2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST is held by the establishment;: it is almost suggested that the tribals are stupid enough to prefer mango kernels to rice; so, if they die in the process then what can anyone do? "Liberalization" which has vastly increased inequalities over the last decade gets nourishment precisely from this soil. The lead article by Bhairabi Prasad Sahu in the current number of Social Scientist, while arguing for a change of perspective in the writing of Indian history, makes, in passing, a point similar to the one above. He sees the Brahmanical ideology as supporting the "caste-land-power pyramid" which denied property rights in land to "the untouchables": they remained landless labourers despite land abundance in the country. Paradoxically they continue to remain landless labourers (predominantly), even half a century after independence. Radical land reforms which could have dealt a blow to this uniquely oppressive system were eschewed. The bourgeoisie's compromise with landlordism contained within itself the prospects not only of a cul-de-sac for the path of development being pursued, but also, as Krishna Ananth argues in his piece, of a fascist threat, such as what we are witnessing today. Saadat Hasan Manto's partition stories are moving, powerful, and stunningly evocative of the frenzy of the times. They constitute some of the finest examples of creative writing in the subcontinent in modern times. Alok Bhalla in his piece shows why Khalid Hasan's English translation of these stories, which has been much praised, is in fact "too weak and sentimental, partisan and censorious" to do justice to Manto, to reveal his true significance to us. Margit Koves discusses the anthropology in the aesthetics of the young Lukacs, taking four of his works: Diary, The History and Development of Modern Drama, Soul and Form, and Theory of the Novel. She also discusses how Lukacs5 philosophy developed from being subject-centred to acquiring a being-centred character. Finally, we publish the text of Manini Chatterjee's Pritilata Wadedar memorial lecture, delivered earlier this year at Jadavpur University, Calcutta, where she argues that 1930 marked a watershed in the participation of women in the freedom struggle, in both its Gandhian and revolutionary forms.