72 SOCIAL SCIENTIST each (inclusive of the land which is already in their possession). If cultivable waste lands, pastures, and forest banjars where trees do no grow, were made available for distribution and brought under cultivation, an additional 2-3 acres of land can be made available to each of the poor peasant and agricultural labour families. The problem of tenancy was dealt with brilliantly by P.S. Though in A.P. tenancy is not the main form of cultivation, 15-20 per cent of the cultivators depend upon leased land. Legally recorded tenants are few. The government refuses to maintain tenancy registers and protect the tenants. Most of the tenancies therefore are oral and not written agreements. Most of the tenants are poor peasants and agricultural workers, who have no choice but to take the land on lease, as their own holdings are pitifully small. Since there are no written records, there are effectively no tenancy rights, and consequently the landlords evict tenants at will. Even though the law has fixed rents at 25 per cent for dry lands and 30 per cent for wet lands, the actual rents range between 50 to 75 per cent of the producer The absurdly high rents are a consequence of the poverty of peasants, forcing them to lease in land, creating thereby the demand for land, and the absence of any security of tenure, which makes the high rents possible. The alternative to leasing in land is to offer wage labour, which again depresses the wage rate. Th In the death of P. Sundarayya, the poor and toiling people of India have lost a saint and a revolutionary hero. As E.M S. Namboodinripad wrote, the best tribute that can be paid to him, is by moving forward from strength and to strength, and each one of us contributing to the movement in our own little way. SRIDHAR KRISHNA Zakir Hussain Callage, Delhi University, Delhi. 1 Mao Tse Tung, "Analysis of classes in Chinese Society" m Selected Works, Vol. I 2 CPI (M), Central Committee Resolution on Certain Agrarian Issues and an Explanatory Note by P. Sundarayya, 1973. 3 P. Sundarayya, The Land Question, All India Kisan Sabha, 1976.