56 SOCIAL SCIENTIST and subsidies on food and fertilizers. The entire package seeks to woo middle classes and deflect the struggles of the mass of Indian people. However, the World Bank managers also apprehend the possibility of mass resentment and resistance to such measures. In a multinational, multiscctoral and multiclass setting like India, the safety valves of localized,, narrow, parochial, sectional interest based organizations are essential to diffuse the mass discontent. These groups have a tendency to spring up at the so-called informal levels. The precise purpose of liberal funding of these organizations by various MNC-backed foundations, is to defeat the aggregation attempts of these groups, which seems almost impossible due to their diverse value orientations. This is more in the form of introspection by me because I am myself associated with Kothari's grassroot movements. NPFs may have forerunners in the Gandhian peaceful way of social transformation which in the present context appear to be variants of incrcmentalism or managerialism. The grassroot phenomenon cannot be paraded as an alternate paradigm, as the new answer to social challenges we face in India. The study of NPFs is vital but their glorification in the face of better organized mass formations is probably uncalled for because it invites ^arsh comments9 and 'acrimonious debates'. Sethi is himself a little unsure of the legitimate role of the non-party groups but his colleague Kothari is pretty sure that "in all this, and a lot more, there is a material for creating a new society and polity out of the ruins of the old, releasing new creative spaces for the people to come into their own and take charge of their lives". The hundred dollar question, however, is how the tactical slogan of "global problems and local solutions" can be translated into a strategic end of "people taking charge of their own lives". One is really worried how the Naxalite's militancy reconciles with Sunder Bahuguna's Satyagraha. May be any stick is good enough to beat the orthodox Marxists' influence on Indian masses. MOHINDER KUMAR Department of Business Management, Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla 1 Rajni Kothari, the main exponent of grassroots theory, is acutely aware of the imperialist strategy of exploiting the Third World countries; this becomes evident from his depiction of the current state of affairs in India. For details, refer Rajni Kothari, "Grassroots", Seminar, 203, January 1984, pp 47-52. 2 Even before Rajiv Gandhi came to power, Kothari had very accurately depicted the character of new dispensation in the offing. For the package of measures announced in the first budget of Rajiv Gandhi, even the pro-business Commerce weekly has used the caption "An industry oriented budget by-passes common man". Refer, Commerce 23 March 1985. 3 The quotations in this note largely come from the three contributions of Rajni Kothari, Harsh Sethi and D.L. Seth on the subject of non-political formations in the February 1984 issues of Economic and Political Weekly. 4 Prakash Karat, "Action Groups/Voluntary Organisations : A Factor in Imperialist Strategy", The Marxist, April-June 1984, pp 19-54.