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title of Urban India, symbolizes the “pseudourbanism” in which human beings and cattle share meager supplies of food, water, and shelter inside the urban areas. I t is like a farm in the city or a socio-economic state of functional ruralization in urban locales. Premendra Mitra’s poem “The City,” quoted by Zelliot, is an allegory of the same:

Bridges, shops, mills, tinselled market show off the colors of the streets but the primeval swamp still occupies her heart. [ p. 21 91.

The individual papers provide a myopic insight into many problems of urban India. A cross-cultural perspective might invalidate the book’s general methodology and evalua- tion of urban society. The reader may be disappointed by the lack of an integrative approach or may be distracted by the sophisticated intradisciplinary discourses. Nevertheless, this book serves as an eye opener for students of urban change in developing countries who are cautioned to interpret the findings within the conceptual sphere of pseudourbanism, with sufficient detachment for a realistic appraisal.

Urbanization and Social Change: A Study o f a Rural Community on a Metropolitan Fringe. M. S. A. RAO. New Delhi: Orient Longmans, 1970. xi + 254 pp., figure, map, tables, chapter notes, select bibliog- raphy, index. Rs. 25.00 (cloth).

Reviewed by ALAN WELLS Tulane University

Despite its sweeping title, which now seems to be standard for works in this genre, Rao’s book is in fact a detailed study of the changing economy of Yadavpur, an Indian village which is currently being engulfed by metropolitan Delhi. It is based on the author’s nine months fieldwork during 1956-1957 in which he formally interviewed all household heads. This was followed by four more months of study in 1963-1964. Data collected in this period are then used to gauge recent change. Contacts were main- tained in the interviewing period, and the data is carefully augmented by the use of historical material.

Rao presents a detailed and well written description of the village. The ecology and

social context, and then the internal struc- ture of the village, including details of its castes and lineages, are first outlined. Chap- ters are then devoted to agricultural change, urban occupations and mobility, consump- tion patterns, political integration, and local factionalism. Much attention is given to external influences and change over time.

The book has considerable theoretical interest for the student of urbanization, and the author exhibits good sensitivity to such issues. Although the village cannot be fully representative of village India, the processes described for it, as the author notes, are highly suggestive for villages undergoing absorption by expanding urban areas. Here, of course, the stimuli for change are very strong, and change can be rapid-despite strong traditions. The book offers good evidence that tradition modifies, without undu ly hampering change. Thus the dominant agricultural caste in the village switched from subsistence to market garden- ing, and most castes now provide commuters to urban occupations-albeit often in modern forms of traditional activity. Even this may de due more to urban discrimina- tion in job allocation, than to the individu- als’ own volition.

The villagers have become consumption rather than investment oriented, a phenom- ena that may not bode well for future economic change. (Unfortunately, though, we are not given any household budgets which would have been of value here). The villagers have incorporated urban consumer styles-dress, food and manufactured items such as wrist watches, and of course, the use of money-into traditional life. The goods are often used to enhance and maintain traditional status claims.

Overall, it becomes apparent that tradi- tional-modern or rural-urban continua are not applicable to this type of village. They exhibit some characteristics of both ends, without giving rise to irreconcilable conflict. This should then make the book of some interest to the student of change in the Third World as well as t o Indian and urbanization specialists.

Social Change and the Individual: Japan Before and After Defeat in World War II. KAZUKO TSURUMI. Foreword by