THE CHALLENGE OF MODERNISATION by I. R. Sinai. 256 pages. Norton. $5.50.
"Backward" is a word no longer used in polite Western circles to describe the underdeveloped nations of the world. Yet this is precisely the word that I. R. Sinai uses, plus some even blunter ones, in an angrily eloquent book on the problems and prospects of the new nations. "The international atmosphere," writes Sinai, "is absolutely clogged with slogans, speeches and books extolling the 'Great Revolution' that has supposedly been brought about in all these populous territories. What we are witnessing in...