and development. These adjustments have transmitted signals to the outside world not always easy to interpret. Perhaps their impact on the domestic system has been even more far-reaching. Many assumptions are apparently being examined afresh, and much of the arithmetic of growth is being redone. In a socialist society, movements in the different spheres of activity are inextricably correlated; the consequences of the new experiments thus could not but be pervasive. To us in India, the image of many ofth'e more recent developments is either compartmental or filtered through grossly distorted lenses. A sense of bafflement therefore persists in assessing the quality and content of the ongoing process of development. But it is also accompanied by a general keenness to learn a great deal more about events unfolding in that great country. One major fact, however, stands out. Socialist construction in post-revolutionary China has not reached a dead end. Even the apparent shifts and switches in the methodology of development suggest that the post-liberation dynamism is yet to run its course. China remains a dazzling hothouse of social experiments from which outsiders can expect to leam much. For Indians, China's experience, her mistakes and disappointments not excluding, has an even greater relevance. We have the largest population mass after China, our social and cultural complexities are not altogether dissimilar from China's and the problems of capital resources, human efficiency and adaptive technology with which China is grappling evoke an echo along our shores. The articles are in the nature of comments by a number of Indian social scientists on aspects of the recent socio-political and economic developments in China. These articles were invited by the editorial board of Social Scientist, and are included in special issues of the journal. The journal's invitation was addressed to social scientists who stand at some ideological distance from one another. This was done on purpose, since it was considered important that developments in China be appraised not just with dispassion but also from diverse angles of vision, allowing readers the opportunity to reach their own overall judgement. Most of those who were invited to contribute had the advantage of having visited China in the recent period. Besides, a contribution on the problem of China's minority nationalities was received from the Institute of Nationality Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Given its authoritative nature, this communication from Liu Xingwu andAlatan helps to narrow a major gap in our information. The minority nationalities do not add up to more than seven per cent of China's total population, but the detailed manner in which the authorities have gone about to help them sustain their identity, and at the same time integrate them with the mainstream of national endeavour, offers significant clues to the approach that could be adopted by other nations having identical or similar problems. Pravin Visaria contributes a paper on China's demographic trends.