If we look back at India's long history we find that our forefathers made wonderful progress whenever they looked out on the world with clear and fearless eyes and kept the windows of their minds open to give and to receive. And, in later periods, when they grew narrow in outlook and shrank from outside influences, India suffered a set-back, politically and culturally. What a magnificent inheritance we have, though we have abused it often enough. India has been and is a vital nation, in spite of all the misery and suffering that she has experienced. That vitality in the realm of constructive and creative effort spread to many parts of the Asian world and elsewhere and brought splendid conquests in its train. Those conquests were not so much of the sword, but of the mind and heart which bring healing and which endure when the men of the sword and their work are forgotten. But that very vitality, if not rightly and creatively directed, may turn inward and destroy and degrade.

Even during the brief span of our lives we have seen these two forces at play in India and the world at large — the forces of constructive and creative effort and the forces of destruction. Which will triumph in the end ? And on which side do we stand ? That is a vital question for each one of us and, more especially, for those from whom the leaders of the nation will be drawn, and on whom the burden of tomorrow will fall. We dare not sit on the fence and refuse to face the issue. We dare not allow our minds to be befuddled by passion and hatred when clear thought and effective action are necessary.

Q.(i) What hurdled the progress of India ?

Q.(ii) What is the uniqueness of the Indian vitality ?

Q.(iii) Why are the men of the sword and their work forgotten?

Q.(iv) Why are the conquests of India always remembered ?

Q.(v) What is the vital question referred to at the end of the passage and what is your answer to that question ?