SOCIAL SCIENTIST VOLUME 25 NUMBERS 7-8 JULY-AUGUST 1997 ADVISORY EDITORS EDITORIAL BOARD Ash ok Mitra Madhu Prasad Amalendu Guha Utsa Patnaik Irfan Habib R.R. Krishnan Amiya Bagchi D. Raghunandan Kishore Theckedath " C. Rajamohan Jacob Eapen C.P. Chandrasekhar CONTRIBUTING EDITORS MANAGING EDITOR Thomas Isa'ac Rajendra Prasad Sanjaya Baru Atis Dasgupta EDITOR Javeed Alam Prabhat Patnaik V.K. Rarnachandran Venkatesh Athreya CIRCULATION &• ADVERTISEMENT EDITORIAL OFFICE 35A/1 (Sec. floor) Shahpur Jat, 35A/1 (Sec. floor) Shahpur Jat, Near Asiad Village, New Delhi 110 049 Near Asiad Village, Phone: 649 7999, 649 1448 New Delhi 110 049 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Inland Foreign (In US Dollars) Single issue Rs. 20 Annual: Double issue Rs: 30 Air mail 60 Annual (individuals) Rs. 200 Sea mail 50 Annual (institutions &c libraries) Rs. 350 Annual (students) Rs. 125 2 years (individuals) Rs. 300 3 years (individuals) Rs. 400 (Rs. 20 extra if by outstation cheque) ISSN 0970 - 0293 The grant for publication from Indian Council of Historical Research is gratefully acknowledged. Social Scientist is listed in the International Current Awareness Services and its contents are indexed in the International Bibliography of the Social Sciences. This issue is printed in August 1998 Printed and distributed by Tulika rrint Communication Services Pvt. Ltd. 35A/1 (Second floor) Shahpur Jat, Near Asiad Village, New Delhi 110 049