BOOK REVIEW 95
formation of petrified bureaucracies after the successful completion of the political revolutionary task of establishing the dictatorship of the oppressed. To overcome the difficulty Freire makes a "distinction between systematic education which can only be changed by political power, and educational projects, which should be carried out with the oppressed in the process of organising them59 (p 40). Indian politics since Independence, has become too much electoralised in the sense that periodical elections have become the focus around which all political forces, including the Left, organise their political activities. However desirable and necessary it may be for the bourgeoisie, this reduction of politics to elections is more likely to harm the Left than benefit it. Those who aim at a total revolution not merely a ministerial change, should "put politics in command" in every field of popular activity and not reduce politics to electioneering. To treat human beings as just so many thousands of voters is to treat them as objects for manipulation. It goes without saying that adult literacy campaigns by themselves cannot revolutionise the masses, however radical the teaching methods may be. But it is possible for groups of the Left to launch literacy campaigns among the illiterates as part of their revolutionary activity. Only on the basis of dedicated and sustained work with the masses can we formulate a theory adquate for our educational purposes. But the revolutionary educators who undertake pedagogical work among our adult illiterates will find Freire's ideas stimulating and invigorating.
1 Paulo Freire, "Cultural Action for Freedom", Harvard Educational Review, 1970, p 12.