BOOK REVIEW 69 The present work establishes this claim even more authentically and vividly by laying bare the truth about Indian philosophy and its traditions through copious textual references which are analyzed and discussed with the utmost competence. The best thing about the book is that it is pleasantly free from any vague and romantic panegyrics to Indian philosophy for its own sake and that no statement goes unsubstantiated. The whole book is a pointer to the fact that no inflated claims regarding Indian philosophy are valid or necessary and that there is enough positive content in it to enthuse us. Armed with the most magnificent and scientific methodology that we know of., namely Marxism. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya unravels before us both the diabolical and the dynamic in Indian philosophy and thereby performs a unique and yeoman service to the inheritors of that philosophy facing new challenges today. PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIETY The book does not purport to be merely an academic exercise and the author in his preface pronounces the purpose, which in turn prescribes the procedure adopted. It is ^an analysis of our philosophical traditions from the standpoint of our present philosophical requirements. These requirements, as understood here, are secularism, rationalism and science-orientation". The role of philosophy in the past and present needs to be clearly grasped for understanding the task the author has chosen to perform. ^Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" philosophy has through the centuries preached that mortal man must abandon mundane pursuits and pleasures and turn heavenward, for there is bliss and fulfilment in that alone. To shun the here and to glorify the hereafter is one sure way of imposing shackles on the working and struggling people. In the name of ultimate emancipation, the people are made perpetual slaves to some abhorrent ideas; and they ensure the willing physical slavery of the oppressed, much to the relief and joy of the ruling classes. A dangerous reactionary idea, as much as a vigorous progressive idea, becomes a material force when it grips the minds of the people. One is an impediment to progress, , while, the other is an instrument of progress. Idealist philosophy, proclaiming to understand the world (or reality) and emancipate the people, does neither ultimately, and becomes a millstone round the neck of man. In the evolution of society, therefore, there is a specific point of time when both philosophy and science are made subservient to the gelfish needs of a section of the population and the imminent glory and potential of philosophy and science as the redeemers of mankind as a whole are denied. That is the stage where the working hand has receded and the thinking mind has come forward, with the result that the philosophy beneficial to the working man is undermined and the philosophy supporting the ruling class is branded the all-embracing philosophy. As Benjamin Farrington puts it: