One of the most important literary figures of the twentieth century, T.S. Eliot, lived in a time marked by not just two terrible and dreadful world wars but also by fast mechanization, industrialization, urbanization, and, certainly, mass consumerism. Eliot was a dedicated student of philosophy who showed a particularly keen interest in the Eastern belief system. This study will attempt to examine T. S. Eliot’s epoch-making poem ‘The Waste Land’ and its connection with South Asian culture and ideology. In order to understand the crises of post-war modern European civilization, reflected in the poem as spiritual decline, treachery, deception, and skepticism, Eliot drew upon certain sources that could counter the wisdom of the West. Eliot along with his poetic vision as well as sensibility manifests in the Bhagwad Gita, Upanishads, Vedas, Patanjali’s Sutras, Buddhism, and so forth. East, for Eliot, is a glimmer of hope for a world afflicted by its own spiritual problems. The influence of South Asian perception can be identified throughout the poem. The paper will attempt to foreground that the cultural integration of the East and the West has been addressed in a secular spirit rather than being in conflict.
