60 SOCIAL SCIENTIST illegitimate and easy-in-virtue relationship, let us be aware of its characteristics. Chandra's study is an invaluable contribution for an understanding of the 'vernacular mind*. However, Chandra's degree of empathy with our ancestors also reflects in a certain measure his affection for traditional identities. This inhibits him from looking for strands of the traditional cultural consciousness that in the later period gave birth to what is generally termed as the progressive regional intelligentsia. This trend, while exalting the national identity, also sought to prune the culturally and socially backward elements of tradition. Gandhi has been viewed by 'traditionalists* or the 'vernacular mind' as belonging to this stream. Gandhi's criticism of Dayanand for his having misrepresented Jainism, Islam, Christianity and Hinduism itself, his awareness of India's history of religious strife, are not taken to kindly by the 'vernacular mind'. Chandra's lament of Gandhi having been rejected by the so-called modernists, under the sway of 'imperialist discourse', is totally misplaced. For the perplexing question, is why is Gandhi is not acceptable to the traditionalists who dominate the cultural, social and political discourse in India? An interesting corollary is, why did Candhi want the acceptance of his blue-print from the 'modernists'? Why did he not mobilise the 'traditionalists' and swamp the rather miniscule modernist leadership of the national movement? A very tentative clue could be that even the limited critique made by Gandhi of tradition's conservative interpretation was not acceptable to the 'traditionalists' or the 'vernacular mind'. The critique of modernity that Chandra begins with in his introduction, does not coherently fit into the structure of the book. It neither prefaces his study, nor is it its conclusion. It may at best be treated as a statement of his position. The veneration shown for the post-modern stance, in the Indian context, amounts to an exaltation of the pre-modern. Choices are a personal affair. I for one, to paraphrase Brecht, would rather not talk about good old things, but talk about the bad new ones. RAJENDRA PRASAD People's Democracy New Delhi