Though this book is a collection of papers, including some book reviews, it has a continuity and unity of dis¬course because all the issues discussed are facets of the same fundamental problem: the predicament of man who finds the bright dreams of progress— which the Renais¬sance painted in roseate colours, the Enlightenment assumed to be inevitable, even automatic, and the industrial revolution in its first phases seemed to indicate to be just round the corner—thorough¬ly shattered. Athwart the earth lies today the dark shadow of the mushroom cloud; the waters can no longer fulfill their ‘priest-like task of pure ablution round earth’s human shores’, for toxic effluents have poured into them: the enveloping atmosphere is turning into a thick shroud of smog. In his diagnosis and his suggestions regarding solutions, Sisir¬kumar Ghose reflects the thinking of the best minds of the age, and expresses them with exceptional felicity.
July-August 1983, volume 8, No 1