The issue

How can such tradition challenge modernity. As a matter of fact certain ills of modernity such as inequality and indifference to moral questions can also be found in tradition. That is one reason why Gandhi defined tradition in a different, ahistorical manner. To follow Chaudhuri (2003), India has to join the mainstream of human evolution and there is no other option. The course of history does not depend on traditions alone. It depends on history as well as the present day forces. I think that the traditionalists can contribute to development by offering a framework of critique by stressing standards which are not part of the project of modernity but can give it a more humanistic and inclusionary direction. In this respect the traditional framework of Gandhi which defines tradition in a new way, making it free from historical, geographical and modernist tendencies is the closest to what can be done. I would go a step further and say that the need of the hour is to draw inspirations from all sources, Indian and Western, and promote humanism in all its manifestations without referring to specific metaphors, traditions, religions or political ideas. Beginning with Kabir or Ambedkar, we have to go beyond particularistic constructions and have complete dedication to humanism. Humanism and humanism only has all the potentials to provide a critique of development and modernization which has all potentialities including the most exalted spiritual faculties emphasized by traditions. Humanism, which links closely to co-existence and mutuality of development does not require any supportive substratum and can yield everything that the best of spiritual, bhakti or vernacular perspectives can. It is consistent with the traditional idea of cooperation and humanism. Time has come when the intellectuals draw freely from all thought systems but refrain from using the specific metaphors and names, even names of Gandhi and Ambedkar, and work purely in the framework of interest of all – the present and future generations of humans. Once we start talking in terms of man all the necessary and lofty ideals of traditions will follow without incurring cost of using explicit traditional symbolisms.