Ōkubo Toshimichi (1830–1878) emerged as the dominant figure of the Meiji oligarchy in November 1873. He retained that uneasy position until his death under his assassins' swords on May 14, 1878. During the four and one-half year interval Ōkubo served Japan well, although the fact of his assassination and public reaction to it revealed that he was anything but a popular figure in his lifetime. As Home Minister (Naimukyō) during most of that period, he advanced the process of political centralization substantially and channelled state energies and resources into economic development. Authoritarian political techniques inherited from the feudal past enabled him to force the pace of modernization for his country.

Political conflicts around religious, caste and regional identities have multiplied in India. Whether one views these “million mutinies” as symptomatic of a growing crisis of governability or of a democratic revolution, analytical questions abound. Why is there apparently more violent conflict around identity politics in India today than at any time since Independence? To what extent do the character and intensity of recent conflicts differ from those of the past? What lessons can we learn from cases where community demands have been successfully accommodated? And, relatedly, what measures might alleviate the widespread destruction of life and property and create the sense of predictability on which all social order rests? The following essays analyze both the growing incidence of violent ethnic conflict in India and some of the conditions for their resolution.

Education on western lines began in India by the middle of the nineteenth century with the establishment of a few high schools and colleges in the larger cities of Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Poona. The three oldest universities in India, those at the “Presidency” capitals of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay were incorporated in 1858 and the first graduates in arts and law came out soon thereafter. Normally most of the arts graduates entered the middle ranks of the administrative services and received, according to the standards of the times, relatively attractive remuneration. Also, they were greatly respected in the middle class society of those days. The law graduates also did well as advocates and lower grade judges, and a few even won such coveted posts as seats on the benches of the High Courts.

The editor of Das Leben Buddhas: Ein Chinesisches Holzschnitt Fragment [Book Reviews, JAS, XXVIII/4 (August 1969) 839–40] should have been Martin Gimm, not Grimm, on page 839 and on page 664 of the Contents.

The author of Bibliographie du Shintō et des sectes Shintōïstes [Book Reviews, JAS, XXIX/1 (November 1969) 171] should have been listed in the Contents (p. 2) as Herbert, not Hebert.

For many reasons, including the importance of local geographic variation, twentieth century Chinese phenomena such as “warlordism” must be examined in individual sub-national cases. Szechwanese provincial militarists maintained a high degree of independence from outside control and stood aloof from central government politics from the end of the Northern Expedition until 1935. However, a combination of communist military pressure and provincial economic collapse finally induced Szechwan's leading militarist to seek Nanking's help. From early 1935, the National Government attempted to bring Szechwan within its sphere of military, economic, and political influence. In its struggle with entrenched provincial militarists, Nanking employed a complex set of reforms, at the heart of which were measures for the restricting of local administration and the extension of formal administrative control into local society. When the Sino-Japanese War Erupted in July 1937, however, Nanking had achieved only very partial success. The Nationalists' final peacetime opportunity to solve the modern dilemma of central vs. sub-national power in China had passed.