Six wise men of Hindoostan set out to examine the ele¬phant. Professor Alfred de Souza has gone one better, for he has produced the six men and one wiser woman to examine urban India and its problems. The result is the little book under review.
The title suggests a theme: there is an urban growth imperative, there is a process of planning to cater for such growth, the process has a political context, and this con¬text takes into consideration, or ignores, the priorities set for themselves by the people that a few more studies of workers employed in dif¬ferent industries at different places, maybe in the mills of Ahmedabad or the mills of Bombay—be taken up with a similar focus, and the findings analysed before reaching gen¬eralized conclusions. All the same, Ramaswamy’s book defi¬nitely has its merits in provid¬ing a close look at the life¬style of the worker in Coim¬batore and the activities of the unions. This book can serve as a guideline for similar studies.