92 SOCIAL SCIENTIST . . . Revolutions can be called revolutions when the changes they bring about are the result of concrete conditions; when they have the roots in the soil and their fruits are natural and not imported. In the same way, Nicaragua is'one country where apples cannot be produced, but medlers, pineapples and other kinds of fruit are grown instead. That does not mean that Nicaragua cannot import fertilizer or other contributory elements that form part of human capital on land. Indeed, Nioaraguans cannot speak of an original revolution without taking into consideration the experience of other countries, the laws of historical development. Nicaraguan revolution is based on the idea of a worker who was also a craftsman and to some extent a peasant—ideas which, by a kind of natural genius, transcended the conditions of their time and reached out towards the future. Sandino said, for example, that only the workers ^nd peasants will go all the way in a process of social change; and he said it without having read Marx, at a time when Marxist ideas had not yet reached Nicaragua. However, Marxism, which is a conception of the world and of reality, establishes certain laws of historical development that can be realised or interpreted even outside any actual knowledge of Marxism.. ,19 Fertilizers, yes; Apples, one cannot! [I am grateful to Padmini Swaminathan and Nirmal Sengupta for their comments on an earlier draft.] NOTES AND REFERENCES 1. K N Panikkar, 'Culture and Consciousness in Modern India : 1 A Historical Perspective', Social Scientist, April 1990. 2. K N Panikkar et al, 'The Political Abuse of History : Babri Masjid—Ram Janmabhumi Dispute', Social Scientist, January-February 1990. K N Panikkar, 'Why Are We Hesitant to Give Tipu Sultan His Due', Times of India, May 18,1990. 3. Sumit Sarkar, "The Complexities of Young Bengal', Nineteenth Century Studies, October 1973. 4. Harjot Singh Oberoi, The Worship of Pir Sakhi Sarvar : Illness, Healing and Popular Culture in the Punjab', Studies in History, January 1987, p. 30. 5. Ibid. 6. Sumanta Banerjee, 'Marginalisation of Women's Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Bengal' in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (ed). Recasting Women : Essays in Colonial History, New Delhi, 1989. 7. Sumanta Banerjee, The Parlour and the Streets : Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta, Calcutta 1989, p. 204. 8. Lata Mani, 'Contentious Traditions : The Debate on Sati in Colonial India', in Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (ed). Recasting Women : Essays in Colonial History, New Delhi, 1989. 9. Harjpt Singh Oberoi, op.cit, pp. 30-31. 10. Amalendu Cuha, 'Neo-Vaishnavism to Insurgency: Peasant Uprisings and the Crisis of Feudalism in Late Eighteenth Century Assam', in Ashok Mitra (ed). The Truth Unites : Essays in Tribute to Samar Sen, Calcutta, 1985. 11. Partha Chatterjee, 'Caste and Subaltern Consciousness', in Ranajit Guha (ed), Subaltern Studies, Vol V, Delhi, 1989.