BOOK REVIEW 131 defiance in Brahmbandhav Upadhyay's personality, which went into the making of characters of Sandip in Ghare-Baire and of Indranath in Char Adhyay, and the model of autonomy and dissent that developed in Tagore due to his early life influences and went into the making of characters of Nikhil in Ghare-Baire, and At in Char Adhyaya, provide insightful psychological biography of Tagore's views. Yet, all through the work, one gets the impression of pro-modem being hailed as open-ended, syncretic and plural. Modernity has been criticised as leading to 'subversion of morality', 'standardised routine structures of authority', and 'totalising, arrogant and violent'. Similarly, nationalism is seen as 'willing to sacrifice Indians at the altar of brand-new, imported, progressivist history of the Indian nation-state in the making*. This may, at best, be only one side of the coin. Much depends on where one's vantage-point lies. Though it may be fashionable in twentieth century to criticise the modernity-project for being overladen with 'western* values of Enlightenment, it seems not so much of an irrelevant exercise if seen from the vantage-point of contemporary social moorings and consciousness. Nationalism too, one may add, could not be considered 'illegitimate* at least in the context of nineteenth century colonial India. ANITA PRAKASH Lecturer in History Bareilly College Bareilly