NOTES 61 society and culture". It drew attention to the remnants of feudal set-up like "blind beliefs, religious superstitions, communal ideas and revivalist tendencies" which reflected the historically outmoded and irrational character of the feudal interests in our society. Hailing the emergence of Bangladesh as a secular and democratic country, and the victory of the people of Vietnam in their liberation struggle against American imperialism, it urged the progressives to remain cautious against a new American conspiracy and mischievous anti-democratic alliance in any part of Asia. It also stressed the need for greater unity of all shades of progressives to wage a united struggle against the aforesaid evils and threats existing in our society. This was not possible if the immediate tactical differences on the political front were allowed to unnecessarily disturb the functioning on the literary front. Among the tasks which the programme urged the writers to undertake were the development of scientific outlook on the basis of which socio-historical questions could be examined with an appropriate sense of perspective; separating of the healthy humanist elements in our cultural heritage from the narrow and constricted social tendencies and a re-interpretation of the former for the benefit of the toiling masses; and, development of the progressive aesthetics and the standards of literary judgement and evaluation. Finally, a 25-member Contact Committee was formed which would mobilise larger support for the cause of progressive movement and thrash out various measures to be taken for the furtherance of unity among like-minded writers in the light of the policy-cum-programme document adopted by the Conference. Let us hope that the joint statement and programme start a more fruitful dialogue among progressive writers for future collective action. The Conference also underlined the necessity of more vigorous and honest exchange of views on issues like the class character of the Indian state; the precise nature of the imperialist values which are sought to be propagated through private, semi-government and governmental agencies; the manner in which the outdated feudal values are used by our ruling classes to frustrate the progressive march of history; the role of Sahitya, Lalit Kala, Sangeet Natak and other academies, radio and television networks, monopoly press and big publishing houses; class values represented by the study-courses of various literatures framed by Indian universities; the possibilities of evolving proletarian culture in literature as a positive counter-measure to the existing cultural values created by the class regime of the country, and so forth. We have yet to see whether the Contact Committee goes about its job efficiently and sincerely by organising a free and frank debate on the issues related to the area of culture and literature. We apprehend that if we falter because of our deep-rooted tendencies of compromise, collaboration and acquiescence, we would be strengthening our class enemies. We are likely to face challenges from two quarters. Firstly, a few