BOOK REVIEW 81 bear patiently with zamindars5 tyranny for ^we have to fight with a bigger zamindar (government)."10 Patel rationalizes the semi-feudal relationship between landowners and dublas in the political campaign; Gandhi sought to maintain ties between the rural classes for political mobilization against the anti-imperialist movement. Gandhi forgot that the zamindars, whom the British created (with the Permanent Settlement) for the perpetuation of their rule, could not be trusted as allies of the people in the tatter's fight against imperialism for how could a soldier (zamindar) be expected to fight against his General (British). Jawaharlal Nehru, on the contrary, was unsparingly critical of the zamindars5 tyrannical behaviour but his radicalism was confined to ideological pronouncements. He hoped to link kisan discontent with nationalist politics and to do in his own province what Gandhi had done elsewhere.11 He had made no study of economic and land problems. The actions of the peasantry were, the author notes, ^too extreme and unpalatable even for its (Congress's) own Radical Leftwing."12 The constructive programme with its emphasis on the removal of untouchability was nothing more than ^slogan-mongering" l 8 except for Kunvarji Mehta and his Patidar Yuvak Mandal which made sincere efforts to educate the illiterate masses, mostly poor sharecroppers and agricultural labourers. ^The most important social function", the author writes, ^of the Gandhian programme of constructive activities was that of tension management."19 This explains the alliance of disparate elements against the government particularly in the Bardoli movement. The Gandhian non-violence was interpreted differently by different leaders in the way it suited them. GandhijVs Failure Dhanagre's analyses reveal that Gandhi preferred minor agrarian issues to the more fundamental question related to the structure of agrarian relations: effected compromise with authority as a point of termination of agrarian campaigns, sought support from better-off peasantry and gave a semblance of relief to poor peasantry through constructive work so as to prevent them from any potential revolutionary activity. The movements did not bring the desired relief to the peasantry. In Champaran, the Gandhian effort then in effect, notes the author, simply legitimized the enhancement of rent, although at a reduced rate. It must be noted that the Champaran peasants by their successive, unaided, violent struggles succeeded in extracting greater concessions from its enemies, the government and the planters, than through Gandhi's efforts. The rising of 1867 resulted in the increase of price of indigo by 40 per cent 14 and the area under indigo was reduced from five to three kathas. The subsequent rising of 1907-08 resulted in further reduction of land under indigo cultivation from three to two kathas. ^B Dhanagre is of the opinion that the whole range of agrarian or peasant