SOCIAL SCIENTIST is imbued with a deeper meaning. In its temporal aspect, the Tavern, in contrast to the courts of kings and other such places of privilege, is a public place, a democratic assembly, where the lowest and the highest can congregate; in its spiritual aspect it eliminates the religious bureaucracy standing between God and man. Hafiz's poetry is both a celebration of life and a rejection of bureaucratic privilege. Bhisham Sahni celebrates the composite culture of our country which has faced repeated attacks from the forces of bigotry and orthodoxy throughout our history, and is even now under attack from the Hindutva forces. The period of the Bhakti-Sufi movement, which witnessed large-scale interaction at the level of thought as well as at the social level, shaped the contours of our composite culture, and bequeathed to us a liberal, tolerant and democratic outlook, which constitutes our most precious legacy. This legacy has to be defended to save India.