Modern town-dwellers feel proud of their Art and Beauty. But their artificial life and ‘flower-pot’ civilisation is capable of producing only crystallized and standardised art which lacks essential vitality and depth. In the Court of the Dollar King even art and beauty are interpreted and valued in terms of Gold; ‘the Crown of Wild Olive’ affords no attraction. From the standpoint of simple and natural beauty the soaring skyscrapers which are the glories of modern cities are nothing better thancongested pigeonholes. The villagers pass their life in open and healthy cottages—I am not talking of the darkand dilapidated hovels in our country which are only the relics of past glory; they live in the very lap of Nature. The village artisans join work with a great ethical principle—the service of the society; they find joy in their work. “As a result they create good and beautiful things; they sing at their labour.”[78]Their ladies also sing sweet songs early in the morning while grinding corn for the day; they often dance with joy with their bright metal pots delicately poised on their heads, while on their way to the village well. The simple elegance of their wall paintings, the robustness and virility of their poems and folk-songs, the direct realism of their dances and dramatics, and the variegated beauty of their handicrafts have a uniqueness which we sadly miss in the so-called civilised art and literature.
