Prof. Dietmar Rothermund, Ph.D., FRHistS, is head of the History Department, South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, Germany and chairman, European Association of South Asian Studies. He studied history and philosophy at Marburg and Munich Universities, Germany, and at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. His publications include Government, Landlord and Peasant in India (1978), India in the Great Depression, 1929-1939 (1932), An Economic History of India (2nd edn., 1993), Mahatma Gandhi: A Political Biography (3rd edn. 1999), (with H. Kulke) A History of India (3rd edn. 1998). \n