84 SOCIAL SCIENTIST communal organisations got their respectability and support due to their close linkages with the Congress in Bihar. The author delineates the basic canvas of her work and the 'constitutive elements' of the new 'nationalist state' that was being formed in Bihar in a short conclusion. The specialist reader will also find the bibliography quite interesting, excepting that it contains a few serious mistakes. For example, Ranajit Guha might get surprised to find that he has also authored The Unquiet Woods. . . . Nevertheless, this book is a major work which will attract not only the historian of 'Modern' India, but also the broad spectrum social scientist and the non-specialist reader. BISWAMOY PATI The Centre for Contemporary Studies NMML, New Delhi