The economic downturn prevailing across the globe certainly draws our attention to the much needed academic exercise to rescue the global economy and so it is imperative to look back to the roots of economy and society in the context of India. While locating the policy parameters of economic governance in the past, the present issue turns to the vital aspect of recapping India's economic past from various domains. This spirit has been reflected in the papers that deal with the commercial scenario of Orissa during the medieval times and the agrarian practices of pre-colonial Rajasthan. Besides, an attempt has been made to characterize the British rule in India from a socioeconomic perspective by tracing the issues of `slave governance' in Western India. On the social front, how the spread of Hinduism to the Caribbean islands has taken place is the subject of another paper. The paper on the cultural dimensions of globalization phenomenon, discusses various views on globalization. India's transition to Asia's economic giant status is reflected in the book review presented here.

Nicholas Kazanas, in the second part of the paper, "Economic Principles in Ancient India (Part II)", looks at the issues of kingship, environmental care, system of taxation, money-lending scenario, and the labor factor. Also the views of `free economy' are touched upon in the process that helps us in locating the current trends in the Indian economy.

Despite its central role in sustaining agriculture, the political and social aspects of water use and abuse in Indian society have only recently been scrutinized by historians. Recent writings on Indian environmental history have examined the role of state and society with specific reference to environmental degradation. Most writings have analyzed the situation in terms of decay during colonial rule and in turn tended to romanticize the pre-modern period. Mayank Kumar argues that the traditional agricultural practices in pre-colonial Rajasthan were flexible in their application considering the erratic nature of monsoons. His paper, "Flexibility and Adaptability: Agrarian Expansion and Traditions of Water Management", also examines the role of community and state on the one hand and the complexity of their interactions on the other with respect to various users/uses of water in pre-colonial Rajasthan.

By discussing the key trends of textile goods manufacture and exports from Orissa during the 17^th and 18^th centuries, the study made by K N Sethi, "Textile Technology in Medieval Orissa: A Case Study of Production and Export During 17^th and 18^th Centuries", brings to light many features of commercial organization of medieval times.

Historians have long been conscious that slavery was a widespread institution in medieval India; however, its extensive presence in India in the 19^th century has been overlooked by them. One important reason for this is that some historians credited the British with the humanitarian achievement of complete abolition of slavery in India by Act V of 1843 and the Indian Penal Code of 1960. In recent years, the work of historians like Indrani Chatterjee has shown that both the above acts did not completely abolish slavery and that the slave owners managed to adapt to the colonial law and continued to perpetuate slavery in the 19^th century. Avanish Patil's paper, "Humanitarian Intervention or Political Convenience? Runaway Slaves and Abolition of Slavery in Colonial Western India", contributes to this discourse by discussing the colonial context of the policy followed by the British towards runaway slaves in Western India. In other words, the paper shows how the pursuit of `political convenience' by the British in their policy towards runaway slave cases in Western India resulted in the evolution of a British model of slave emancipation.

Many studies were undertaken to examine in-depth the socioeconomic transformation of India during the benevolent administration instituted by the British rulers from the middle of the 19^th century. Laxman D Satya, with his extensive field experience in the domain, has attempted to bring forth the hidden agenda behind the development of Railways in India in the paper titled, "Imperial Railways, Political Economy, Ecology, Famine and Disease in British India".

Sherry-Ann Singh in the paper titled, "Religious Transformation and Identity Construction: Trinidad Hinduism (1917-1945)", attempts to fill a number of gaps in the historiography of Indians and Hindus in the Indian diaspora. Besides, she also explores the history and development of the Hindu community in Trinidad. This is the first study of its kind to be done on Hinduism and especially on the Ramayana in the Caribbean islands. The author explores the many facets of Hindu socio-religious change in the period immediately after the end of the system of Indian indenture in Trinidad. It purports that religious transformation both reflected and generated transformation of thought, attitude and action in almost all spheres of Hindu life in Trinidad during the period under study. Although by 1990, Hinduism was the second largest socio-religious denomination in Trinidad and Tobago, the history of many of its more fundamental aspects remained largely undocumented. This paper, thus, aims to fill part of this void by elucidating this most formative phase of Trinidad Hinduisma period that was defined by immense religious transformation, and hence, crucial to identity formation among Hindus in Trinidad.

Many theories and perceptions characterize `globalization' in recent times as a symbol of cultural hegemony by western countries. The paper titled, "Can Globalization Lead to Cultural Hegemony" by Nitin Gupta, is an attempt to study the issues connected with transformation of human life against the backdrop of global corporations.

It is a widely acknowledged fact that India has come a long way in terms of economic growth and social development by pursuing the pluralistic attitudes in the realm of public governance. What matters more at this crucial juncture is the critical introspection of sectoral performance India has achieved in the past six decades and any attempt to do this, obviously, entails a value-based commentary on the past. Dietmar Rothermund has taken up the task with meticulous compilation of facts and judgment in his book titled, India: The Rise of an Asian Giant. The review of the book, by Sunanda Easwaran, certainly provides a new glimpse of India's development scenario. It gives the readers an idea about India's growth trajectory from a management perspective.

-- Radha Mohan Chebolu
Consulting Editor