In a Political Vacuum

In a Political Vacuum Sandeep Pendse V B KARNIK has been a worker in the trade union movement since the thirties, a member of the M N Roy Group and general secretary of JFL from 1944 to 1948; he has been later associated with the HMS. This is his own description as given in the book under review ("Some Particulars about a Few Leaders of the Movement", p 414). However, the description does not convey fully the place he occupies nor the role he has played in the trade union movement in India. He is one of the rare intellectuals of the movement. (There have been many intellectuals associated with the trade union movement: they have not been intellectuals of the movement, however. This is seen in the lack of reflective or theoretical writings on the Indian working class and its movement based on experience within the movement.) Karnik has many works on the trade union movement in India to his credit, apart from regular contributions on the subject to newspapers and periodicals. It is reasonable, therefore, to expect his work on trade unions in India to be illuminating and provocative, even if controversial. Expectations are heightened all the more because of the lack of studies on the working class in India and by the fact that the book is in its third revised edition.