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THE MEMOIRS OF A CAT
social problems. Nationalism is a typically human virtue or vice. I amn frec from it. Animals, and human beings deprived of human comforts and culture, as the majority of them are in India, are naturally indifferent to the empty ideals of nationalism. Therefore, ny literary venture may scrvo the purpose of introducing into modern Indian literature the spirit of criticism which will cilighten it, bring it in touch with the realities of life, and therefore raise it above the present level of idcalistic platitude, stale roinanticism, vapid sentimentality and sanctimonious moralising. I call upon young India to revolt not against the cruel treatment meted out to me, but against the foulness, falseness, hypocrisy that vitiate Indian social life and block the road to progress. As I have no reason to justify human action, I have spoken frankly about the disgusting and ridiculous traits of human beings, who entered into the narrow circle of my lowly life. I hope that, by bringing these traits into sharp relief, the story of my life will provoke the reader to focus his or her attention on them, and to trace them into their social sub-soil. I don't pretend to produce a great literary work. But by sounding the note of social protest, laying bare some of the causes of social revolt, my niodest effort may serve as an impetus to the production of such works by others more qualified for the task.
