INDIA AND EUROPE: By Nirmal Verma, Centre for the Study of Indian Civilization and IIAS, Rs 300 The volume under review, edited by Alok Valla, assembles some select essays of the renowned Hindi novelist, Nirmal Verma. Quite a few of them are English translations. The conflict between tradition and modernity in the Indian context is the staple of most of the essays. They critically discuss contemporary political and literary trends. Verma's disenchantment with 'modernity' has led him back to the sources of Indian traditions - myths, words and symbols and their innate meanings, which go a long way in sustaining us in periods of spiritual crisis. Verma argues that after more than 50 years of independence we find ourselves uprooted from our moorings because we have squandered away the priceless legacy of our tradition. Verma argues that India's economic penury under British domination was accompanied by a sense of spiritual desolation as centuries of traditional learning were gradually replaced by the European system of education. 'The cleavage which Europe had caused in the Indian consciousness - one part submerged in tradition, the other trying to cast itself in the image of the European man - generated a kind of bad faith which gnawed at the consciousness of both the Hindu traditionalists and the neo-Hindus.' Meanwhile, Indian nationalism, which evolved out of a culture where various creeds and faiths could co-exist, became the casualty. Verma's work is like a curate's egg, excellent only in parts. The reader has to plough through passages of abstract, sometimes even abstruse, reasoning. Some of his comments however are insightful. Verma points out that although Marx had used his critical, scientific thinking to come up with a fine analysis of capitalism or bourgeois democracy and its contradictions, one was at a loss when confronted with the economic disparity and social injustice that flourished under Soviet communism. Even during the darkest phase of Czarist rule, it was possible for Tolstoy to write and publish his works. In contrast, the communist authorities came down heavily on dissi- dent writers like Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov. Talking of British influence on Indian culture, Verma piquantly observes: 'The roots of Indian civilization were so deep and its proprieties at the level of the entire society were controlled to such an extent that Britishers could not completely demolish it. They did however succeed in spoiling and mutilating Indian civilization so that the self-image of Indian society began to fade.' Verma's views on art, literature and culture are stimulating. In the essay, 'The writer and his audience', Verma explains the artist's isolation from the community. While the artist's avenues of communication have widened as never before, the very agents in the process - popular education and the print and electronic media - have created a situation which renders any meaningful communication between him and his audience increasingly difficult. Verma is in his element when he talks about his favourite novelist, Premchand, whose works reflect the unique tension and contradictions of a society which, while remaining traditional to the core, was passing through a most painful period of colonial devastation. 'It is precisely this damaged self of a common Indian, neither purely traditional nor completely colonised - a lacerated soul - which became the most sustained, poignant theme of Premchand's novels and short stories.' It was in the agony and helplessness of the Indian that Premchand saw the hollowness of the Western civilization. 'The partition of the country was perhaps the most horrendous thing that happened to us,' says the concluding essay in the volume. An unalloyed truism indeed.