SOCIAL SCIENTIST upon the syncretic nature of Ramkrishna's world views. What is also projected are details related to Ramkrishna's movement from Kamarpur (his birth place) to Dakhineshwar (near Calcutta) and his emergence as a guru of a large section of the bhadraloks. Sarkar reconciles the apparent 'Otherness' of Ramkrishna which attracted the bhadraloks to him by posing him as a construction of the bhadraloks themselves in a context of urban 'alienation' -something that enabled them to relate to him without 'undue discomfort'. And this illustrates one of the basic components of his method which seeks to explore bhadralok appropriations. Ramkrishna linked the age-old kamini/kanchan syndrome with chakri - a feature specific to colonial nineteenth century urban Bengal. The stress on bhakti touched personal chords of his followers battling alienation. Sarkar delineates several complexities. He points to misogynist traits in Ramkrishna's discourse which located women - who could not be related to as mothers - as kamini. Significantly, this was against the background of a generation of male social reformers who had taken up women's issues. Despite this he attracted women devotees (viz. middle aged/elderly women and widows from bhadralok households or actresses of prostitute origin). Simultaneously, the shifts in the logic of Ramkrishna - almost to the level of inversion - is emphasized. Thus his most famous disciple - Vivekananda - emphasized 'organised philanthropy', the emphasis on bhakti shifted to high-Hindu spiritual quest associated with knowledge and karma (defined as social service instead of ritual) and Ramkrishna's catholicity appropriated 'to prove the superiority of an aggressive and muscular Hinduism'. Thus Sarkar emphasises the opening up of new 'dimensions virtually unknown to his master'. There are three other chapters - 'The Relevance E.R Thompson', 'Edward Thompson and India: 'The Other Side of the Medal* and 'Identity and Difference: Caste in the Formation of the Ideologies of Nationalism and Hindutva'. One can end by pointing to serious printing errors. Among the many, one can refer to the third chapter heading - 'The Decline of The The Subaltern...' which continues from page 83 right up of page 95 and white-colour employees (in place of collar! pg. 182). Surely this book deserved much more attention from the Publishers. Biswamoy Pati Department of History Sri Venkateswara College, Delhi University