2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST account of the political economy of India's post-independence economic development, but to present in bold strokes an extremely important feature of this development. In fact, its original title included the addendam "A Provocative Note55. We publish this paper here because it argues cogently how the element of economic nationalism underlying India's economic policy in the early years after independence was subverted by a series of crises, which were themselves to a large extent the product of the path of development pursued in the country, and how the greater ^liberalisation'5 thrust upon the country by the IMF and the World Bank etc are enmeshing it in further crises. The paper therefore provides valuable reading for anyone interested in the contradictions of capitalist industrialisation in a backward country, even a country with the resources that India has. This month we celebrate the 66th anniversay of the Rolslievik Revolution. And on this occasion we publish an article which discusses the formation of the first labour union in Madras in the immediate aftermath of the Bolshevik Revolution That the Bolshevik Revolution, quite apart from its longer-term consequences for world history, had in an immediate sense electrified the entire proletariat of Europe is well known; it was in John Reed's classic phrase "ten days that shook the world". But the fact that the tremors were felt almost immediately in colonial India as well is often less appreciated. Many radical leaders were directly inspired by it to jump into the labour movement. As the article makes clear, these leaders did not necessarily have a clear idea of what Bolshevism meant; nor were they necessarily steeped in the philosophy of dialectical materialism. Some of them admired Lenin with the same zeal with which they venerated Keir Hardic. But, leaving aside the specificities of their ideological predilections, they were enthused by the Revolution, and their enthusiasm ran to organising workers. The Madras Labour LTnion, for instance, was formed on April 27, 1918. Of course, the actual impact of the Bolshevik Revolution needs to be studied in greater detail; likewise, the perception of the workers themselves about the Revolution. But we hope that this article would stimulate greater interest in this important subject.