BOOK REVIEW 71 party, he said: ^It was not for ideological differences but for personality clash that I had been victimised. It is high time Jana Sangh separated from RSS" (p 54). She maintains that unless the RSS inspired Jana Sangh leaders shed off their RSS legacy, their partnership even in the democratic process will remain a question mark to Indian democracy itself (p 241). But then without RSS the Jana Sangh would be another Swatantra Party—a party of few leaders and no followers. In fact it is the RSS hard core which has made the Jana Sangh what is is today. On the basis of her study the author further maintains that the Jana Sangh fulfilled merely the religio-cultural needs of the urban Hindus belonging to the lower middle and middle classes of northern India. Its character did not allow it to identify itself with the broad masses of the country. That is why most of its protest movements and agitations were on non-economic and non-political issues. As a matter of fact, the party has not came to grips with the socio-economic problems of the country. It has no clear-cut programmes for landless labourers nor has it cut much ice on the trade union front. A party like the Jana Sangh, harping on ancient values and traditions, cannot gain much ground in a nation striving hard to wriggle out of traditionalism and steer its way clear along the path of modernization, It is doubtful whether the movement initiated by Jayapra-kash Narayan, as the author holds, introduced fresh thinking into its obscurantist orientation and gave a new dimension of socio-economic reality and democratic value to its politics. Despite its association even with this movement the party has become identified with reaction and revivalism. In this respect, some of the conclusions of the author are not borne out by the recent rifts and splits in the party. All the same, the book being the first serious study by an Indian scholar on the organization] and ideology of Jana Sangh, deserves the attention of all students of Indian politics. K RAMAN PILLAI