BOOK REVIEW 69 from what Marx had written over twelve decades ago on the basis of the mate rial then available to him. This is a task in which dedicated Marxists and honest historians who do not subscribe to the theory of Marxism can and should cooperate. The analysis made by Romila Thapar of what she calls the "prejudices*^ in relation to the ^past" of India gives us hope that such collaboration will be possible. For, the conclusions arrived at by her confirm, rather than negate, the basic postulates of Marx's writings on India—firstly that Indian society as it existed at the time of Britain's victorious advance was so stagnant, requiring such fundamental transfoma-tions, that no revolutionary would shed a tear over its destruction; secondly that no positive consequences would arise out of this destruction so long as foreign domination continued over India. These, after all, constitute the revolutionary essence of Marx's analysis of India in the middle of the nineteenth century. E M S NAMBOODIRIPAD 1 The Past and Prejudice, p 4. 2 Ibid., pp 4-5. 8 Ibid., p 6. 4 Ibid., pp 26-27. 5 Ibid., pp 27-28. « Ibid., p 48.