2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST B.S. Chandra Babu's paper on famines in Chingleput district in the nineteenth century brings out clearly the link between the process of colonialisation and t^e outbreak of famines. These famines were not the result of the failure of monsoons, and the consequent food availability decline, in particular yeairs. Monsoon failures per se precipitated famines only in a situation where the economy had been colonialised, where distress of the people had become an endemic phenomenon. The draconian land tax-squeeze, supplemented by the burdens imposed by the new class of parasitic middlemen, had resulted in a perpetuation of agricultural backwardness. This, together with the striking employment opportunities on account of 'de-industrialisation', had created a vast pauperised mass which fell prey to recurrent famines whenever food availability declined. The theme of agricultural backwardness also figures in the paper by B.A. Prakash and Bal Govind Baboo. Agriculture in Malabar, according to Prakash, remained backward notwithstanding the fact that areas under cultivation of various crops showed an increase in the colonial period. In tracing the causes of this, apart from drawing attention to the debilitating impact of colonial exactions, the author also underscores the role of social institutions such as the caste-system, and the inheritance rules followed by the donlinant land-owning castes. Baboo's paper on Sambalpur is noteworthy, among other things, for joining issue with those who have argued that the collection of rent and cess in cash has the effect of enhancing the cultivation of commercial crops; he finds little evidence for this proposition in his study of Sambalpur district. The paper by Raghabendra Chattopadhyay deals with a different theme, namely the dialectics of the interaction between the big bourgeoisie and the Congress leadership, as exemplified by the response to the budget proposals of a populist nature presented by Liaquat Alt Khan m 1947-48. The calculations and reactions of each of the various groups, namely the Muslim League, the big bourgeoisie and its supporters within the Congress, the radical elements within and outside the Congress, and the elements represented by Nehru, make the 1947-48 budget a fascinating episode.