EVOLUTION OF INDIAN SOCIETY 11 words, witnessed the development of two parallel but inter-depcn-dent forces—1) the numerically increasing and organizationally united working class and 2) the increasing influence of Marxist-Leninist ideology among all sections of the people—with the great victories of socialism in the world, especially on our borders, as well as with the electoral victories of the Left and democratic forces in India. Here, therefore, are present both the objective and subjective prerequisites for that final defeat of the stagnating and decadent society and culture, inherited by the Indian people from their several centuries-old development since the prehistoric tribal societies were disintegrated and class society was formed under the garb of caste society. (This paper was presented at the seminar on "Indology and Marxism", Calcutta, 27-29 April 1980) 1 Refer Engels on the place of slavery in human development.