COMMUNICATIONS 71 phase of the freedom movement had a significance in the political history of Assam that should not be overlooked. To recapitulate, Assam lagged behind the more advanced parts of India during medieval times due to the inadequate development of commodity production and division of labour. The feudal system in Assam contained large tribal survivals, though it is obfuscating to call it tribal-feudal. The feudual order needed a huge and intricately stratified bureaucracy (with special characteristics of its own) to compel the continuity of servile labour and feudal exploitation. The downfall of the feudal order did not at once bring the pace of development in line with that of the rest of British India. On the whole, imperialism acted as a further brake on development of the forces of production. Communications, education and political consciousness suffered from a corresponding stagnation. The economic weakness and political immaturity of the middle class continue to prevent it from having a decisive confrontation with big capital which succeeded imperialism as the main exploiter, though the middle class has made some gains since independence. The middle class in Assam (or in Nagaland, for that matter) cannot have much to show in terms of capitalist property. But it will be wrong to conclude therefore that it is just a variant of the countrywide petty-bourgeoisie. The point of my article was to reveal the bankruptcy of the middle class and its characteristic nationalist illusions and to establish that it no longer qualified as the leader of the masses of this region in the fight against big capital. In fact in the absence of a militant proletarian movement, which after all cannot be promoted by pious hopes, it is more likely to turn to fascism in the critical moments of its existence. Sections of this class may join the struggles of the working class sometimes, but it will never lead the fight for socialism. I am sorry Guha and Das unwittingly become apologists for the worst type of opportunism and treason to the masses by whitewashing its basic weakness. At the same time I do not think I have committed the mistake of theoretically dooming this class to a position of eternal reaction! It is surely not a mark of dialectical thinking to play with 'on the one hand3 and 'on the other hand9. Analysis and investigation must be thorough and comprehensive. I welcome Guha and Das's remarks because they are likely to compel one to accept rigorous standards of scholarship, but I am unable to accept them. HIREN GOHAI14 1 K N Dutta, Landmarks of the Freedom Struggle in Assam, Gauhati 1958. a Ibid., p 7, pp 49-50. s Ibid., p 46.