Other countries have gone way ahead of Britain economically and technologically, and Britain doesn’t have too much to talk about in self-praise. But it still has something which no other country has. Apart from the nostalgia of its past glories it has a positive quality which is not always apparent to the naked eye. It has a great potential for spotting genius in people the world over. It has the capacity of promoting genius to the farthest limits. The idea of knighting, for instance, which may appear overgrown with moss to some, is a result of that quality which gives individuality to Britain. The respect for the individual which is seen in Britain is rarely found elsewhere. People notice Britain’s decadence, its snobbery, its economic decline, but few see the soul of Britain, the soul that reaches out to what is the best in thought and deed. Britain shares something with its greatest author Shakespeare – it has the capacity of being content in uncertainties – it has what has been described as Negative Capability, which turns out to be a very positive capability in ultimate terms. I say this at the risk of sounding colonialist that whereas other nationals pride in being rational, the typical Brit is one who has felt his thoughts deeply and who has never hesitated in exposing his true voice of feeling. No wonder the BBC is an institution that the world still looks up to.

Why is Shakespeare such a unique phenomenon? Definitely not, as the post-colonialists would have him, a brand ambassador of British culture. Shakespeare is always ahead of what is to follow.  Every forthcoming literary and intellectual fashion tests itself on Shakespeare. Whether it be Freudianism, Marxism, Axiological Intuitionism, Existentialism, Modernism, Postmodernism or any other newism it needs Shakespeare to promote itself. Of course there has been the other kind of intellectual like Tolstoy, Shaw, or Eliot who must oppose Shakespeare in order to propel himself towards self-advancement. Shakespeare’s impact has been so marked on the British character that after him the Brit individual’s status and his opinion has undergone a sea change. The authority that the average Brit traced from the Pope before Shakespeare is now sought within himself, in his individuality, after the bard transformed the very grain of British thinking. Like Shakespeare the typical Brit tends to understand the world by looking within, of course most unconsciously. The principle of “everything is nothing” which Shakespeare seemed to stand by is still largely reflected in the average Englishman’s attitude. It is reflected in Blake, Wordsworth, Shelley and Keats as much as it is reflected in Dickens, Hardy, Charley Chaplin or someone as contemporary as the British historian Michael Wood. It is for this reason that theatre, poetry, fiction and other nonmaterial endeavors are given the highest respect and merged with the material, making them the source of a substantial part of the country’s income. Britain’s tourism gives more respect to its authors than probably any other country does. The Booker prize is very often related to literary tourism. The author can look within himself better than anyone else and therefore the author is indeed the real monarch of Britain. Britain is still the literary and cultural capital of the world if not for its own authors for its ability to recognize merit in the authors and artists of other countries.

I named Michael Wood and must justify my doing so. This historian is one through whom Shakespeare continues to speak. When he dwells on ancient Greek and Roman culture and authors, he becomes so much a part of those cultures that one would think they were his own. When he presents India and its history Wood’s enthusiasm for this country is so phenomenal, it trickles out of his words. One is reminded of Shakespeare who could create the oriental Cleopatra, the alien Othello, or the Jewish Shylock with the same fervor as he did the English King Lear or Falstaff, or the European Hamlet, Antony or Macbeth.

The fact that Britain cares for others is significant. It values others not for the sake of power alone. It cares to recognize the genius in others not nationally but internationally, or humanly. No wonder so many writers and artists from America, Ireland, Africa, South Asia, and other regions have made England their home. In England their souls grow instead of being stifled. America too has some of this magic but only some of it.

Lakshmi Raj Sharma

Website:  http://www.lakshmirajsharma.com
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshmi_Raj_Sharma

Interview: http://dspace.flinders.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2328/15242/1/Sharma_Interview.pdf