The Guardian from London, Greater London, England • 4

A r. I A Scpicmlcr 2 i 4 SOVIET CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 3 Justice balanced to keep Party happy EVERY weekday morning between 10 and 11 a.m., a battered green and blue van pulls up to the heavy glass doors of the Kevsky region People's Court and unloads that days's cargo of defendants three or four men, their hair dipped short according to prison regulations, and perhaps a ivoman or two, usually thickset md wearing a cheap padded jacket. A contingent of six but stern-faced policemen lines the dimly lit to the ground floor loldir.g cell a family and ricnds pres? in close to the ici-UM-d. shoutine oncrmrago-ii-t perhaps tossing winch are immediately aterl. rach trial gets undor ay routinely an hour nil Vchind schedule spectators huffle into the courtroom and -niti" on the hard wooden lcnches.

They rise briefly when lie judge, "wearing ordinary lrrct clothes (men sometimes Aiihout a tic), files in. followed (he two lay assessors. No matter how stiiffy the room cr how long the proceedings, onlookers sit in their clothes in the winter, heavy wooden coats scarves. The judge and assessors ill behind a slightly raised with the prosecutor, if is one, at a desk on judge's right and the lawyer on the left. a corner a young clerk akes longhand notes (there verbatim transcript).

v.nuld not be unusual for ill lliee official participants ii" women. Apart from a standard unsnii-w, portrait of Lenin and embossed sea! (if (he Itiisiiin Fi'leration. the cuurl-ronin is barren. The windows ire turtainless, the walls a Why do you act this way the middle-aged woman judge implores. Your whole life is in front of you." You say you drink too much.

You have syphilis. You should get medical attention. There are new expert methods. And what kind of mother are you Abandoning your child Sentence compulsory treatment for alcoholism in a labour camp. The maximum is two years.

A motor mechanic is charged with forgery, official forgery, and stealing State property through swindling. lie put in for several out-of-town training trips that he never took and signed on a neighbour for work at the garage which he did himself and collected the pay. The prosecutor, a young woman with a pronounced air of boredom, demands five years in a labour camp strict regime. The mechanic's wife gasps. Prosecutors generally get what they ask for.

The defence lawyer is a heavy-set woman with a wooden leg. What matter is it that he took (the neighbour's money) The work was done there was a problem at the garage. They had new machinery and not enough workers. And they had to fulfil the plan That is not judicially sound," interrupted the judge, I will not consider it." As for the forged expense sheets, the mechanic returned the money, the equivalent of about 140. A "Public De with gnarled worker's hands quietly smoke one cigarette after another.

Long waits are the rule, and since acquittals are so rare in Soviet courts, the prospects for joy at the end are small. There is rarely any bustle. Even at the busiest limes, most courtrooms seem to be empty and judges carry only a few items on their daily docket. When a key witness in a traffic accident case at Frunzenski went out of town, the judge put off all trial work to await his evidence a break of more than two weeks. Yet, People's Courts Nar-odni Sudi in Russian are the mainstay of the Soviet judicial system, handling all but the most complicated and sensitive matters.

For all Moscow, with nearly eight million inhabitants, there is only one City Court to hear especially dangerous state crimes such as treason, sabotage, or anti-Soviet propaganda, economic crimes that carry the' death penalty, and aggravated murder. The atmosphere at the higher court does not differ from the lesser ones except that armed soldiers are used instead of policemen and the courtrooms are bigger. Much of the work of the People's Courts is civil divorces, inheritance, and pension problems, suits between factories. The liveliest disputes concern liard-to-get housing: for example, how to divide the living space in flats when couples break up, or in the communal flats lawyer earns about as much as a middling plumber. Prosecutors are considered more important because they represent the State and the State is all-powerful.

But at lower levels, they are only cogs in a vast apparatus, doing what they are told and trying to avoid mistakes, or at least getting caught at them. When a suspect is released after arrest or specialists say, the hapless prosecutor is held to blame. Even judges have no special stature a confidential public opinion survey a few years ago showed them to be on a par with petty bureaucrats in Government offices. Judges are drawn mainly from the ranks of prosecutors, but some law students go on the bench immediately in provincial areas. Because it is no secret that in the Soviet Union the Party holds the final say in any matter where it chooses to exercise it, there is scant regard for the notion for an independent judiciary a ditty that rhymes in Russian goes like this The Court is independent and answers only to the law.

The Court is independent and answers only to the Party Regional Committee. But the hooligans, vagrants and forgers do not expect dignity in the courtroom. Thcv expect discipline. Washington Post. PETER OSNOS S3 where four or five families live together.

If angry voices rise above the desultory hum in a courthouse corridor, the subject is usually a fiat Most of the criminal cases are also routine except, of course, to the accused, who faces labour camp, a fine, corrective labour, or, occasionally, even prison. On a warm weekend in September, three teenage boys went to Gorky Park and drank some beer and wine. On the way home one of them picked a fight with a young army officer. The boy has been in gaol for three months awaiting trial. The charge of hooliganism is easily proved.

"Can you promise that there will be no more problems like this Can you give a guarantee asks the judge, a striking woman with a warm smile. The boy's mother, tugging nervously at a thick and shabby scarf wrapped around her head, replies tearfully He was working, everything was fine. I never saw him drink now look at him here." The son looks miserable. Sentence a year of corrective labour. Three months in jail, the judge decides, was enough of a iesson.

A washed-out looking woman of 24, wearing a short leather mini skirt, high bools, and a tight red sweater, is charged with vagrancy, probably meaning prostitution, although that is never slated. Two armed police matrons escort the defendant. Turn I A byeiection victory last after a long chain of defeats for Mrs Bandaranaikc's Government has reassured her supporters, critics, and political opponents alike. The leadership of her Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which came to power in 1970, niin.ii iamc ijuwci ii idiu, fppls that the results nf thn of the tide for Mrs Bandaranaike Sea Law move by Kissinger From JANE ROSEN United Nations (NY), Sept, 1 From MARTIN WOOLLACOTT Colombo, is, largely titular. The Mulkirigala victory has 9ut tne conference and the also heartened those who were appointment have had some worried that Mrs Bandaranaike effect and a typical reaction might give in to pressures was that of a Colombo taxi to avoid the general election, driver who commented which bv law must be held Before, foreigners didn't know much about us.

Mrs Bandar- iiiuLn auuuL juia odiiuai- hc i Cri anVa onthe the rural dirty white. More often than not, no-one bothers to turn on the lights. The record room and other offices are similarly dreary. There is nothing very remarkable about the way it all looks except that compared with the wigs and robes of a British court, for example, it is extremely plain justice devoid of ceremony and with a minimum of protocol. The setting does vary a little in each of Moscow's 30 People's Courts there is one for every region of the capital depending on the style of the individual judge and the conditions of the premises.

The Krasnopre'sneaski region courthouse is a ramshackle two-storey building, dark and damp. The Frunzcnski region has just moved into a remodelled building with special loudspeakers for summoning witnesses and brightly coloured posters on the corridor walls. Nikolai Yudin, chief judge of the Frunzenski court, is a methodical man who has directed the other eight judges in his constituency to criminal or civil cases. In other courts there seems hardly any organisation at all records are jumbled together in old closets and held together by bits of string. But the feeling is basically the same everywhere.

There is a distinctive smell of tobacco, disinfectant, and sweat. Defendants always walk with their heads hold down and hands behind their backs. Families, especially wives and mothers, look resigned and sad. Men body with authority over all uses of the oceans. It would have an operating arm called the Enterprise which would explore and mine the seabed and distribute the profits to the developing countries according to their need.

But under the dual access plan the Enterprise would share mining sites on an equal basis with private companies of industrial nations. Up to now the militants within the developing block have ruled out any sharing. The US has warned that if there is no compromise American companies arc ready to start mining on their own, and only the US has the technology and the money to do that. Today Dr Kissinger met the piesident of the Sea Law conference, Mr Shirley Amera-singhe of Sri Lanka and then told reporters The US cannot give up the principle of dual access. But what we can do.

and what I am here to discuss, is to make a contribution so that the international Enterprise can function and will have the financial resources and the means to proceed. Wo're also prepared to agree to periodic reviews of that issue. All the more so. since we cannot in any event begin mining for about 10 years." The Sea Law conference has another two weeks to go and if the Kissinger proposal for funding the Enterprise is acceptable to the developing countries, there still is hope for progress towards a treaty. year solely to be his mistress.

The Ethics Committee has jurisdiction over the official conduct of members of the House of Representatives, but not over former members. However, by resigning, Mr Hays cannot stop the Federal grand jury inquiry that has been under way here for three months to determine whether putting Miss Ray on the payroll was a misuse of public funds. Washington Post. "Hnr it rhl hTs S7S i 11 i lfn aW 5 that d' Jiini Pi 0IKJ fuinJJLr the Colombo nonaligned confer- is a real political asset at home- mum ymy uiauc in the campaign with the fact that Mrs Bandaranaike is the President of the nonaligned movement until the next confer- ence in Havana. The job could not be taken over by e-.

of United National Party (UNP), w. -riiWw Fnw fin nnlintt In nit POCO foreign policy in any case Js not particularly nonaligned. I The truth is that the appoint- ment was automatic and the The US Secretary of State Dr Kissinger came to the UN today to make one final effort to keep the Law of the Sea conference afloat. He offered to finance an international enterprise which would mine a part of the ocean for the benefit of the poor nations, provided they allowed private companies in industrial nations to mine another part. The split would be roughly 50-50.

The ocean floor is littered with potato-like chunks of nickel, copper, manganese, cobalt, and other minerals. Since 1973 when the Law of the Sea conference began labouring over a treaty to govern use of the oceans, the rival blocks of nations have been vying for control of that mineral wealth. All 14" nations have agreed in theory that the oceans' resources are "the common heritage of mankind." But the developing countries who see in the oceans the means for redressing the economic balance between poor and rich nations have demanded the right control all, or almost all, exploration and exploitation of the sea bed. The industrial nations have refused. The block approach will not work," Dr Kissinger said today.

"It is not possible for any nation or any group of nations to impose their views on the others." Instead the industrial countries have proposed what they call a dual access plan. The conference has already agreed to set up an international fender" chosen by his fellow workers at the garage argues that the mechanic has a good record. His wife has heart trouble. His child has been in a hospital. The sentence two years' corrective labour.

A surprise. The judge in these cases is clearly no neuttal arbiter. He (or she, because half the judges are women) asks many, if not most, of the questions and sets the tone stern or parental, depending on the situation. Since an extensive pre-trial investigation in Soviet cases establishes the facts, the main purpose of a hearing is usually not to find out what happened, but why. Then, in the privacy of the judge's office, the appropriate sentence has to be chosen.

But there is little prestige to be gained from being a legal professional in the Soviet Union, especially at the People's Court level where most of them work. Defence lawyers work in self-administered collectives. Clients are either referred to them or walk in off the streets. In any case, the advocates must scramble so much for small fees that many of the good ones expect an added payment on the side. They tend to be the students with the poorest records at Law Faculties and have little chance to advance to a better job unless they sign up with some industrial enterprise as an adviser.

An ordinary defence sometime in the next 10 months, by proclaiming a further emer- fho uv Drnciaimin? a iuruier emer- Son. 6 nun. a recent letter to opposition leaders Mrs. Bandaranaike affirmed her intention to hold elections under the prevailing law." Critics pointed out that the use of the adjective prevai- ling provided a loophole. With the byeiection success, SLFP morale has improved.

Thero is a f-Piin that th-rA is a fair chance of winning a general ejection ana me prospect of an emergency Gov- ernment has receded further. The only thing that might revive it, some Sri Lankans say. is a serious deterioration in the Tamil areas. The Government's opponents, particularly the UNP, presum- aoiy welcome ine UKeiy At. 1 effect of the victory in confir- ming the plans for a general election.

Their view is that the defeat was not significant, Washington, September 1 in one last March. She was "appalled" by what she saw and stayed on only to furnish information to the US Attorney's office and Senate investigators. She left her job as a iWtnr in two r-iinirs one in East Harlem, the other in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn after taking with her the records of a medical examination of subcommittee chairman Senator Frank Moss, who posed as a Medicaid patient to see for himself how the clinics worked. The owner of the clinics, Wh t0 bCC3USe atorney not Slven W2S annoyed wth her because she saw only 20 patients a day, ur Kurke said. jje saw 40 to 50 patients a day, she said.

According to a sub-committee report, Weissbart received $105,000 for Medicaid in 1974 and $136,000 last year. Dr the nearest town, 10 per cent of the students were found to be cheating, but at least they did not have large knives on their desks to discourage detection. Although the growth in police powers, including the practical suspension of habeas corpus and occasional bouts of mass 1 arrests, has increased the fear of the rural population, it has also curbed the activities of dacoits (robbers) for which this area is infamous a tangible benefit, even if the price is high. Rural India is still essentially feudal. The poor are used to exploitation and seldon link their condition with the policy, of the government.

Yet the realisation is spreading that they are being offered much and receiving little. Mrs Gandhi will have to do more than show that she is a clever public relations officer. She must prove her sincerity, but she has clearly lost the ability to judge whether her attempts to eradicate poverty and injustice in India are working. She has been hailed as the saviour of democracy." But some of the more cynical critics of her style of government attribute her success to the fact that India has never been a democracy in anything but name. September 1 and that the electoral arithmetic is still in their favour, They point out that the figures suggest that nearly all the voun vntr urhi-, 1970 are votine for nnnnci inn lrTh0 LlfL rm- Prue.

me reason I-or mis claimed movement of the youth, thpu armm ic tho ci td'b economic failure, and the one million unemployed most of tnem younE The SLFT government like an nredecesLrs i Cevion taViffWSt the classic nifiitirS fri 2 of4S Thls that the country's comparatively advanced welfare subsidies soak up the revenue frm ts rubber, and coconut plantations and leave little over for major develop- ment projects. The UNP has yet to prove that it has a better answer to this problem than the present Government, uuwcvci. mt. The UNP also feel that their campaign against alleged corruption in the Bandaranaike family and in the ruling party Kurke said that was "very upsetting to me since the clinics were so ill-equipped she had to supply her own liquid soap to wash her hands between examinations, Looking at Moss's medical records, she said she was sur- prised he wasn't given an elec- trocardigram (ECGS) because of. nis age 64 but not sur- yeu mai mo muuu iJicsauie, height and weight were not 5ocor can for ECGS, but not for taking blo.od.

Pressures, height and weights ECGS were useless, x-ravs were 0f a "very Tre TerfunctV On? nS? who cmplained a Pain on his face was seen by six doctors, including Weiss- bart, and none of them bothered t0 look in his mouth, where he nad the largest epidermal carcinoma (cancer) I've ever seen literally choking him." It wasn't worth the trouble to take the time to look in his mouth because you don't get paid for that," Kurke said. Washington Post. Medicaid an 'invitation to fraud' A defendant, accused of "political facet the judges' table is paying off. The campaign has been led by Ronnie De Mel, an able former member of the SLFP who crossed to the opposition earlier this year. The impact of the campaign is difficult to measure.

One diplomat commented I don't think as much of the mud is sticking as the opposition would like to believe." But even if Mrs Bandaranaike is holding her old voters, she still has a long way to go. Her party has never won a general election without aid from some or all of the traditional Marxist parties. In the last election, a pact with the Trotskvite LSSP was vital in delivering to the SLFP the left wing vote, tipping the balance in many constituencies. The LSSP, which has its own problems of an ageing leadership and a lack of growth, now expects that Mrs Bandaranaike could once again turn in their direction. If she does, there would be no outright rejection, but the LSSP would demand a high price for its help.

Mao 'has left Peking' Sydney, September 1 Mao Tse tung has been moved out of Peking signalling his 1 final fall from power," according to the Sydney Sun, quoting 1 Western and Asian diplomats in Canberra The newspapers said the move of the frail Chinese leader was revealed in diplomatic dispatches from i Peking to Canberra. News of his departure was given to top ambassadors in Peking deliberately but privately," the paper reported. Diplomats say the Chinese ruling group headed by Prime Minister Hua Kuo-feng seems to be signalling that it no longer needs "the symbolic pre-I sence of Mao to ensure its authority," said the Sun. The Australian Department of Foreign Aairs said it had received no word from Peking that Chairman Mao had left the capital. "We are highly sceptical of any suggestion that his fall from power is imminent," a spokesman added.

Reuter. of The Guardian Directory no for Congressman to quit Drought aid raises protest From WALTER SCHWARZ Paris. Sentemhpr 1 nutracert tax navers are Dresen- ting the new Government of Raymond Barre with a serious challenge in its first. week of office. The farmers arc angry over the inadequacy of interim relief measures-and by the arbitrary way the money is being shared out.

The tax payers, faced with a 10 per nprt rrp thoir t3v bill to pay for the proposed relief, fee! the money should have been found elsewncre. Farmers in the Rhone Alps. Midi-Pyrenees and other bouthern departments have started blocking roads and railways, setting fire to piles of tyres, and at St Etienne last night, the local prefect was hp.lri nrisnnpr until r'pseiipri bv police. The farmers' protest is not only against the inadequacy of the interim relief measures granted so far about 2.200M francs (230 million) while the total drought losses are csti- mated by the farmers at more than four times that ficure but i against the unfairness of ltSInlatrgroup of western depart- i ments. farmers are to cet I 200 francs (22) a head for cauie.

in a normem area they get only 150 francs in some southern departments only 50 and in others none at all. It is in the southern departments that the most violent protests are being made But the more serious protest comes from the tax payers who are backed by the trade unions. M. Seguy, leader of the Communist CGT Federation, nas inreatenea to torm a common union action front against the tax if it is enforced. This threat is ominous because M.

Barre will need union support for the major proposals for beating inflation he is now working out and he is due to hold crucial talks with union leaders next week. The unions argue that solidarity," it is once again! the middle income earners who will bear the main brunt, I and not the richer middle classes who generally manage to pay tax on only part of their earnings. All l.iv. nomv VI UdUUIiai to make the land cultivatable is beyond his means. Meanwhile, the local Congress Minister retains control over the management and profits of 200 acres of prime agricultural land.

Others who were forewarned about the introduction of the land law have covered themselves by dividing their large holdings among fictitious relatives and servants. The actual amount of redistribution of land is therefore highly questionable. A more sensible measure, in a country where the population is forever rising, is the creation of more jobs, especially now that the emergency has improved the rural supply of electricity. The extension of power lines has increased the potential for small-scale village industry at relatively low capital cost to the government. Unfortunately, this potential is not being seized, government attention being focused on the creation of expensive and prestigious industrial estates in the towns.

Contempt for the local bureaucracy has turned to fearful respect, now that the repayment of loans is being investigated. This applies as much to fake loans as to real ones, for it is not unusual for Government employees to take advantage of the illiteracy JVliea A more reasn the SLFP holding its own mav be that certain of its policies' although bv inefficiency and corruption, have brought funds and develop- ent to many previously neg- lected areas- An examPlc is the so.calied "decentralised hudeet under which districts have received quite substantial junas ior smaii aeveiopmeni projects. OoDonents claim that this is ly one aspect of Mrs Bandaranaike's creation of a natronaee system, dis- Sensing money jobs and business contracts to established and Dotential supporters of artVi The description depends on political viewpoint but the point is the system has to some extent worked. From STUART AUERBACH Sheldon Styles, aged 38. another chiropractor, inRber and Styles were sen- tenced last week to five years jn gaoj eacn and t0id to pay back to ttie Government a total of $138,000 (70,000) fnr their nart in thp Meriirairi fraud.

It was the stiffest prison sentence nandea aown among the 23 defendants in a series of Medicaid fraud cases brought by the US Attorney's office in New York They said the system encour- aged hem to cneat by paying tahDem in Medicaid patient! less than naf of what th( fhnir tlnifS 5 ft-SSS SS H.iSriS? the'r blllsJ aJfae8tat ceris. to th to. wa? IP teei very cneaiea oy me Government, said ingber. His view of the way medicine is practised in New York's Medicaid mills was backed by Dr Nancy Kurke, who started working emergency reforms have been either inapplicable to the actual needs of India's villages or, if they are potentially useful, the benefits have tended to be diverted into the pockets of local officials and businessmen. This tendency is amply demonstrated in the case of a local block chairman (a block is a group of villages under the control of a small number of government officials).

A subsidy was offered by the state government to local pig breeders in order to encourage meat production, which is normally the work of the poorest sections of the community. The block officer, who has his own farm and is of high caste, appropriated the whole subsidy. In other cases, the reforms have benefited a very small section of the rural poor, such as, in this area, the Jatavs (traditionally leather workers) who have influence in local government and are therefot able to reap rewards at the expense of poorer, less organised, sections of the village. The Emergency has not been all bad, however. Schools and colleges, for instance, are no longer prone to the sort of violent disturbances which were in danger of becoming epidemic.

In recent examinations in Indira Gandhi seeks even more power through a constitutional amendment, DAVID MESSENGER describes what her rule means at the grass roots in India's thousands of villages Why democracy is not missed in India Two chiropractors, who admit- ted cheating the Government out of $600,000 (330.000) in their chain of New York City Medicaid clinics, told Senate investigators today the permissive nature of the pro- gramme is an open invitation fraud- Evervbodv's cheatine and everybody's bragging about it 100, josepn ingDer, agea told a subcommittee of the Senate Special Committee that ended two days of sensational testimony that detailed fraud by doctors in the $15,000 millions (80,000 millions) Medicaid programme. As a Inlbersa d6 'SUe'wIli be8bcareflad'forTrShWo two." After the heat is off, though, cheating will start up again and no reforms sueeested bv either the Senate Committee or the US Attorney IsUlllllULlCC Ul UIC LU 4 Lll. for New York will stop the fraud, he said. This system stinks. You're trying to" fix up a lousy svstem," said Ingber, who ran eight clinics catering to Medi- caid patients with his partner, of small farmers by entering false loans against their names.

The victim is told that unless he pays up, his land will be confiscated or his next harvest mortgaged. He has little alternative but to pay. Many of the village leaders to whom he might have appealed, were arrested in the first 24 hours of the emergency. And an appeal to the police would probably be more expensive than simply paying the official- Ironically, this petty corruption is on the increase as company graft funds come under surveillance in the anti-corruption drive Village education has also suffered from the same sort of adaptation. Recognised schools are entitled to substantial grants, but these are distributed by cterks in the local education department who use their position to extort bribes.

Failure to pay can- mean that a school receives a grant of one rupee a year instead of the 8,000 to which it is entitled. In these ways the corruption clampdown is having- the effect of shifting exploitation from large companies to poor individual farmers from the knowledgeable to the poorly informed. The fact is that most of the Washington, September 1 Congressman Wayne Hays (Democrat, Ohio), stripped of his power and facing an Ethics Committee hearing on his sex-payroll scandal, will resign from Congress in a few days, friends said yesterday. By resigning he could avoid the Ethics Committee investigation of charges by Elizabeth Ray that Mr Hays put her on the public payroll at $14,000 a If you ask an Indian villager what he thinks of the Emergency, you are likely to be disappointed. He probably will not have much to say.

If you ask him the same question about the British Raj or Mahatma Gandhi, the chances are that you will meet with the same blank response. This apparent lack of interest does not mean that the villager is unaffected by politics after all, he accounts for 80 per cent of the population. But it does mean that most Indians are too preoccupied with the sheer daily struggle for survival to be much concerned about the pros and cons of democracy or independence. It is naive to expect a villager to discourse wisely on constitutional rights when he is heavily in debt to the local moneylender and trying to gather his harvest before a hail storm knocks it flat. In the majority of cases, rural voting patterns are determined by a complex caste system, the dictates of village leaders, and a free ride to the polling station.

When asked by a villager just before the last elections exactly what she proposed to do for the community, the Congress candidate was heard to reply: "Anything you like, my dear. Anything, at all." As Announcing The Guardian Directory of Pressure Groups A fascinating and detailed new guide to Britain's multitude of pressure groups will be published on August 31st by Wilton House Publications in association with The Guardian. It will retail at 7.50 but Is available to Guardian readers now, at the special pre-publication price of 6.50 including pottage. The book looks at every conceivable interest ranging from the British Interplanetary Society to the Of fa's Dyke Association via the Channel Tunnel Association and a host of organisations pressing for clean air, good beer, peace and quiet, spelling reform, revolution, healthy animals, Cornish self-government, duodecimalisation etc. etc.

Please fill in the coupon below and send it with your cheque or postal order made payable to Guardian Newspaper United to The Guardian Directory of Pressure Groups, The Guardian, 119 Farrlngdon Road; LondonECIR 3ER. The offer closes on September 3rd. With an election platform like that, you can be forgiven far asking what democracy means in India's thousands of villages. Yet the Emergency was declared in the name of the masses. Almost all international reporting pays lip service to this fact.

So the basic question must be How has the typical Indian farmer benefited from the Emergency In the hope of seeing the situation at the grass roots, I lived in an Indian village. What follows is based on this experience. One of the main points of Indira Gandhi's 20-point programme for the eradication of rural poverty" is the land ceiling law, by which holdings of more than 18 acres are supposed to be redistributed to the landless. The possession of land is one of the main determinants of status in a community and it would seem obvious for such a measure to win the support of those who have no land. Yet the knd gained in this way is often of little practical use.

Take the example of the low-caste sweeper in this village. He has been given one third of an "acre by the Government. The combined income of his family of five is 240 rupees a month (about 14). Just Please send me copyies of Pressure Groups. I enclose chequepostal order NAME ibtock letters) ADDRESS.