56 pCIAL SCIENTIST in Europe at the turn of the century. Such a reading would be rewarding because it might help avoid the same painful process that French Planning has already been through. Indeed the book clearly demonstrates that urban planning in India is tackling the problem of rapid urbanisation with solutions that the French had already exhausted in 1910. At the turn of the century, a fierce antagonism developed between the locally elected members and the technicians the latter levelled a strong protest against the former, concerning the urban administration laws of regulation and intervention which were supposed to guarantee decent housing facilities for all. There were signs of confrontation between two kinds of justifications one of technical competence and the other of political representation a confrontation that was heightened by the growing complication caused by increased state intervention. Many urban planners thought these shortcomings had to be corrected and strong measures had to be imposed upon government officials who were involved in local political racketeering and .were too ready to strike compromises with land owners. The material in the book has been arranged around some sort of historical framework that takes the reader through the history of town planning from its early beginnings, through the world wars into modern times. Alas, if our fine professional planners, numbered to sterility by compromises, could only put away their voluminous files and spend a little time with this book, then surely we could be spared the torture of watching their professional experience develop stage by stage, disaster by disaster along a road that European towns have already trodden. There is, I believe, no case to be made for the argument that the Indian urbanisation process is different from any other. Studies in th6 history of urbanisation are replete with examples of parallel misfortunes that have befallen the hopeless European urban dwellers at the turn of the century. There is value in, therefore, considering the experience of other continents, because to arrive at new solutions to our problems we need a reflect a little more and reflex a little less. Reading a book on urban policy, be it related to French, American or any other experience, can give one time for reflection. There are no solutions in these studies. Not withstanding the temptation of our planners to rush to solutions, we need to think about the nature of the problem. This book presents a panorama of the nature of the problem of urbanisation and the futile and successful attempts at influencing its dynamism with policy. It is not a comprehensive book, but then nor is it on fast forward. However it is an interesting contribution to the bibliography on the city.