THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY May 21, 1955

Book Review

An Indian Reference Annual

The New Year Book—1933, Edited by P C Sarkar, 12th issue. P u b l i s h e d by S C Sarkar & Sons L t d ,
1-C College Square, C a l c u t t a 12. Pp 312; price Rs 3/4.

T H E c o m p i l e r of an year-book
has to ask himself, f o r w h o m
is he compiling? An Indian publi-
c a t i o n , it m a y seem, has the course
clearly chartered out for i t . Either
it has to be a m b i t i o u s a n d cover
the rest of the w o r l d as w e l l as
I n d i a o r i t m a y choose t o b e modest
a n d supplement standard foreign
publications concentrating on infor-
m a t i o n r e l a t i n g t o I n d i a , w h i c h they
d o n o t cover adequately. T h e second
course w o u l d appear t o b e a n o b v i -
ous one f o r a n I n d i a publisher t o
take. B u t the choice is not so
s i m p l e as t h a t , f o r s t a n d a r d year-
books p u b l i s h e d a b r o a d are expen-
sive a n d b e y o n d the reach of the
o r d i n a r y reader. H e n c e the c o m -
promise—a l i m i t e d coverage of
w o r l d news a n d a n exhaustive
coverage o f I n d i a n news. The
Indianness o f the N e w Y e a r B o o k ,
w h i c h enters the t w e l f t h year o f
p u b l i c a t i o n is n o t in question, since
277 o u t of its 392 pages are d e v o t e d
t o I n d i a . T h e w o r l d coverage i s
c o m p a c t a n d useful, b u t i n I n d i a n
coverage, the e d i t o r falls between
t w o stools, w i d t h a n d d e p t h . I t i s
at the range of this excellent c o m -
p i l a t i o n , perhaps, t h a t some readers
m a y c a v i l : W h y s o m u c h o f sports
a n d films, for instance, b u t so l i t t l e
of literature and nothing of art?
I n d i a n s a b r o a d is a n o t h e r omission
t h a t one detects at a cursory glance.
tries, b a n k i n g , currency, i n d u s t r i a l
finance, a n d insurance, a n d a use-
f u l section o n I n d i a ' s F i v e - Y e a r
P l a n a n d the progress achieved d u r -
i n g the first three p l a n years. Use-
f u l i n f o r m a t i o n bearing o n c o m m u -
nity development projects and
N a t i o n a l Extension Service, f o r e i g n
a i d a n d loans received b y I n d i a ,
I n d i a n l a b o u r legislation, t r a n s p o r t
and communications, public health,
and the I n d i a n Press also find a
place, t h o u g h understandably they
have h a d t o b e dealt w i t h briefly.
A f t e r p r o v i d i n g a lot of useful data
r e l a t i n g t o events i n the w o r l d o f
sports a n d games, the year book
ends w i t h a brief section on who's
w h o i n I n d i a a n d Pakistan.
O n e o r t w o suggestions m a y b e
o f f e r e d : in the section r e l a t i n g to
India's new Constitution, the
a m e n d m e n t s t h a t have been effected
so far have n o t been given, t h o u g h
it is stated that " certain a m e n d -
ments o f f u n d a m e n t a l rights regard-
i n g f r e e d o m of speech and expres-
sion, f r e e d o m of assembly, etc, have
been passed in spite of vehement
o p p o s i t i o n f r o m a section of the
P a r l i a m e n t i n 1951 " . I t w o u l d b e
useful to have the text of the
a m e n d m e n t s passed so far. The
section d e a l i n g w i t h India's neigh-
bours includes A f g h a n i s t a n , B u r m a ,
Ceylon, Nepal, Tibet, China and
Pakistan. I n v i e w o f the g r o w i n g
interest i n the affairs o f A f r o - A s i a n
countries, it w o u l d be useful if the
year book includes information
a b o u t o t h e r A f r o - A s i a n countries.
On balance one gets the impres-
sion t h a t the year book is heavily
w e i g h t e d i n f a v o u r o f economic
facts a n d statistics r e l a t i n g to I n d i a ,
a n d it c o u l d as w e l l be described as
the I n d i a n E c o n o m i c Year-Rook—
1955.

O t h e r w i s e , this h a n d y v o l u m e o f
reference c o n t a i n i n g useful i n f o r -
m a t i o n , on topical matters i n c l u d i n g
general i n f o r m a t i o n such as c h r o n o -
logy o f w o r l d events, g e o g r a p h i c a l
i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t m o u n t a i n s , lakes,
islands, etc, developments in the
scientific f i e l d , a w a r d o f prizes a n d
titles, the U n i t e d N a t i o n s , sports
a n d games, a n d facts a n d f i g u r e s
a b o u t w o r l d today. A m a j o r p o r -
t i o n o f the b o o k i s d e v o t e d t o I n d i a ,
a n d contains a w e a l t h o f i n f o r m a -
t i o n a b o u t I n d i a ' s h i s t o r i c a l back-
g r o u n d , p h y s i c a l features, etc, h e r
n e w c o n s t i t u t i o n , g e n e r a l elections,
p o l i t i c a l parties, i n d u s t r i a l d e v e l o p -
ment, public finance, foreign trade,
etc. T h e p u b l i c a t i o n contains a l o t
o f E c o n o m i c statistics r e l a t i n g t o
I n d i a ' s a g r i c u l t u r a l resources a n d
p r o d u c t i o n , a d e t a i l e d description of
the development of I n d i a n indus-

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