CONTRIBUTORS BISWAROOP DAS is Research Associate at the Centre for Social Studies, Surat. SANTO SH K MEHROTRA is research scholar at Churchill College, Cambridge University, U K. E M S NAMBOODIR1PAD is General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). UTSA PATNAIK is at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, fawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. ANIL RAI is at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, New Delhi. AMAL SANYAL is Assistant Professor, Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. FROM THE PUBLISHERS We owe an apology to our readers. We regret that the publication of Social Scientist has been irregular for some time now on account of financial difficulties. We maintained unchanged the rates of subscription right from 1971. But the cost of production had trebled during the period, putting us to a loss which we could not bear any longer. Thus we were reluctantly forced to increase the rates to the min'mum extent for survival. You will have already received our circular in this connection. Secondly, in the process of reorganisation we had to skip issues No. 7 to 11 in Volume 9. We hope a-nd trust that you would understand our position and extend the same cooperation which we were privjieged to have so far.