Articles by Ajit Roy

Sidelights on Soviet Union Ajit Roy The Dynamics of Soviet Politics edited by Paul Cocks, Robert V Daniels and Nancy Whittier Heer; Harward University Press, 1976;

significant part in determining cost's or quality of production in these Industries But the list is proposed to be revised as and when necessary and there is no danger of it being enfold with too much strictness, Also there is to be no phasing out of the existing large-scale industries in the reserved area as was demanded in the Janata party's resolution on economic policy, The (joint, however, is that reservation of more and more industries for the small-scale' sector has beeen of no particular help in the past to achieve the objectives in view. The definition of small-scale industry remains unchanged. A unit will be classified in the small-scale sector if it has a specified level of capital outlay at present fixed at Rs 15 lakhs - regardless of what it produces and how. No consideration has been given to the fact that concessions to the small-scale units, either by way of credit or supply of inputs, under the prevailing conditions and arrangements, does not help to change either the pattern of production or consumption and does not help to adjust prices and costs which will serve priority requirements. On the contrary, it is well established that the small-scale sector, as now defined and regulated is an area of sweated labour and la used by the large-scale sector to divert material and financial resources towards non-priority areas and lines of activity, Considerable concern has been expressed in some circles about the stipulation in the new industrial policy statement that large-scale enterprises will have to generate their own resources for expansion and modernisation rather than depend too much on public financial institutions. But it is proposed to make adjustments in the pricing of industrial products to ensure an adequate rate of return on capital to facilitate the generation of internal resources for reinvestment. The question is how far this will be done in practice. The gov- eminent has been reluctant to do that even in the case of public sector enterprises as well as for private sector industries in the name of controlling prices. To talk of making the industry capable of generating surpluses of its own and then to work out schemes for large-scale pumping in of resources from the public financial institutions to the so-called sick industries shows how practice will not necessarily square with precept WEST BENGAL Substituting Reform for Revolution Ajit Roy THE CPI(M)-Ied Left Front government in West Bengal has Just completed six months in office. By any prevailing standards of measurement, its performance during this period has been quite creditable. Most of the political prisoners, some of whom had been behind bars for about a decade

to narrow the extent of the market facilities to their own borders by rigging tariffs, regulating imports and exports, allowing roads to decay, and attempting to attain internal self- sufficiency in food rather than moving their states into a wider exchange economy." The princes were afraid that if they became linked economically to the outside world, 'they were likely to become subservient politically. The commercial class was cramped also by the fact that the peasants had no ownership rights in land and could not mortgage their lands for loans. Moneylenders were unable to exploit the peasantry in the manner their fellows did in British India. This state of affairs created considerable discontent amongst the commercial classes of Saurashtra. Many migrated from the region, going particularly to Bombay where the opportunities were far better. This merely fanned the discontent, for after 1917 the Gujarati trading classes of British India became staunch Gandhians, and the movement inevitably flowed back to relatives and fellow merchants in Saurashtra. In their struggle with the princes between 1917 and 1948, the commercial classes tried to win the peasantry to their side, but the rulers stopped them from going to the villages to agitate. As a result, when the bourgeoisie gained power in Saurashtra in 1948, it was not because they had brought the princes to their knees through mass agitation, but because of the replacement of the British by Congress at the all- India level After Independence the Vanias and Brahmans who gained power in Saurashtra set about winning the support of the Patidar peasantry through tenancy legislation. Between 1948 and 1955, the landlord classes lost considerable amounts of land to rich and middle peasants who before had been their tenants. An attempt of armed revolt by the princes was crushed with ease. The rural population was brought into the market economy by the substitution of land revenue in cash for the old system of rent in kind. Additional cesses and systems of corvee labour were abolished. Tenancy abolition in Saurashtra was far more successful than in many other areas of India, partly because the princes lacked the power to resist (as happened in Rajasthan), and partly because the low density of population meant that there was land for all. The result was a rise in agricultural productivity and a shift to cash crops Between 1949 and 1964, the total area under food crops fell, the area under cotton remained steady, while the area under groundnuts rose to 41 per cent of the total cultivated area of Saurashtra, The cities also grew considerably. Industrial development was particularly notable in the processing of raw agricultural materials, such as cotton and groundnuts. Communications, and particularly the road system, were developed. After Independence the rural areas kept pace with the urban areas to such an extent that the commercial classes who had become the rulers in 1948 began to be challenged politically by the formerly weak Patidar peasantry.


charge that the Opposition League had taken the Muslims to the Jan Sangh camp is not cutting any ice... they had not entered into any accord with the Ian Sangh as a party. They had reached an understanding with the Marxists, Janata Party and others only''. Ziauddin Bukhari, the president of the Maharashtra Muslim League is thundering from Janata platforms. Since the Janata Party has pledged to set up a commission for solving the problems of minorities and give Urdu its rightful legal status, the dissident Muslim Leaguers feel that Janata Party too should be given an opportunity to fulfil its promises.


The Italian Communists Ajit Roy THE key issue of contemporary Italian politics