Who is your Herbert Spencer?

I found this in TLS Letters to the Editor:

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"Gandhi cites Chesterton as saying: “What is the good of the Indian national spirit if they cannot protect themselves from Herbert Spencer? I am not fond of the philosophy of Buddhism, but it is not so shallow as Spencer’s philosophy. It has some noble ideals, unlike the latter. One of their papers is called The Indian Sociologist. Do the Indian youths want to pollute their ancient villages and poison their kindly homes by introducing Spencer’s philosophy into them? . . . But Herbert Spencer is not Indian; his philosophy is not Indian philosophy; all this clatter about the science of education and other things is not Indian. I often wish it were not English either. But this is our first difficulty, that the Indian nationalist is not Indian”."

This is from a letter by Anthony Parel.

The question raised by G.K. Chesterton seems relevant to me, even today.

Any rejoinders?

If yes, we should speak Indian if we are to be Indian, okay let's rid ourself of present day's Edward Spencer.

But where do we stop?

At the borders of our state, language, culture (Hindu?).

I, for one, would like to stake my claim that Herbert Spencer is an Indian, because he is a part of our collective consciousness.