70 SOCIAL SCIENTIST concentrates on the "Liberation Struggle" launched by the communal organisations of the Nairs and the Christians on the one hand and the major political parties, the Congress, the PSP and the Muslim League, on the other. He points out how not only the political parties of the right but also the Revolutionary Socialist Party, "often proclaiming to be on the left of the CPI, took part in the 'joint struggle to defend the democratic rights of the people' " (p 138). The author portrays the counter-revolutionary "Direct Action" drama, characterised by frenzy and violence, with profuse quotations from the provocative speeches of Mannath Fadmanabhan, K M Chandy, P T Piflai, Father Vadakkan etc and the vituperative writings in Deepika, Kerala Janatha etc. In the concluding chapter, the author analyses the 1960 Kerala Assembly elections and the performance of the CPI. Commenting on the voting pattern, he says: "The election results proved that significant shift had taken place among the people; not away from the Communist Party, but towards it. Though the CPI and the independent candidates supported by it lost almost two-thirds of the seats in the Assembly, the percentage of their share in the votes increased from 40.7 in 1957 to 43.1" (p 160). Although the CPI was able to consolidate and improve its mass appeal, as the 1960 Kerala Assembly election results show, the Party itself was heading for an unprecedented crisis following its Sixth Congress in 1961. ^ The author deserves to be complimented because his book is undoubtedly one of the most comprehensive, well documented and objective studies on the subject. R RAMAKRISHNAN ^