the peasant masses. After the rift, Sahajanand going the CPI way and the socialists choosing to stay with mainstream nationalism, the politicized Bihar peasantry chose to follow the CSP line and burst forth in a "massive rebellion" during the Quit India movement. The writer, however, accuses the socialists of completely ignoring the interests of poor and landless peasants, and is provoked to remark that the socialists were not the stuff to lead a real revolution for a radical structural change in the agrarian society. The criticism is acerbic but plausible. All the essays, four in number, dealing with the contemporaneous agrarian crisis in central Bihar seek to explore its socio-economic roots, ideological orientations and the government response to the prevailing violent conflicts. In analysis and findings they all are repetitive; nonetheless, Saibal Gupta draws attention by his scholarly insight into the historicity and complexities of the crisis. P.H. Prasad's analysis of poor peasant movements is in such a diffused context that it makes his article somewhat ill-fitted in this collection, while Seema Singh's article is simply redundant. A.K. Biswas' article should, however, be read to understand the perception of a sensitive government official. He dismisses the commonly held official notion that the agrarian violence in central Bihar is a law and order problem, traces the historical continuity of the oppressive system of bonded-labour and the eventual eruptions of violence in this area, thereby supporting the views of the academics expressed in preceding essays. Alak N. Sharma's perceptive essay on Bihar's agrarian sickness and economic paralysis can be read with profit. One may easily agree with his analysis that the continuing existence of semi-feudal elements in the agrarian structure and the rising expectations of awakened rural poor have given birth to clashes of interests and the consequent violence. It is to be regretted that in this collection of essays there is no specific article on the recurring waves of agrarian violence in North Bihar where Naxalite turbulence and terrorism convulsed the rural society for a considerable period. Girish Misra's detailing of Champaran Sathi land episode is more an exposure of political and administrative corruption than a story of peasant resistance, and P.P. Ghosh's brief reference to a small and feeble peasant agitation for fair wages in an obscure village of North Bihar cannot fill this vacuum. In spite of some lacunae the book is a useful contribution to the ongoing regional studies of the peasant society and movements. It is to be expected that the book will prove useful to young researchers and the lay readers interested in understanding the agrarian