling, surging, roaring. But with all its population, all its
activity, it is the dirtiest town I saw, not in the sense in which a town is
called dirty in India, for as to that not a speck of filth is allowed by the
Chinese to go waste; but because of the Chinaman, who has, it seems, taken a
vow never to bathe! Every house is a shop, people living only on the top floor.
The streets are very very narrow, so that you almost touch the shops on both
sides as you pass. At every ten paces you find meat - stalls, and there are
shops which sell cat's and dog's meat. Of course, only the poorest classes of
Chinamen eat dog or cat.
The Chinese ladies can never be seen. They
have got as strict a zenana as the Hindus of Northern India; only the women of
the labouring classes can be seen. Even amongst these, one sees now and then a
woman with feet smaller than those of your youngest child, and of course they
cannot be said to walk, but hobble.
I went to see several Chinese temples. The
biggest in Canton is dedicated to the memory of the first Buddhistic Emperor and
the five hundred first disciples of Buddhism. The central figure is of course
Buddha, and next beneath Him is seated the Emperor, and ranging on both sides
are the statues of the disciples, all beautifully carved out of wood.
From Canton I returned back to Hong Kong, and
from thence to Japan. The first port we touched was Nagasaki. We landed for a
few hours and drove through the town. What a contrast! The Japanese are one of
the cleanliest peoples on earth. Everything is neat and tidy. Their streets are
nearly all broad, straight, and regularly paved. Their little houses are cage -
like, and their pine - covered evergreen little hills form the background of
almost every town and village. The short - statured, fair - skinned, quaintly -
dressed Japs, their movements, attitudes, gestures, everything is picturesque.
Japan is the land of the picturesque! Almost every house has a garden at the
back, very nicely laid out according to Japanese fashion with small shrubs,
grass - plots, small artificial waters, and small stone bridges.
From Nagasaki to Kobe. Here I gave up the
steamer and took the land - route to Yokohama, with a view to see the interior
of Japan.
I have seen three big cities in the interior
-- osaka, a great manufacturing town, Kyoto, the former capital, and Tokyo, the
present capital. Tokyo is nearly twice the size of Calcutta with nearly double
the population.
No foreigner is allowed to travel in the
interior without a passport.
The Japanese seem now to have fully awakened
themselves to the necessity of the present times. They have now a thoroughly
organised army equipped with guns which one of their own officers has invented
and which is said to be second to none. Then, they are continually increasing
their navy. I have seen a tunnel nearly a mile long, bored by a Japanese
engineer.
The match factories are simply a sight to see,
and they are bent upon making everything they want in their own country. There
is a Japanese line of steamers plying between China and Japan, which shortly
intends running between Bombay and Yokohama.
I saw quite a lot of temples. In every temple there are some Sanskrit
Mantras written in Old Bengali characters. Only a few of the priests know
Sanskrit. But they are an intelligent sect. The modern rage for progress has
penetrated even the priesthood. I cannot write what I have in my mind about the
Japs in one short letter. Only I want
that numbers of our young men should pay a visit to Japan and China every year.
Especially to the Japanese, India is still the dreamland of everything high and
good. And you, what are you? . .. talking twaddle all your lives, vain talkers,
what are you? Come, see these people, and then go and hide your faces in shame.
A race of dotards, you lose your caste if you come out! Sitting down these
hundreds of years with an ever - increasing load of crystallised superstition
on your heads, for hundreds of years spending all your energy upon discussing
the touchableness or untouchableness of this food or that, with all humanity
crushed out of you by the continuous social tyranny of ages -- what are you?
And what are you doing now? . . . promenading the seashores with books in your
hands -- repeating undigested stray bits of European brainwork, and the whole
soul bent upon getting a thirty - rupee clerkship, or at best becoming a lawyer
-- the height of young India's ambition -- and every student with a whole brood
of hungry children cackling at his heels and asking for bread! Is there not water
enough in the sea to drown you, books, gowns, university diplomas, and all?
Come, be men! Kick out the priests who are
always against progress, because they would never mend, their hearts would
never become big. They are the offspring of centuries of superstition and
tyranny. Root out priestcraft first.
Come, be men! Come out of your narrow holes and have a look abroad. See how nations are on the march! Do you
love man? Do you love your country? Then come, let us struggle for higher and
better things; look not back, no, not even if you see the dearest and nearest
cry. Look not back, but forward!
India wants the sacrifice of at least a
thousand of her young men -- men, mind, and not brutes. The English Government has been the instrument, brought
over here by the Lord, to break your crystallised civilisation, and Madras
supplied the first men who helped in giving the English a footing. How many men, unselfish, thorough - going
men, is Madras ready now to supply, to struggle unto life and death to bring about
a new state of things -- sympathy for the poor, and bread to their hungry
mouths, enlightenment to the people at large -- and struggle unto death to make
men of them who have been brought to the level of beasts, by the tyranny of
your forefathers?
Yours etc.,
Vivekananda
PS. Calm and silent and steady work, and no
newspaper humbug, no name - making, you must always remember.
V.
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