A national movement requires organi¬zation, funds, leadership and popular support. If one or the other is lacking or weak, the movement becomes not only lop-sided but ineffective. It was Gandhi’s great achievement in India that he ensured all four basic elements, even though he left to others the reconciling of the contradiction in the manner in which he provided these essential ingredients.
Through the pages of this book which number about two hundred and seventy, Devaki Jain and her associates Nalini Singh and Malini Chand describe to us five different endeavours in which women have an important role. They are mainly in western and eastern India.
One of the indicators given importance in assessing the status of women in a nation is the presence of women in the politica arena. Percentages are given against total membership in representative councils or politburos or political parties and the higher the percentage the more the marks given to the country for having moved women up the ladder.
The declining sex ratio and the status of women in India are questions which should concern specialists and non-special¬ists alike. The Women’s Studies Program¬me of the ICSSR has’ taken up and funded a number of studies on women, but to inform the general reading public they have issued a number of pamphlets high¬lighting the main issues.
Both these books deal with issues relating to poverty and inequality in the context of socio-economic development in India, but their perspectives and methods of analysis are quite different. The value of the first book ·lies in its detailed quantitative analysis of the process of income generation and distribution in India
It is not really with India’s economy that Francine Frankel is concerned in her book as its title might suggest as with the political pressures and motivations behind its progress or retardation since Indepen¬dence—at the Central and State levels, and the party and governmental levels. he book could appropriately have been titled the ‘Politics of Indian Economy’.