Articles by c s

As the Viceroy Saw It c s THE continuing stream of volumes of personal, party, and government documents coming out from Britain, India and Pakistan is reflective of the stake that is currently being felt in the course of South Asian historiography. Equally reflective is the committed nature of these publications. The researcher of the area is promised a flood of material moving in multiple crosscurrents. He might ride high over these or get swayed by a particular current. Both the promise and the risk are real and large.

between taxable units only. It would be Interesting for an accountant to prepare the type of return needed from a firm bo satisfy the requirements of the taxing authority according to schedules A and B, and discuss the sins of commission and omission it could give rise to. This is, however, a time-consuming exercise and we must rest content with pointing out a few loopholes. The broad type of business may not be difficult to ascertain, but business expenditure can easily lend itself to mis- classifications if sharp tax differentials are laid down. The lines between basic wages and salaries on the one hand and non-basic rewards, between essential and essential amenities, between organising unproductive, speculative or gambling activities, etc, and otherwise, and between price rises due to cost increases and tax rises are not very clear- t and become more obscure as tax fates become heavier. It is basic to Mathur's scheme that these lines are sharply drawn.

New Garb of Imperialistic Historiography c s Locality, Province and Nation : Essays on Indian Politics, 1870 to 1940 (cd) lohn Gallagher, Gordon Johnson and Anil Seal; Cambridge University

RAVINDER KUMAR is one of those few Indian historians who are acutely aware of the many yawning gaps in the study of modern Indian history. These relate to areas of enquiry as well as to methods of investigation. This is undoubtedly a stupendous task, and in the existing state of our historiography it is no mean achievement to he able to diagnose some significant lacunae. And this is the least that one can say about the essays edited by Kumar tu order to get some insight into the first major agitation led by Mahatma Gandhi. This is a crucial phase for understanding an important shift in modern Indian politics. The Rowlatt Satyagraha was the first countrywide anti-British agitation which facilitated the trans- formal ion of Indian nationalism from a movement of classes to one of masses. It also ensured Gandhi's emergence as a dominant political figure, a fact which was to have a variety of effects on subsequent national development. But these were consequences which maybe even Gandhi had not visualised while issuing the call for agitation. Convinced of the righteousness of his cause, but unsure of the response to his call, Gandhi was really acting on faith rather than on calculation. He was at the time virtually a lone, though widely admired and respected, individual unbacked by any political organisation or group interest. If anything, there was a good deal of cynicism in the contemporary political circles regarding the efficacy of his methods in India.