Community Forestry

the story of state and police brutality that this volume so vividly relates. But Desai's stupendous efforts and dedication will be ultimately successful only if these volumes drive home the urgency to fashion a clearer understanding of state and politics. Theories INTEREST from the ecological point of view apart, the forest question has a few other claims as well on the attention of the social scientist. Since social production arises "from the identity of the subject, humanity and the object, nature", the relationship between the forest and the forest- dwellers, even of the most primitive type, being a direct manifestation of this identity, may reveal many unsuspected aspects of the social reality. It is quite symptomatic that, as recorded by Engels, "it was precisely through the law of thefts of wood" in Rheinland that Marx "was led from pure politics to economic relationship and so to socialism'' Since about 94 per cent of over 51 million of India's tribal population still live in forests and do so under increasing impingement by wider socio-political complexes, a close look at the forest sector may yield valuable insights into not only the condition of the numerous tribal masses but also the overall social processes.