RELIGION AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATION 73 gained through Marxist organisation ... the Gandhians acknowledged that the Marxist influence throughout the years had strengthened the people's self-confidence and critical understanding. c. . . ^^ Such an impact may be built up slowly over a period of time, or, under favourable conditions, it may speed up considerably. It may reveal itself in a number of different forms, some tangible, others more difficult to perceive. It maybe expressed, for example, in the refusal of an individual or a group any longer to accept centuries-old social humiliations. It may break out in a labourer's new sense of boldness in relation to the landlord or the moneylender. It may reveal itself in the practice of a number of toiling families, or an entire community, standing together united and overcoming petty quarrels or debilitating fawily or caste rivalries. But the real point here is that such manifestations of transforming consciousness cannot be revealed by the method adopted by Dietrich: a superficial attitudinal survey that makes no reliable contact with either the material or the spiritual life of the people. Against the failure to make ^ny headway either in the re^lm of theoretical discussion or in the empirical field must, of course, be set off t^c refreshingly positive attitude towards the people that Dietrich and her team of researchers show. It is this quality (h^l; is to be appreciated in their effort. They do reveal a desire to go out and meet the labouring people and contribute what understanding they can to the struggle for a new social order. In her affirmation that the people themselves must bring about their advancement, in her acknowledgement in principle that social change can only come through struggle, and in her willingness to make contact with the most oppressed sections of society, Dietrich stands in real contrast not only to quite a few Christians but also to a good many social scientists, Indians include But so long as the research work continues on the weak foundations highlighted by this book—theoretical eclecticism and immodesty combined with empirical work of an extremely superficial nature—the best-intentioned efforts will be of little practical value to the people who inspire the work. SUSAN RAM