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The article focuses on the book "Social Mobility in the Caste System in India. An Interdisciplinary Symposium," edited by James Silverberg. In the book, author aim to further an understanding of the nature, extent and significance of social mobility in a caste system and to uncover the mechanisms and determinants involved. The book offers a review of the sociological concern with social mobility in the caste system as a general set of processes. A set of four papers presents and evaluates evidence concerning social mobility, based in three instances on recent first-hand observations and in the fourth on data extracted from the medieval period by the techniques of the historian. The first two papers are the products of anthropological field research in rural communities: a South Indian case by researcher Edward B. Harper, who combines ethnographic and ethnohistorical methods; a North Indian case by researcher William L. Rowe, who gathered his ethnographic data not only among the Caubans of the village in which he lived but also from their city-dwelling caste fellows, the politicians and other professionals whom he interviewed in Bombay, India and several urban centres of North India.

The article discusses the book "Peasants in History: Essays in Honor of Daniel Thorner," edited by E.J. Hobsbawm, W. Kulla, A. Mitra, K. N. Raj and I. Sachs. The article points out that the book is an impressive memorial to Daniel Thorner, a prolific scholar in the distinction of the contributors and the wide range of issues, which have been taken to be representative of Thorner's concerns. The collection is an interesting reflection not only of Thorner's interests, but also of the current state of the literature on peasants. The book is divided into different sections and the first section of the book contains papers relating to European peasantries. The second section focuses on India and Asia and the third section raises policy issues relating to economic development. Themes of peasants and capitalism, differentiation amongst the peasantry, reform, and peasants and socialism are also highlighted in the book. The book features the elimination of the peasantry in Scotland, the persistence of magnetization amongst Polish peasants during the second serfdom, the changing character of Indian villages and the long-term impact of land reform on peasants and landlords.