BOOK REVIEW - RICE IN ABUNDANCE FOR ALL TIMES THROUGH RICE CLONES (A POSSIBLE ONE-GRAIN RICE REVOLUTION By. Dr. R.H. Richharia (1987)*

In a world of more than 250,000 different species of flowering plants, just three grasses - rice, wheat and corn dominate as the sources of most of the food supply for human beings. All three have been objects of agricultural experimentation and exploitation by human beings for more than 6,000 years. Long before the discovery of Mendel's laws, in 1900, human ingenuity had created about 100,000 cultivated varieties of rice suited for every purpose, land and season, with about 70,000 of these varieties cultivated by farmers in India. It is remark able, and to some a very sad story, that just in the, last two decades more than half, the human population of the world has come, to depend on only a handful of these varieties for their sustenance. Obviously, the high yielding varieties of rice developed by modern techniques of plant breeding have not caused a green revolution in India in the sense wheat seems to have, since the latter has given more than projected yields in the past ten years. One of the failures of modern agricultural sciences is that the technology evolved to increase yield in plants is biased towards individual elite varieties rather than to all varieties evolved by human beings in the past 10,000 years of domestication.

We are now desperately looking for any technique that would increase yield in rice, even by a few per cent, to produce food for the increasing population. Hybrid rice, now growing in about a third of the rice growing areas in China, has about 25% yield increase over the high yielding modern cultivars thanks to the phenomenon of hybrid vigor or heterocyst. However, there are indications that these varieties may not be as successful in the more tropical conditions of India. The potential increase in yield through any breakthrough in genetic engineering with rice remains unknown and unpredicted. It is against this background that one should appreciate Dr. Richharia's recent small book of 132 pages offering "a possible one-grain rice revolution" with novel suggestions for establishing "rice gardens" that could produce 100 tonnes per hectare per year (as against about 15 tonnes per hectare for three crops through conventional techniques of rice cultivation). The romantic title of Masanobu Fukuoka's work, The One-Straw Revolution" is better adapted here for this book, written by a scientist and summarizing nearly 45 years of his research on certain fundamental and potentially useful properties of rice plants. We read a book for what it says, and often also for who says it. Richharia knows the rice plant as well as any human being can, and his experience and contributions remain unmatched by any single rice researcher in India.

Richharia has organized his book carefully beginning with a lucid introduction to his they is in Chapter II, and exploring the more involved applications that require some knowledge of crop production, in the subsequent chapters. The appendices clearly bring out how he has been championing, for more than 25 years, the adoption of his clonal propagation techniques for yield enhancement in certain varieties and hybrids of rice. I did find some sentences cumbersome to read, about half a dozen typesetter's spelling errors, an odd list of 48 names in 'Hindi (in a book otherwise fully written in English), and an appendix on "In vivo and in vitro clonal propagation in rice" only of peripheral interest to the theme of the book. However, these are very minor shortcomings in a book that has so much to offer, is so well documented, and clearly sets forth the importance and implications of clonal propagation in rice.

The thrust of Richharia's message is that 17 to 61% increase in yield can be obtained by clonal propagation of certain varieties, and that this technique can be exploited not only for yield increase but also for overcoming the problems of (a) sterility among hybrids and tetraploids (b) maintenance of quality in aromatic varieties of rice, and (c) submergence of seedlings during flooding. Clonal propagation also helps in the better management of ratoon crops and plants produced through tissue culture methods, and provide a degree of resistance to insects such as the stem borers and gallfly. What is this new technique of clonal propagation that is claimed to offer an alternate means of increasing yield in rice? Tillering, the ability to produce branches from the axillary buds located at the nodes, is a feature common to many grasses. All tillers derived from a main stem possess identical genetic makeup. While tiller production is considered undesirable in most major cereal crops, yield in rice is dependent upon the ability to produce a number of healthy tillers that would eventually produce panicles and grains. Primary tillers develop from the main shoot about 10 days after transplanting. Secondary and tertiary tillers develop from the primary tillers, and in about 50 to 60 days after transplanting, a single seedling in a hill could have given rise to about 25 tillers. A significant feature of tillers is that 50 to 70% of them develop panicles that produce mature grains about the same time as the panicle on the main stem thus yielding more grains per hill. Tillering capacity is a varietal characteristic, as often pointed out in this book.

What Richharia offers is a procedure to take advantage of this innate perennating capacity of the rice plant to multiply hhe genetically identical clones to obtain some 300 times more man the usual number of tillers from a single seedling during 5 to 6 months of propagation. Additionally - and this is very important - the seeds obtained from the clones, when used to raise a normal crop in the next season, produce healthier plants, offering up to 60% more yield than plants raised from seeds obtained from conventional techniques of crop production. When a seedling has produced two tillers, Richharia suggests separating them from the main stem and replanting all three individually in pots or in a plot. When each one of them has produced two tillers, the procedure is repeated usually in intervals of about 15 days. Under ideal circumstances, with three tillers (x = 3) per split, and about 8 such splits (n = 8) between February and July, as many as xn = 6561 clones can be obtained from a single seed. Tiller separation seems to enhance subsequent vigour and growth of the clone resulting in the production of more fully- filled and uniformly mature and healthier seeds capable of better yield in the next generation. Richharia is quick to point out that successful tiller production is a varietal character and that clonal propagation technique is merely a manipulation of the untapped but natural potential of the rice plant.

Richharia then proceeds to explain how ihis crucial but simple procedure of physical t separation of tillers from each other can be applied to stubble left in the field after harvest, to a whole ratoon crop, to a large field after transplanting is over, and to a nursery bed with aged seedlings. Apparently, farmers in Orissa and Madhya Pradesh have been practicing a form of clonal propagation known as beusaning or biyasi where a field with broadcast cultivation is 'ploughed' to split the tillers. Richharia further explores the possibility of applying the clonal propagation technique to improve yield and/or quality in: (1) tetraploids where 40-45% sterility is encountered but propagation of even a few seeds is worth the effort in view of the increased protein content of tetraploid grains, (2) about 300 cultivars of aromatic rice where uniformity in genetic make-up would ensure consistency in quality (and this has great export potential), and (3) seedlings obtained through tissue culture and genetic engineering techniques. Often, in science, simpler solutions have wider applicability. It is interesting to note that Richharia extends his clonal propagation technique to cultivation of plants in a closed system for extended space travel and colonization. This, I submit, is not farfetched, and the rice plant is certainly the most suitable of all cereals for this purpose by virtue of its hardiness, temperature tolerance, perennating habit and ability to grow in aquatic as well as terrestrial media.

Richharia cites examples of field trials conducted in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya - Pradesh, Mysore, Uttar Pradesh ahd West Bengal to substantiate the claims of yield increase “through clonal propagation. Two obvious questions come to mind while reading this book: (1) What is the physiological basis for yield increase in clonal propagation? (2) Why such a promising technique is not more widely practiced, and why Richharia, himself once an occupant of key positions in rice research (Director of Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, and Madhya Pradesh Rice Research Institute, Raipur), has not been able to convince researchers, pla'nners and farmers throughout India ?

As for the physiological basis of yield increase, the only significant finding available so far seems to be the preferential movement of nitrogen and phosphorus to grains rather than to the culms. It is known from other studies that the chemical environment of different grains within a panicle is age- dependent and that younger grains may have more of a growth hormone such as abscise acid than the older and fully mature grains. Also, seed treatment "with certain growth regulators is known to improve productivity in later stages of growth. Perhaps, clonal propagation similarly affects the chemical environment of the seeds whose beneficial effects are realized in the subsequent generation. Obviously, a great deal of research is required to "understand the effects of tiller separation on the autonomous status of the isolated tiller and the development of panicle and grains. Most examples cited in this book are of tillers grown during the long day periods of February to June. While- photosensitive varieties are suitable for this season; insensitive types would start initiating panicles even before the third split can take place. One wonders ii this is the reason why no data is available in this book as to how much more yield can be obtained when the high yielding IR varieties are propagated through clonal cultivation. Could this be a reason, then, for the lack of widespread adoption of this technique - that most of our better yielding or at least fertilizer responsive types do not have the photosensitive gene incorporated in them? Clonal propagation, as described in this book, requires about six months of constant effort to grow, manure, water, weed, protect from pests and diseases, and split and replant the tillers, periodically. Planting these tillers in July would yield grains, not for consumption, but for raising a regular crop in the next season, i.e., in the following July. Yield from this crop, sometime in November, will be the source of food. Because of this extremely long period required to raise plants through clonal propagation, a cost/benefit analysis is required for cultivation under extended field conditions in farmers' holdings.

This little book has much more to offer, than the techniques of clonal propagation. Here, Richharia has summarised some of his lorig-held views and suggestions for an "Indian Hybrid Rice" programme with less emphasis on the use of conventional cytoplasmic male sterile and fertility restorer systems . His suggestions for the use of abnormal floral structures and clustered spikelet types deserve the attention of researchers. Richharia also reveals some of his vast knowledge and appreciation of the "why" of the many practices in rice cultivation observed among the so called "tribal" populations of the country. Indeed, one hopes that he would record in greater detail these traditional techniques of cultivation lest the onslaught of modernity should wipe out knowledge built over many thousands of years.

It is with a fooling of satisfaction that one closes the cover of "Rice In Abundance for All Time Through Rice Clones" - that this most benevolent plant still holds many mysterious ways of feeding the millions.



Author:P. Dayanandan

BOOK REVIEW

ATOM AND INDIVIDUAL IN THE AGE OF NEWTON: ON THE GENESIS OF THE MECHANISTIC WORLD VIEW*
Spanning as it does, (at least) four major disciplines, this book represents a unique attempt to systematically push the explanatory and genetic base of a physical theory through deeper and deeper levels of understanding, from physics to ontology and methodology, from here to social philosophy, the investigation finally resting on the base of the historically existing social relations of the time. In keeping with its multidisciplinary approach,1 the style and method of the book is analytical, discursive and historical in turn. I should f add here that it is not the easiest book to read a fact which may have something to do with its being a translation from a German original. The effort is nevertheless rewarding. Perhaps the single most important lesson to be learnt through the study of such a work is that: the age of the specialist is over - or should be.

The subject of the analysis is Newton's theory of space and its connection with other parts of his physics. The method adopted is to contrast the conceptions of Newton with those of his contemporary Leibniz, whose theory, despite some obvious advantages, did not prevail The conclusion' is that although the preconceptions of Newton's theory were philosophical, they were not directly taken from the social philosophy of the time but were based on the prevailing social relations of English society. Thus they were the preconceptions of an entire age.

The argument of the book laid out perspicuously by the author in the introduction, is to show:

(1) That a natural scientific concept was formed on the basis of an 'evident preconception,;

By Gideon Freudenthal; Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, vol. 88. D. Reidel publishing Co., 1986

(2) That this preconception is a philosophical concept;

(3) That the philosophical concept found application both in a theory of nature and in a social theory and that it relates to the same philosophical object;

(4) That the specifications of this philosophical concept which cannot be drawn from research in natural sciences, originate in the use of the concept in social theory and not in a preconception based on prescientific (technical) experience of nature;

(5) That these specifications of the philosophical concept can be explained through social relations.

(6) That these specifications of the concept also appeared evident to natural scientists;

(7) That these specifications although they stamped the natural scientific concept, did not destroy its scientific character; that is, were not in contradiction to the empirical results of scientific research." (p3).

Also, as the author notes, the investigation takes "a direction which is reverse of the conjectured sequence of events", that led to the construction of Newton's theory and that accounts not only for its characteristic features, but in large measure for its wide acceptance and success.

At the outset Newton's theory of absolute space is considered. The major presupposition of this theory is that "the material world is composed of equal particles whose essential properties belong to them independently of the existence of a world system" (p.29). The system itself is the result of the aggregation of such individual particles. The concepts of density, mass and motion follow from the basic conception of the atom: extended, hard impenetrable, inert but movable. Despite his theory of monads, the author argues, Leibniz' system was by contrast essentially holistic, his conception of space and motion relative. He next undertakes a comparison of the opposing concepts of science of the two thinkers. Here he forcefully brings out the salience of certain notions in Newton's theory, of which by far the most important is that of God, that have been dismissed by historians of science as extra scientific, as theological decorations and as asides to be referred to in the historical footnotes.

What Freudenthal seeks to show is that God's role in Newton's theory is that of kingpin and not an afterthought. In the absence of any principle of the conservation of momentum which would be inconsistent with the structure of the Newtonian inelastic atoms, how else could the solar system continue but through the periodical intervention of God. Newton of course claimed that he feigned no hypotheses. Thus for him, God was not an hypothesis: he actually deduced the action of God from the phenomenon of the wonderful order of the Cosmos. He said, "And this much concerning God, to discourse of whom from the appearances of things does certainly belong to Natural Philosophy". Space itself is seen as God's Scnsorium. In this matter Newton was at least perfectly consistent.

But he had more serious _ problems with the gravitational principle. In Newton's conception of space as a container, the single particle could be conceived of with all its essential properties intact. Gravity however necessarily requires a system of bodies; Newton was thus forced to introduce distinction between essential and universal properties,1 and inelegance Leibniz' system did not suffer from.

Leibniz' natural philosophy! was in fact inextricably tied to his postulate of the conservation of visa viva - the total living force in the universe. His notion of inertial motion was quite different to the Newtonian notion; he distinguished not between motion and the performance of work but between motion and rest. In this system the "continuance in uniform motion was thus not introduced as an axiom, as it was by Newton, but as a special case of the general law of the conservation of visa viva namely in the hypothetical case in which the free system consists of merely one body" (p. 35). Leibniz declared as inadmissible the idea of God's active intervention in any natural account of the universe. The universe indeed must be likened to a scientist's precision watch rather than the mediaeval clock requiring a governor to make corrections when the clockwork' slowed down. (In this respect Leibniz was clearly the greater mechanist of the two). The author dwells engagingly on these two metaphors with the aid of which one can almost graphically grasp the development of the mechanistic world picture. The question that naturally arises is, how and why Newton's clearly much less convincing theory from the mechanistic point of view (and one might add, from the present day point of view as well) was perceived as totally rational both by him and his contemporaries, whereas Leibniz remained an 'also ran'.

In search of an explanation/Part II of the book examines the philosophical underpinnings of seventeenth century thought mainly with reference to the concept of element, which it has been widely claimed, was increasingly influenced by the notion of mechanical parts. Bacon had himself observed that "the human understanding is infected by the sight of what takes place in the mechanical arts.." (p.79). The notion of an assemblage rather than of an organic unity gave plausibility to the analytic-synthetic method - the method of breaking down into elements and then reconstructing the whole - in both natural and social philosophy.

For, society too was beginning to be viewed as an artifact resulting from the contract of essentially independent autarchic individuals. . Freudenthal undertakes an extensive comparison of Newtonian atomism, Hobbes' selfish political man, Rousseau's autarkical Natural man and Adam Smith's self serving homo economic. Later in the book he seeks to show that, on the other,1 hand, Leibniz in his social philosophy quite consciously set himself off from these social thinkers. Now such connections are not of course original to the author. Marx in his profound analysis of eighteenth and nineteenth century thought and society had much earlier displayed individualistic economic philosophy as the 'valid' representation of the historical rise of the individual, an event that went hand in hand with the break-down of feudalism. And later authors have followed suit Nevertheless this forms the' essential crux of the author's overall argument, and he certainly brings to bear his own insights on otherwise well known material.

Freudenthal examines but rejects the view that the artisan conception can solely account for the images of the Newtonian age. Newton in his physics had himself transcended artisan experience. Indeed Newton's philosophy, concludes the author, is not so much mechanistic as it is bourgeois. To establish this conclusion one must turn to history.

Part HI of the book documents the events as they took place before and after the English Revolution of 1662, culminating in the phenomenon of civil society in England. At the base of this society is the notion of the independent private proprietor. A painstakingly detailed account follows of the struggle that went on in England at this time. The author describes the process of the final defeat of the Levelers who challenged the principle of the enclosures, the principle that finally set the poor 'free' to sell then-lab our power in the open market As Freudenthal concludes "the conception of society as composed of independent individuals and the corresponding conception of the analytic-synthetic method in the social sciences can thus be determined exactly: it is peculiar to bourgeois society and can in this sense be called bourgeois". Nekton’s theory, God and all, was most rational in this bourgeois framework.

The last part of the work, undertakes a comparison of the notion of the physical atom and the social individual as perceived in the thought of the age. This is contrasted with the systemic notions of Leibniz who it must be remembered lived in a Germany where feudalism was still the order of the day. Thus Leibniz* trenchant question quoted at the beginning of the book: "Is there a different logic in London than in Hanover?" receives an unequivocally affirmative answer at the end of the study.

In a concluding Afterword the author draws attention to some larger questions of historiography, of internal vs. external history, of the relation between philosophy and science, of the validity of scientific theories given their rootedness in the social relations of a historical period, questions inevitably thrown up in the course of such a study. Philosophers of science with a predilection for abstract models of rationality would do well to draw on the wealth of ideas in this case study. One may or may not agree with the details of the argument laid out. Of necessity the material used out of such vast literature from such diverse fields, is selective. There may well be another story to be told, other accounts complementing or contradicting the present one of how and why Newton did and Leibniz did not prevail. The message in any case that comes out loud and clear is that any work that seeks to comprehend the nature of science (or any system of thought) and the source of its validity, must first come to grips with the realities of an entire historical epoch.

Scientists, philosophers and historians working on Indian thought systems (mostly of a bygone age) would do well to take a leaf out of Gideon Freudenthal's book. A great deal of research in this field is already under way. But the scholarship still lacks, one might venture to say, the breadth of vision that will reveal the inseparable connection between the theoretical systems, the social philosophies and the social relations of the age in which they were produced.

Nor need this procedure be construed as one of debunking the theories under consideration, but rather as a necessary condition of the fullest appreciation of the intentions and the purposes of their progenitors. To grasp the truly historical nature of criteria of rationality is to grasp the essential in human knowledge.



Author:Dr. Mohini Mullick

BOOK REVIEW

Operation Flood: An Appraisal of Current Indian Dairy Policy by Shanti George, Oxford University Press, 1985, 320 pp, (Price.Rs.l50/-).

It is over a year since the book has been published and it has already gained wide currency in the relevant circles. The author has subsequently published many articles on the subject in well known journals - popular and academic. The "success" of the book has not been entirely due to its topicality, nor even due to its comprehensive critique of the OF (Operation Flood) programme, touching practically on all its aspects, from milk production and milk co-operatives at the village level to distribution and consumption of milk in the cities as well as implications of international dairy aid. The value of the book, it seems to me, lies in that through the comprehensive critique the author has sketched the outlines of an alternate dairy policy which is very "Indian" in its character. In fact, she expressly pleads for a policy rooted in Indian conditions, material and cultural. The alternate policy which she envisages generates for research, a whole set of new questions, and for policy a whole set of new options.

To set the chronology of the debate straight, the appearance of the book was preceded by a few controversial articles in Indian and International Press which were highly critical of the OF Programme, which subsequently led to the setting up of an enquiry committee by the Government of India to go into the programme. Our author seems to broadly share the perspective expressed in the articles and adds to it considerably by a systematic collation of the existing research on Indian dairying and cattle keeping. The author begins by examining the production base of milk in the country. She finds that dairying in India is essentially a subsidiary activity to agriculture. The cow is not so much the supplier of milk as of bullocks which fulfill the major draught power requirements in Indian agriculture. This applies especially to the poorer farmers who cannot afford mechanized cultivation. Secondly, Indian cattle subsist not on any special feeds but largely on agricultural byproducts for which the humans in the country have little use. As long as this situation continues aggressive expansion of dairying under the OF programme cannot achieve results* But if it is pushed, it will result in distortions like diversion of food crop lands to fodder production which the country can ill afford, or concentration of livestock resources in a few richer hands who can afford the superior level of feed and maintenance for their cattle.

The crossbreed cow on which the OF programme hinges has come under much attack in the last few years and George joins them in the task. She feels indiscriminate cross breeding of cows may undermine the genetic base of the Indian cow (which is essentially a draught animal) which in turn may adversely affect the supply of work animals. She suggests that the native-breeds be left to breed draught animals and the buffaloes, which are the main milk animals of the country, be concentrated upon for dairying. Promotion of crossbreed cows will in addition lead to concentration of livestock resources as suggested earlier, whereas the intention of the OF programme is its very opposite - to give employment to small and marginal farmers.

Turning to marketing she finds that the Anand pattern of milk marketing may not be workable in other parts of the country where milk production does not match the high level of investment and large scale of operations characteristic of OF. The Anand pattern has evolved in the Anand region through a historical process which cannot be repeated in other parts of the country. She finds even within Gujarat the Anand pattern has not been accepted uniformly. Milk marketing is done on different pattern and different scale in certain other parts of Gujarat. (he increasing dependence which goes with EEC dairy aid has been widely commented jupon. George puts it in her inimitable humorous style, "some people give till it hurts. Till it hurts the recipient, that is."

Her policy recommendations include: (1) Providing the existing milch-stock with improved nutrition and veterinary care rather than introduce crossbreeds on a large scale (2) Focusing on the buffalo rather than, the cow for dairy development, 3) Equal if not greater attention to the bullocks which provide the attractive and motive power crucial for agriculture especially of small and marginal farmers, (A) Promotion of indigenous dairy foods such as ghee which can be processed(within the village, so that the nutrition from the milk will remain within the village as opposed to machine processing of alien dairy products such as milk powder, which sucks away liquid milk from the villages, and for which market exists only in towns, and that too among the elite, (5) Reliance on urban milchherds rather than rural milchherds for supply of milk to the cities and (6) Distribution of , milk in the cities through the milk vendors rather than machines.

The book is written in a racy style which makes it enjoyable reading. It is based entirely on secondary literature and given, the lack of uniformity in the quality of the literature one cannot help wondering if she has made selective Use of the material, especially since she has not considered it necessary to provide any account or summary of the literature. This is not so much a comment on her faithfulness in reporting but a question of methodology. When one uses secondary literature as the data base, the question is how it should be presented, so that it will leave room for the reader to make his judgments. Presumably the literature she has used reflects and discusses the changes in the livestock and agriculture scene in the last few decades due to various reasons, such as demographic pressure, fragmentation of holdings, mechanization of agricultural and allied opera-tions, increased level of marketing of milk due to greater degree of urbanization and so on. However, these do not get discussed in the book adequately. This is important because it seems to me that certain changes have come to stay. For instance the pump set water lifting technology makes the bullocks redundant for water lifting which constituted probably more than half of their work, especially in the well irrigated areas. Now, can we go back to the bullock and if so, hew? Similarly, the cow versus the buffalo was a lively debate during the freedom struggle in which Mahatma Gandhi took the side of the cow and asked for a 'boycott' of the buffalo (except in regions where they are used as traction animals) on the very grounds that George rejects the cross-breed cow and advocates the cause of the buffalo - that the buffalo promotes a competition for fodder between cow and buffalo and since the buffalo cannot produce work animals, whereas the cow can give milk, the cow should be favored. But Ms.George has made her point and a very readable book too which will no doubt stimulate much thinking on the subject.


Author:Uma Shankari

BOOK REVIEW

Roots of under development : A peep into india’s colonial past

This book is outcome of a joint effort by an economist and a historian, both faculty members at the Banaras Hindu University. The background to this work is the “serious debate… regarding the applicability of the economic doctrines and philosophy developed in the last two centuries in the west, to the problems of ex-colonies”. The authors are mach upset over a recommendation made through the UGC that hereafter “socialist economics” be taught as part of the syllable to provide an antidote to the heavy dose of free enterprise capitalist model ordinarily taught. Their plea is for adoption of an historical approach to the economic analysis of the Indian problem of development, which it is expected, would also lead to an examination of the genetic assumptions of the economic
Theories and models evolved in the west. This introduction of history or ‘time factor’ into economics, they believe, in that process “the possible direction in which we should move”

The main body of the text is arranged in nine chapters which we could conveniently group into three units. The first unit deals essentially with the historical setting , from the commencement of the interaction of Europeans with India in the 15th Century, leading upto the British conquest of India in the 18th Century. The second unit of three chapters deals with the disruption and disorganization of Indian economy under the British rule, in terms of three broad sectors, viz trade,agriculture and manufacture. The last unit of three chapters considers problems of modernization of the Indian economy, from the later part of the British rule till the present day. The last chapter (“Our Problem”) contains an impassioned plea to the economists to mend their ways, to move away from the lure of careerism and fellowships of foreign foundations etc.

The first set of three chapters provides a novel sort of historical setting to the Indo-Europen interaction of the early phase (16th-18th Centuries). The emphasis placed on the need to comprehend the internal structure of European societies, in particular that of England is fully justified (pp. 1- 19). The legitimization of piracy through extension of official support and encouragement of slave trade are the means through which wealth was accumulated in ‘the Crown’. Equally important is the brief description of the life of ordinary people in England prior to the so called industrial revolution, when the profitable nature of wool making the ony manufacture of England led to deprivation of land and livelihood for large part of the population . But mor significant is the statement that for Europeans trade and commerce ment pillage , plunder, conquest and slavery as well.

Thus, the period Ir European history which passes for an era of great expansion of foreign trade in textbooks, !s seen to be characterised by the emergence and consolidation of buccaneers, pirate- conquerors and stave-traders as pillars of the society.

Keeping in view the continuity of such a static, crime-prone society, with rudimentary agriculture and poetically no manufacture, the Invention of a few devices,in late eighteenth century appeared, to be a radical departure from the past,deserving of the tittle of "Industrial Revolution". During the earlier phase of this revolution, the only worthwhile raw material, to be processed was cotton, instead of wool as was the situation obtaining before. The authors point out that the availability of a unique system of commerce' in the sense of the term discussed above) was crucial In rendering the small number of crude Inventions useful (p. 33-37). An aspect of this system of commerce was the power to levy tariffs on foreign (mostly Indian) materials to block them out effectively from competition. This, the authors believe, was the foundation for establishment of a system of "capital drain" from India which financed the industrial revolution in Great Britain.

The chapter on "Rewriting of 18th Century India" Is an important contribution. The authors draw upon the recent researches relating to various records of maritime trade of India in the Mughal period. Even though the European records of this sector in that period are likely to be sketchy, certain broad conclusions could be drawn from them. It emerges, for example, that all European companies had such a small volume of India's trade in their command that they were no more than 'front organizations for Asian merchants (p. 70). A number of Indian commercial organizations, identified closely with certain Individuals, were engaged In large-scale maritime trade, building and fitting-out their own ships. The volume of trade carried on by many an organization was at least equal to that of the " on Company" in the 18th century (pp. 73-75). Gaining control over such lucrative commerce seems to have necessitated the encirclement of India by Europeans, which ultimately gave them control over the sea-lanes of trade traffic (p. 79). This strategy appears to be only an extended projection of the Venltian system of "guarded trade" In the Mediteranean In the I2th-14th Centuries. Fresh focus on the maritime trade of Mughal India, drawing upon the available Mughal State Papers, will contribute to rewriting of the economic history of India in the 16th Century.

In the next set of three chapters on disruption and disorganization of Indian economy -trade, agriculture and manufacture - the authors present a picture of the various mechanisms evolved by the British conquerors to extract maximum possible revenue out oi the country. Details on disruption of internal trade through levying of discriminate tariffs are given. Coercion was resorted to persuade weavers and other manufacturers to take loans from the Company to secure their agreement to supply only the latter. The wealth then the company Acquired In India was so large, that the rulers in England started to evolve measures to contain the latter from acquiring "undue" influence in politics through Its ower of patronage .

Indian agriculture was disrupted to a large extent. The various types of settlements' viz. zamHtdari ryotwari and nahafwari systems are described, showing all the attendant consequences which have been stated by various scholars These authors stress the point that the British sought to legitimize their system of exaction of tribute through mlslnterpi elation of the traditional system of agricultural revenue (p. 128), which Is briefly touched upon In a description (pp. 134-137). The principally disastrous consequence of the British policy of agricultural revenue, the authors believe, was the exaction and transfer of 'tribute" and they cite figures justifying such an opinion (p.144). Another Important consequence was the creation of rural Indebtedness on a large-scale .

The manufacturing sector In India was annihilated with the twin alms of exaction of raw materials for processing at "the centre1' and to render the population into consumers of British industrial goods. Such a" process may be taken to have commenced with the "Renewal of Charter" In 1813 (p. 152), mostly due to the emergence of a class in England that depended upon the existence of "protected markets" for the industrial goods. Such a market was easily found in India which had been politcally subjugated by then (p. 153). The authors mention the cases of annihilation of Indian shipping, iron, paper and sugar manufacturing industries in addition to the well known cases of cotton and silk manufacture. This resulted in shift of sizable part of population to. the over-burdened agriculture, leading to recurrent famines.

"Modernization" is the theme of the last set of chapters and, among the tools of modernization, railways receive considerable attention (pp. 201-218). The emphasis here is on the classical controversy "railway vs irrigation" in which the authors side with the irrigation-school. In the discussion on "industrialisation", the British are charged with obstruction of the development of "modern Industries" in India until the advent of the first world war when the contingency of the situation demanded supplies of steel and ammunition. The inter-war years witnessed slower growth but the onset of the second war accelerated growth of industries tied to war machinery. Another point is that, even the industrial enterprises that came into existence had to have collaboration with the British manufacturer's, thus depriving possibilities of indigenous development. The authors go on to observe that the process of "export of capital" that-was Initiated under the British rule Is continuing today through the mechanism of the MNCs and the advice tendered by agencies such as trie IMF or trie World Bank The authors recommend some kind of "severing the links" with the international system of commerce and trade.

On the whole, this book should be viewed as outcomes of a well-intentioned effort to alter rectify certain notions prevalent in the teaching of economics. But the book, as it stands, is not appropriate to be a resource book in economics. For one thing, the character of the discourse in] the book changes from that of classical historical scholarship to that of pamphleteering a la columnists in the Economic and Political Weekly. Perhaps this was unavoidable: Presenting a clear view of the nature and character of linkages that have1 developed between the West and India all through a period of 400 years is a difficult, demanoing task. Without fulfilling that, it may not be worth the effort to build a theory" of underdevelopment, which keeps sliding back Into the favorite Western leftwlng theories of neocolonialism based on a framework of "economic drain", evolved and supported mostly with reference to the experience of Latin America. The authors would have done better to examine critically these theories, for instance those advocated by Andre Guhder Frank and Samlr Amin, to assess their worth In.

evolving a realistic picture of "underdevelopment". Quoting the estimates of drain' from the 'Third World" to the West presented from the works of a certain Paul Harrison who. In turn, quotes another Paul Bairoch (pp. 271-272)- there cannot be a bigger breach at the authors' promise to justify their utterances with the support of 'authorities' (p. vl). Are they not aware of estimates made in early eighties by the editors of "an independent socialist magazine" in the US that the volume of trade between the West and the Third World" Is no more than 20% of the total volume of trade and transactions carried on In the West? Perhaps the name of the game is subjugation and control of populations. In which the issue of export-oriented growth and the assortment of Rostowian theories provide the necessary mechanisms to keep the populations "engaged". Demonstration of a continuity In the interaction between the West and the conquered populations demands a greater degree of comprehension of the ties between these two systems than what is attempted, even if It be in a preliminary way, In the book.

The authors do make a tentative but Interesting effort to comprehend the nature of Western society prior to colonial expansion. While it is an easy task to call them "pirates", "shopkeepers" and the like, the fundamentally conquest-oriented nature of the Western society has not been stressed. That the ruling system of the West treated harshly any population, including .its own, Is a fact worth substantiation, particularly when some material is available (eg. the conquest and extermination of the population in the Americas). Inquiry into all these aspects would swell the pages but would undoubtedly contribute to the effective challenge of the canonical writings (such as the recent two volume Cambridge Economic History of India) and to substantial redefinition of the nature of "colonialism". The authors, similarly, could have expounded a little more on traditional Indian system of land-tenure etc., on which factual material is available in India.

Before concluding the review, we must, however, take note of certain serious lacunae. The book Is supposed to bring history into economics but the authors have made books and articles beyond history by not citing the dates of publication. Secondly, quotations of historical material from other sources are found smoothly merging with the text in many places (an enterprising effort which perhaps requires greater care to conceal). Third, the system of both footnotes, most of them shooting into the next page and separate "notes and references" makes reading cumbersome. An Interesting work, commendable more for the boldness of the attempt.

Author: V.Balaji