80 SOCIAL SCIENTIST growth. Increase in rural representation in the parliamentary politics and increased rural organisation is also visible as democratic political system is related to both. Political Judgements on rural representation in the political system have markedly changed since independence. It is also the decided opinion of the non-party peasant leaders that party politicians having rural origins does not necessarily work for the betterment of the rural sector. The present work, while listing the successive governmental policy decisions since India became free, is silent about the numerous political parties with a pure peasant base which exerted great pressure on government and in influencing the agricultural policies. The role of N.G. Ranga in this context is a case in point which never figure in the study. The rural power considerably increased after the state governments have abolished the Zamindaries as well as the Estates, before introducing the land reforms. The impact of commercial crops though touched peripherally, ought to have been given due weight as an effective carrier of peasant power. The work of Ashutosh Varshney is evidently the fruit of a systematic research and the book is well brought out. The arguments are well supported through a number of graphs and convincing statistics. Written in good prose, the book makes reading a pleasure. K.S.S. SESHEN Department of History University of Hyderabad Hyderabad