MAHARASHTRA Fighting Famine G O OCTOBER 27 was a central day in Khanapur taluka for the complex rural class politics of sugar and water. On one side rich farmers filled tractors and trucks with their village dependents to decorate the opening ceremony of the 'Yashwant Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana', one of several new sugar factories licensed for rural Maharashtra. On the other, toiling peasants and rural labourers came on their own initiative and funds, by walking, bus or hired truck, to attend the Drought Eradication conference held in the taluka town of Vita under the auspices of the Maharashtra State Drought Relief and Eradication Committee and organised primarily by activists of the Mukti Sangarsh movement.