It is worth recollecting the context in which the essays put together in this volume were written. The period following the Bangladesh war was among the bleakest in our post-independence history. The inflationary upsurge of the mid-1960s that had led to the Congress Party's losing power in several states in the 1967 elections, though it appeared to have abated following the Green Revolution, resumed in 1972.

It was subsequently greatly aggravated by the oil price hike of 1973. In the year 1974-75 there was an inflation rate in excess of 25 per cent, which is massive for a country where the money earnings of the bulk of the people are not indexed to prices.

The restiveness among the working poor who were the worst victims of this crisis caused a strong revival of Left politics, especially Ac in West Bengal.