In the last few years, I have been associated with the movement of some youth working in the framework of the Congress Party. These young people hold degrees upto Master standard in Social Sciences. Some of them are studying in General Sciences. During the training programmes to give them a retrospect of the political history of the great revolutions in the world and India, I found that they are unable to connect themselves with the chronology, leaders and the main propositions in political revolutions and economic transformations. Many young people cannot easily grasp intricate economic analysis. The events in the communist movements in the world, mainly in Europe, are full of contradictory view points in the realm of scientific socialism. In spite of great efforts of the Soviet scholars to produce simple books on socialism and the history of Marxist movement, young people in and around our party could not follow them by their own initiative. I thought of removing this difficulty by introducing these historical events in as simple a manner as possible. My essays which were published in the Lok. Rajya periodical of Government of Maharashtra, might be educative for the youth. These essays have now been incorporated in this book.

It is the coincidence of economic history that the economic reforms in communist countries were being spelled out when I was engaged in this attempt to write simple essays for young people in the political movement. The essays, therefore, are centred round many facets of economic reforms in the framework of Marxism. My intention is to explore truth in the economic theory. In my associations with friends in the Marxist movement, I find that young people in that movement are also not fully posted with the facts of Marxist movements in Europe and the phenomenon of economic reforms in communist countries. Therefore, this book, I hope, should be useful to all young people in all political parties in India to prepare themselves for understanding the great changes ensuing in economic reforms. During my association with many political friends, in all parties, I realized that there is deep bias amongst people of one party against another party. The. bias is evident even within the communist movement in India, where there are more than a dozen organized Marxist parties. One can imagine the degree of bias against the party in power. This is very natural. Politics has been equated with the sole intention of capturing the seats of power in the State. Therefore, all opposition parties have their biases against the party in power. One's own party, however, remains without any concrete information about the events that are taking place in the world economy especially in communist countries. Economic reform in the socialist countries is likely to be the greatest phenomenon in this context. Many parameters of political economy, whichever party is likely to govern, will need the new insight in the light of the fundamental changes overtaking the communist countries. All parties in India have accepted the spirit of socialism, though each party has its own emphasis. This is indeed a welcome state of affairs in politics in India. Different political parties have the same goal of socialism but their paradigms are different from each other. Therefore, each party will have to define its own paradigm of socialism. Economic reforms will compel many parties, and probably all parties, to discard many theorems of socialism that have been taught to us through books published in Europe. Though I am writing this book for the benefit of the youth of the Congress Party, I am sure, it will be equally useful to many workers in all other parties.

These essays could be divided into some streams of thinking which are finally synchronized into explorations in socialism. Firstly, a major part of the essays is devoted to features and theories of economic reforms in communist countries. Secondly, some essays are aimed at disclosing the functioning of the trade union movement. Thirdly, some essays examine the theory of competitive economy in the framework of economics of socialism.

Some essays include issues of agriculture, farmers' movement in India and self-employment. The reverberations of the Indian farmers in the framework of socialist goals need theory in economics. This is the themes in one of the essays. I have been attracted to the Gandhian approach to social justice since my college days. The essay on Gandhian economy, therefore, is an attempt to discover the relevance of his thoughts in the economic theories as such. In itself, it is incomplete. However, I could find, common wave-length between what Gandhiji said and what Mrs. Indira Gandhi did. I feel that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had come to realise some errors in building a prototype structure of Soviet economic planning in India. If this is true, it explains the programmes outlined by Indira Gandhi during her time of leadership. Instead of fixed ideas of the concept of socialism, she preferred to spell out programmes which connote as the manifestation of socialism. " Socialism of our own genius ". This is the phrase used by Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, the leader of our party when he read his budget speech on 28th February 1987. The expression is the continuation of our explorations since the days of Mahatma Gandhi who, among others, guided the economic policies of the Indian National Congress.

Students of political science and their teachers, I feel, need a reorientation to understand their own theory of equality. Political economy has been born in the womb of political science. The interconnection, however, has been distorted because political economy has acquiesced the principle of equality. Political science, I believe, is experiencing its crisis because its own principle has lost relevance in the political economy. I desire to explain this aspect of the current crisis in politics in the framework of political science. Hence the essay. Similarly, the students in commerce ought to be motivated to learn their lessons in the prism of theory in economics. An economic theory needs evidence in practice. It is available in the accounts of the economic enterprises. The evidence must substantiate economic theory. If the evidence itself is unreliable, the validity of the theory cannot be established. The essay is an attempt to suggest discipline in accountancy and auditing in line with economic theory.

The readers, I hope, will find me as an explorer of the economic theory for social revolution. The European thinkers in philosophy, politics and economics have left many valuable parameters in this respect. Each thinker, however, appears to me as one-sided and often eclectic. These essays are prepared for the youth so that they could themselves think and locate the weaknesses of the thinkers. Photo-sketches of the thinkers are helpful to assess the situations, emotions and subjectivism in their theories. Some sketch-graphs of great thinkers can help the young enquiring minds because photograph in itself is an instrument in pedagogy.

There must be, I believe, a theory that will rescue us from the pains of capitalism as well as the emerging paradox in Marx's socialism. The ground covered in the last two hundred years in the realm of socialism in Europe gives us the data. The scrutiny of the information in the essays may help us to know the weaknesses and suggest us how to remove them. The centre of discussion is competition in the economy. It is revealed in the essays that socialists as well as capitalists are schizophrenic in this respect. Their theory is based on competition. However, their practice does not acquiesce competition. This is a paradox. And above all, the paradox becomes more bewildering because both accuse each other for having acquiesced competition in the economy. The solution therefore lies in throwing maximum possible light on competition in economy, so that the economic theory of social revolution could be discovered. Most of the essays are replete with the assays of logic in the studies in economics.

The assay in the medical science is an exercise to determine the contents of a substance. The contents of competition in economics need rigorous exercise because things that are opposed to competition have been ostriched inspite of the fact that they have been pointed out by some eminent economists. This contrast is vividly discerned in agriculture and industry. We have to rescue competition from all false concepts, juridical as well as political, that have distorted the theoretical analysis in economics.

Readers will find that many ideas are reproduced and repeated in all the essays.

I could not avoid it because each essay has its goal. The persons reading a single essay need maximum references to possess all possible lines of thinking. Some ideas, therefore, were introduced for their references. In this exercise the references are obviously repeated though the special subject of study is different. The spectrum of Marxism in this context is unique because it connotes all comprehensive vision. Any essay will be inadequate without references of Marxism, its history, its theories and its leaderships. This, therefore, explains why the essays are replete with repetitive references and why they are unavoidable in the various essays that have been prepared for the Lok Rajya fortnightly of Government of Maharashtra. I am thankful to the Government of Maharashtra who have permitted me to publish these essays separately in the form of this book.

I request the readers to be critical about the information, propositions, analytical standards and the conclusions. I have received many letters from the readers of Lok Rajya. I would welcome many more communications in this exercise. I am happy to mention that Dr. M. G. Bokare inspired me to study the literature on socialism and political economy of India. It is because of his persuation that I could complete each essay. However, the opinions expressed in the essays are not necessarily those of Dr. M. G. Bokare. Many more areas of explorations in economic theory are being provoked in my studies because of the wide-ranging outlook and information of Dr. Bokare. I am thankful to him for his valuable guidance and concrete assistance in preparing this book.

DR. SHRIKANT R. JICHKAR