90 SOCIAL SCIENTIST uchi Brahmin bankers and money lenders held a position of some importance as share-holders of the mill companies. An analysis of the share-holding in the Mad-ura Mills group over the period 1890-1923 revealed that the proportion of the Indian shareholding held by Kallidaikuruchi Brahmin bankers and money lenders varied between 2.90 percent and 4.38 percent. This contrasted with the sharply fluctuating position of Nattukottai Chettiar bankers and moneylenders, whose proportion of the Indian shareholding rose from 3.06 percent in 1892 to 34.53 per cent in 1908 and, after 1913, declined continuously until it reached 0.22 per cent in 1923. 12 For a discussion of the significance of caste and caste organisation in South India during the period 1800-1925 and the British statistical practices relating to this, see C J Baker and D A Washbrook, South India: Political Institutions and Political Change \8SO-1940, Macmillan (India), Delhi, 1974, especially pp 150-231. Washbrook^ ? ttack on naive, mega-caste based models and interpretations of South Indian ociety impressively and quickly demolishes the abstract theoretical foundation on which Barnett builds up her case, Mega-labels like 'Non-Brahmin', even 'Vanniya Kula K-shatriya' did not represent the essence of social reality, although they were certainly derived from this complex social reality. These labels were adopted for specific purposes which can be understood in the context of larger economic, social and political conditions. Washbrook and Baker criticise some of the superficialities and untested assumption, perpetrated in existing studies of South Indian society and political developments but their own standpoint is basically pro-imperialist and anti-national. The distinguishing characteristic of this brand of political science research is the obscuring of the connection between the complex political development of the period and the principal contradiction—the contradiction between British imperialism and the masses of the people of India. 18 R P Dutt, India Today, People's Publishing House, Delhi. « Ibid, p 306. 15 Ibid, p 306. 16 For a critical discussion of this question, see Arulalan's article, "The Relevance of Periyar; Caste or Class Struggle?" in Radical Review, Madras, May 1971. 17 In personal terms and in terms of social significance, the tragedy of Periyar is comparable to the larger tragedy of the outstanding bourgeois national leader and patriot, Subhas Chandra Bose, who towards the end of his political career drifted into shameful collaboration with Japanese fascism. In both cases, the inability of bourgeois nationalism and the outstanding individual to respond in a consistently democratic way to key historical developments stands out in bold relief. 18 Sec VI Lenin, "Critical Remarks on the National Question/' cited above,pp 19-20. 19 See V V Balabushevich and A M Dyakov, (ed), A Contemporary History of India» People's Publishing House, New Delhi, 1964, pp 320-328. 30 Ibid, p 321. For more details, see N C Bhogendranath, Development of the Textile Industry in Madras (Upto 1950), University of Madras, 1957, pp 236-253. 21 Balabushevich and Dyakov (ed.), cited above, p 326. 22 See Prakash Karat, "The Peasant Movement in Malabar, 1934-1940," in Social Scientist 50, publication of the Indian School of Social Sciences, Trivandrum. 28 Balabushevich and Oyakov, (ed.), cited above, pp 389-392. ^ Ibid, p 370. 25 Ibid, pp 391-392. 28 Communist and Kisan Sabha efforts to organise the agricultural labourers of East Thanjavur began seriously soon after the First Congress of the CPI held at Bombay in May 1943. The decision to concentrate in this vanguard agrarian area in Tamil Nadu was followed up in a concrete way after the meeting of the Central Kisan Council at Bombay in August 1934.