60 SOCIAL SCIENTIST selves to evidence brought forward at the conference itself, would point to a different conclusion. In his report on Srikakulam district N. Subba Reddi, Andhra University College, Waltair, has this to say : In Srikakulam district there is a large concentration of plains people living in the tribal areas. And as an inevitable consequence, the land has been passing continuously from the tribal people to the non-tribal land-holders, merchants and money-lenders (Parvathi-puram Agency : 5,030 non-tribals control 70% wet land available and dispossess 24,523 tribals). A significant feature of the situation was that the tribal people were continuously uprooted from their lands in spite of laws enacted for the specific purpose of preventing such alienation (Agency Land Transfer Regulations of 1917 and Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulations of 1959)...This means that land alienation took place not in the absence of regulations againt it, but in the face of their existence on the state book... There was another Act passed by the Government in 1960 which required that every money-lender operating in the tribal areas should obtain a licence and he should charge only the prescribed rate of interest. But no one obtained a licence even though the official list of 197 1 itself mentioned the names of 46 money-lenders operating in Parvathipuram Agency alone (italics ours) and every one of them charged usurious rates of interest. In 1964-65, 380 cases involving debts of over Rs 20,000 were filed in the courts for scaling down the amounts according to law. But 341 cases involving Rs 17,758 were subsequently withdrawn. Duress and deceit with the active connivance of the local officials could 'alone account for this achievement. At the higher levels of administration, there was hitherto supercilious indifference to the problems of tribal people living in the remote hills. The lower officers posted in tribal areas perhaps found it more profitable to connive at the flouting of the laws than enforcing them. There was a tradition of posting derelict officers in the scheduled areas as if it was a term of punishment for them. Even the general elections did not bring much public attention to this area. A study conducted by a research scholar of our department in a village called Mannayyaguda only three miles away from the Administrative centre of Parvathipuram Agency, revealed that the people never saw any of the candidates who contested from their constituency... An event in 1967 in which the non-tribal land-holders fired gun-shorts at a tribal procession and killed two men—which fact was not taken cognizance of by police—decided the issue for the tribal people in favour of armed struggle.