Syncretic Trends in Islam

K Johri among others), and defies the simple derivations from Lewisian constructs; there is also in fact a labour market in rural agriculture, governed by both tradition and changes in practice. The Todaro type dualisms are also weak reeds for understanding urban labour markets and rural-urban migration. Studies of income distribution and poverty have not gone beyond identifying macro or regional magnitudes or demarcations the structure of the problem.to illuminate the labour market processes at work. We are thus critically lacking in information on the wage structures (given the chronic inflation, diverse payments arrangements, and pooling of wage and non-wage incomes), labour mobility, labour market adjustments to changes in economic conditions, the costs and incidence of work stoppages, economic assessments of employee provident and sickness insurance schemes and of alternatives, the scope for efficiency wages, and so forth. Policy has thus been made by fiat, with little to go on as to its probable impact or the range of options. Given the pressures, governments of course decide, as they must, but such decisions do little to settle issues or move governance to a higher level of informed action. These comments should not be interpreted as endorsing uncritical applications of standard neo-classical analysis. Given Indian conditions, it would be important that efforts at analysis go beyond skeletal theory abstracted from the social structure, but aim at integrating it in the analysis from early on (as Indira Rajaraman has done so well).