2 SOCIAL SCIENTIST Brahmans in their role as revenue collectors with a share in collection and also guaranteeing their mode of worship and the sanctity of their images. This influenced the perceptions of the vanquished as well, who though seeing the Arabs as alien invaders, also accepted the reduced authority under rulers who offered a life with honour. The subsequent phases of the 'coming of Islam* were also characterised by dualities— both in the attitudes and behaviour of the invaders and the perceptions of the vanquished. But above all, it provided for *a political uniformity and larger allegiance* and a new cultural efflorescence. Unfortunately, in modem perceptions of the problem, this complex duality is often ignored, leading to the abuse of history as in the Babri-Masjid case. The other major theme m this issue is the state of the economy, analysed in a background paper by Ashok Mitra presented at a recent meeting of economists on the subject organised by the Social Scientist and a statement issued at the end of the meeting. Ashok Mitra focuses on aspects of recent growth trends in the country that give cause for concern, despite the relatively higher rates of growth realised in recent years. To start with, the commendable growth in national income over the 1980s notwithstanding, the performance of the agricultural sector both in terms of overall growth and its regional spread has been disquieting. Much of the recent buoyancy has been in services and to a lesser extent in manufacturing. Further within manufacturing, there have been substantial variations in rates of growth across industries, with a skew in favour of energy intensive consumer goods and import intensive consumer durables, whose growth has been encouraged by the liberalisation of domestic industrial and external trade policy. With the rate of saving declining over this period characterised by a consumption-led boom, much of this growth has been sustained with external borrowing and high levels of deficit financing. The effects of such a strategy have become visible both in the domestic market, where prices are buoyant, and the external front, where the current account balance as a share of GDP has widened leading to a decline in reserves and a sharp increase in India's foreign debt burden to more than Rs. 100,000 crore by end-March 1989. Referring to these trends, the Statement on The Indian Economy points to the directions in which policy would have to move so as to reorient the process of growth in ways that would correct these imbalances.