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The Bulldog and the Gentleman
- as published in Auroville Today, June 1997.
The article is written by Alan,
a longtime British Aurovilian.
What makes the English English?
A few weeks ago, a small group of English
Aurovilians met to explore what they felt was the essence
of their culture. While acknowledging the crucial contributions
of the Welsh, the Scots and the Irish to both English and
British culture, the conversation inevitably focused upon
the achievements, the foibles and particular characteristics
of the English people. Here Alan summarises their findings
as well as using them as a spring-board for further speculations.
What is the essence of Englishness or
English culture? Sri Aurobindo gave some valuable clues in
The Future Poetry. He notes, for example, that while England
has thrown up great individuals in the arts and sciences,
she lacks an established artistic, philosophical or scientific
tradition. And while there are "lacunae" in her
cultural achievements - he cites sculpture, architecture and,
much more debatably, music - in "the business of practical
life there is an unqualified preeminence".
In fact, individualism and practicality
or pragmatic ingenuity can be seen as two of the leitmotifs
of English culture. Often they complement each other. For
example, in the two great periods of English civilisation
-the Elizabethan Age and the late 18th and 19th centuries-
England asserted her independence from continental influences
in areas like literature while embarking on a vigorous expansion
of trade and commerce based upon practical ingenuity and (in
the latter period) a ruthlessly successful enlargement of
her Empire. The English tradition of individualism, which
Elias Canetti ascribed to her island status and special relationship
with the sea ("The Englishman sees himself as a captain
on board a ship with a small group of people, the sea around
and beneath him. He is almost alone…"), is displayed
in various forms: it is the Magna Carta -the first charter
of liberty and individual rights- it is the English eccentric,
wandering the country-side in his tweeds and battered deerstalker
as he seeks a new species of butterfly, it is her strong nonconformist
tradition in religion, it is her rough-cut heroes who scorn
convention (and sometimes the law) - the pirate Drake who
routed the Spanish Armada, Robin Hood, Nelson putting his
blind eye to the telescope so that he was unable to see his
commander's order to retreat, 'Bulldog' Churchill refusing
to admit defeat in 1940 - it is her continuing ambiguous relationship
to European union. For as Andre Malraux put it, "England
is never as great as when she is alone".
That strand in her make-up of rugged individualism,
of that stubborn almost anarchic Anglo-Saxon vein which resists
easy acquiescence to imposed authority, also powered many
working-class movements like the Luddites and the Chartists
last century, and continues to be reflected in modern phenomena
like Punk or the Travellers with their tents, collectivism,
direct action and celebration of spontaneity. Yet English
culture, paradoxically, is also preeminently a culture of
convention and tradition. This is reflected in the pride she
takes in preserving her national monuments and institutions,
in the continuing (though damaged) popularity of the monarchy,
and in her class system which, in certain areas of British
life (the higher echelons of the Diplomatic Service and banking
world), still continues to exert its influence. In this context,
it's worth remembering that the English have evolved a type
of the ideal man (and, by implication, woman) which Andre
Malraux described as one of the very few examples in world
history of "une grande creation de l'homme". He
is, of course, the English gentleman. Writing in the mid 19th
century, Cardinal Newman enumerated some of his qualities:
"The true gentleman carefully avoids
whatever may cause a jar or jolt in the minds of those with
whom he is cast… his great concern is to make everyone at
their ease…he is never mean in his disputes, he never takes
advantage. From a long-sighted prudence he follows the maxim
of the ancient sage that we should ever conduct ourselves
towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.
He is too well-employed to remember injuries, too indolent
to bear malice…he submits to pain because it is inevitable,
to bereavement because it is irreparable and to death because
it is his destiny."
Whether or not the English gentleman according
to Newman's description ever really existed outside popular
literature is less important than the influence the idea exerted
upon the nation, an influence, it should be said, both for
good and bad. On the positive side, it emphasised the qualities
of generosity and modesty, of good manners, of fortitude,
above all of fairness and decency. These qualities are reflected
in something as prosaic as the English emphasis upon waiting
one's turn, queuing - which the English have raised to an
art form - and in something as influential as the British
system of parliamentary democracy which, with varying degrees
of success, has been exported all over the world. These same
values underlie the British judicial system in which all individuals
are equal before the law (and innocent until proven guilty),
in the concept of the Commonwealth, in civil liberties, in
tolerance of religious and political minorities, in 'playing
the game' or good sportsmanship in all aspects of life, and
in the extraordinary tradition that "an Englishman's
word is his bond".
There's something very sane, very low-key
and understated, about what is considered good-breeding in
English culture…and herein lies also the seeds of its deficiencies.
Because Newman's gentleman is, above all, a social animal
whose most important function is not to challenge or inspire
but to put people at their ease. And this, by definition,
automatically excludes references to controversial topics
like politics and religion, excludes the forceful exposition
of ideas or feelings, excludes a certain largeness of scope
in favour of the small, the parochial, the safe, the banal.
Good-breeding in England was often associated
with a certain affected languor, with an aversion to commerce
and 'money-making', with a refusal to become too enthusiastic
about anything, and with the image of the talented amateur.
The emphasis was less upon winning than upon playing in the
right ("gentlemanly") spirit, exemplified in that
very English hero, Scott of the Antarctic, who failed, but
failed magnificently (his last words, found on his frozen
corpse, were "I have done this to show what an Englishman
can do.") English culture remains suspicious of the intellect
(which makes Sherlock Homes something of an anomaly) and of
the avant-garde in the Arts. 'Good' taste tends to favour
the safer products of English and European culture - English
and Dutch landscape painters, popular novelists, Strauss -
over, say, the German expressionists, Beckett and Stockhausen.
In fact, English culture has probably only been saved from
total embourgeoisement by its capacity for self-criticism
("They possess a capacity for self-criticism unequalled
in any other nation", wrote Laurens Van Der Post), by
its ability to poke fun at its more ridiculous propensities
and by its 'underclass' movements which have reacted against
the stultifying influence of the dominant culture. In modern
times this counter-reaction has thrown up some of the most
interesting achievements in the Arts including the plays of
Osborne, the music of The Rolling Stones, and independent
films of life on the fringe like 'Performance' and 'Trainspotting'.
Just as the Celtic influence in the British character has
served to lighten the dominant Teutonic strain, so this raw
yet creative energy is challenging the influence of the stiff
upper-lip and of comfortable conformism and powering the revival
of London as one of the most stimulating capitals of Europe.
One other fundamental quality of English
culture that should be mentioned is the special relationship
the English have with nature and the countryside. England's
greatest painter - Turner - was a landscape painter, Elgar,
Delius and Vaughan Williams frequently evoke the countryside
in their music, her finest poets - Spencer, Shakespeare, Marvell,
Keats, Words worth, Shelley, Blake-all celebrated nature,
often opposing it to the evils of city or court life or the
"dark Satanic mills" of the Industrial Revolution,
and the ivy-clad country cottage or the grander country house
with its croquet lawn, peacocks and topiary were two of the
defining images of "ye olde England". Unlike the
French who, as at Versailles, tried to shape nature to their
own conceptions, the English aimed at artfully enhancing nature,
combining lawns, winding paths, wild areas and lakes to achieve
an always varying but charming perspective. Even today, if
an Englishman's home is his castle, his garden remains one
of his favourite places of recreation.
It seems fitting then, that if the English
(who are, essentially, an ethical nation) can be said to have
made any approaches to spirituality, it seems to have been
in their relationship with nature. The poetry of Words worth,
Shelley and Hopkins, for example, attempts at times to pierce
the material veil and to invoke subtler regions of experience,
Dr. Bach, the discoverer of the flower remedies, often had
near-mystical experiences as he searched out flowers, and
today the Findhorn community in Scotland is world-famous for
its pioneering work on communicating with the subtler forces
of nature.
Clearly if a British pavilion were ever
to take shape in Auroville it should focus not only upon that
society's more typical manifestations (rose gardens, a cricket
pitch… a pub?!) but also upon its glories, upon that which
it has contributed to world culture. This, preeminently, would
include the English language, that uniquely flexible and subtle
vehicle of communication which serves today in many spheres
as the unofficial world language, the great achievements of
English literature and the best products of its educational
and communication cultures - the Open University, the BBC,
the Royal Shakespeare Company. But in terms of Auroville itself
at present, there is a very specific area in which a certain
quality of English culture is needed. Shraddhavan, an English
Aurovilian, puts it like this:
"I don't think that England is one
of the great nation souls. Just as Britain itself is a land
of modest scale, modest charm, so our strength is more in
the middle region of pragmatism and ethics than of idealism
and spiritual discovery. But if we look at Auroville at present,
we're missing that middle ground. We have the visionaries,
we have the grass-roots people, but we lack the social thread-makers
and binders, those who ease tensions and maintain a certain
quality of social relationship, of harmony, reliability and
stability. And this is something that the English have always
been good at."
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