The Agrarian Drama : The Leftists and the Rural Poor in India, 1934-1951/Amit Kumar Gupta. New Delhi, 1996, xiv, 516 p., $36. ISBN 81-7304-142-3.
Contents: Preface. Prologue. Act one (1934-39): The setting. 1. Bondage and wage labourers. 2. Sharecroppers. 3. Anti-evictions. 4. Against landlords. The Raisonneur's monologue. Act two (1940-45): The setting. 1. 1940-41. The Raisonneur's monologue. 2. 1942-43. The Raisonneur's monologue. 3. 1944-45. The Raisonneur's monologue. Act three (1946-51): The setting. 1. 1946-47. The Raisonneur's monologue. 2. 1948-49. Another setting. Play on. The Raisonneur's monologue. 3. 1950-51. Epilogue. Select bibliography. Index.
"Even though many studies have been made of the manner in which the Indians conducted their anti-colonial enterprise, no study has so far attempted an overall assessment of the way in which the Indian rural poor and the left parties taking advantage of the independence movement radically affected the agrarian social relations. Limiting itself to the eventful period 1934-51 this book examines from an all-India perspective, the sequential unfolding of the left political activists' interaction with the poor peasants and what it achieved.
"Highlighting a host of hitherto unknown facts as well as relying on a varied wealth of primary sources, this book offers an authoritative and comprehensive account of a highly interesting period in Indian history, which will be of interest to scholars as well as the general reading public." (jacket)
[Amit Kumar Gupta is currently a Research Scientist of the University Grants Commission, New Delhi. He has published North West-Frontier Province Legislature and Freedom Struggle, 1932-47 (New Delhi 1976) and Between a Tory and a Liberal: Bombay under Sir James Fergusson 1880-85 (Calcutta, 1978), and edited Myth and Reality: The Struggle for Freedom in India, 1945-47 (New Delhi, 1987).