Henry David Thoreau- A Study in Indian Influence (An Old and Rare Book)

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As Thoreau has been re-discovered as one of the greatest writers of the world, he requires a discriminating study.

Thoreau was indeed the most typical embodiment of the transcendental school of New England philosophers who flourished in America in the early nineteenth century. He was America's spiritual thinker who was as much concerned with religion and philosophy as with economics and politics. The contemporaries saw him as an cecentric; he was a bundle of contradictions and contraries. His life was shot through and through with paradoxes. He has appeared to the critics in Protean disguises; he has been variously interpreted as a man of letters, a social critic, an auto biographer, a naturalist, an economist, a primitivist. Thoreau the man has been of such an enduring fascination that most of the scholarly investigation has dealt with his life and ideas. Though a fine artist, it is primarily his thought which is his saviour.

The ideas which prompted this book grew out of the lectures intended for students over the years at the Institute of Post-Graduate Studies, University of Delhi. They listened to my ideas about Thoreau and responded with their own, thus greatly stimulating my interest in the writer.

I cannot close these prefatory remarks without expressing my gratitude to those who have been kind enough to help me in the preparation of this project. I feel indebted to Professor R.K. Das Gupta and Professor S.K. Das of the Department of Modern Indian Languages, University of Delhi for their unfailing help, affection and guidance. I am grateful to Professor R.W. Desai, Head, Department of English, University of Delhi for some valuable suggestions. I am beholden to Professor Chaman Nahal who was a source of constant encouragement to me.

My special thanks go to the renowned Thoreauvian scholar, Prof. Charles Anderson, Professor Emeritus of American Literature, Johns Hopkins University, U.S.A. I had the privilege of discussing this subject with him and owe him suggestions that have been of inestimable value. He also sent me some articles on Thoreau and a photostat copy of a chapter from his book The Magic Circle of Walden.

I am grateful to my wife, Dr. Usha Dhawan, who despite her immense preoccupation with the medical profession, scrupulously checked the text of every quotation and com-pared it with the original. My thanks are also due to Dr. William Carigan, Associate Professor, Utah Uuiversity, who read this book and gave valuable suggestions; to Mr. S.S. Rana, Chief Programme Officer, U.S.I.S., New Delhi for procuring the latest critical material on Thoreau; to Mr. B.K. Taneja who persuaded me to publish the present study; and to all other Thoreauvian scholars, in India and abroad, who guided me in this project.

In the end, acknowledgement must be made to various libraries without whose help no scholarly work can ever be possible. In this context, I would like to mention specially Delhi University Library where I was able to get some rare books and articles pertaining to this study. No less helpful were American Library, New Delhi, Sahitya Academy Library, New Delhi, and American Research Centre, Hyderabad. Also, I consulted many journals and periodicals at various universities in Britain, especially Oxford University Library. I owe a great deal to all these.

With the growth of Thoreau's reputation in recent decades, there has been a superabundance of scholarly writing on him, and the impetus of the centennial of his death in 1962 has released a further spate of critical and biographical works. Today, Thoreau stands in the very first rank of America's great men of letters. His works, which had a hard time selling when he was alive, have been hailed as great pieces of literature. His masterpiece, Walden, has been translated into virtually every major modern language of the world. In India alone, it has been translated into fifteen modern languages. In his own time, Thoreau was decried as an imitator of Emerson, today his reputation threatens to surpass his friend's.

All this growing mass of Thoreauvian scholarship and the recognition being accorded to him is a proof not only that Thoreau's position among the great men of world literature is assured, but also that there is a new awareness of Thoreau's artistic worth and a keenness to rediscover value and significance in his message.

It is significant to note that the conservative literary historians have accorded to Thoreau a position next to Emerson. No doubt, Emerson was the most potent influence in Thoreau's life. Thoreau liked and absorbed many of Emerson's ideas. There is a deep affinity evident in the ex-pression of thoughts in both the writers. As a young man, Thoreau was indeed a disciple of Emerson, yet a comparison with Emerson exposes more differences than similarities. Emerson was a New England gentleman and a giant literary figure on the contemporary scene who would do nothing to tarnish his image. He wanted to be in complete harmony with his society. He possessed all the qualities that citizens of Concord were looking for, he combined in himself the functions of preacher, philosopher, litterateur and poet. This accounted for his great popularity and recognition. Much though Thoreau shared Emerson's basic attitudes to life, he failed to make any impact on the readers. It seems a paradox; but the reasons for the phenomenon are not far to seek. Thoreau was more impetuous and romantic than his older friend. He was one of the most sturdy and uncompromising persons who ever lived. He had scant regard for mere conventionalities. He dressed plainly, with no extra care or nicety. He was independent in character and opinion, while social forms and requirements repulsed him. He was an individual of the most pronounced type, maintaining that institutions oppressed the individual and impeded his inner growth.

Again, with regard to his defiance of church and state, Thoreau was more radical than Emerson. Emerson liked to preach self-reliance and non-conformity, but hesitated to practise them. Thoreau, on the other hand, practised before he preached. He never went to church in spite of being intensely religious, refused to own fields though he was a great lover of nature, never worked at a profession with any discernible regularity though he was given to hard work for long periods. He was disappointed of the way America was going and refused straight away to go along with it. His divergence with the contemporary life was so complete that in a highly acquisitive society he was poor by choice and strongly held the conviction that life could be viewed in all its variety only from the "vantage ground of voluntary poverty." He wished to deter-mine what the minimum concerns of life were-what efforts go into securing food and drink, into procuring clothing and habitation. He astonished his Yankee neighbours by stating the minimum essentials in terms of dollars and cents; they almost disbelieved that any life could be purchased for so little. The appurtenances of civilization were hateful to him.

and he constantly railed at what people regard as 'progress'. Thoreau received no recognition from his fellow townsmen.