2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST
recruitment. As argued, the very idea of a settlement for the 'criminal tribes' (from 1912 onwards) was a part of a multi-dimensional strategy. Thus, it was designed to reduce the expenditure incurred in the jails, act as a 'civilising'/'rehabilitation' mission for the 'criminal tribes', reduce the expenditure on relief work in the context of the famine and ensure a cheap labour force for the Indian mill owners at Sholapur, which was 'bound' to the mills. Given this, the strikes of the 1920-22 revealed the close relationship - not only between the mill owners and the colonial administration - but also the Congress. Moreover, they could be suppressed ruthlessly without any gains foi the workers. Ironically these conditions also ensured high profits for the capitalists during the 'Great Depression'.
Geetanjali Gangoli's, 'Reproduction, Abortion and Women's Health' takes up a contemporary issue which is of tremendous significance. The issue of sex determination tests and women's health is woven and situated against a canvas of the family planning programme and the law. What began in 1982 as a feminist movement in Bombay and emerged victorious with the adoption of a law banning these techniques in 1988 in Maharastra, was followed by a law at the national level (1992) along similar lines. Gangoli brings together the perspectives and the issues which saw the evolution of the debate, leading to passing of the 1994 Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse) Act in the Parliament.
And finally, the review article of Nilanjan Sarkar takes up two books which deal with the 'voices' of women, in their contest against the hierarchies imposed by patriarchy in medieval south India.
Biswamoy Pati