 In response to Davis' approval of Karl Polanyi's hypothesis that "Indian masses in the second half of the 19th century ... perished in large numbers because the Indian village community had been demolished", Sen retorts that "this is an enormous exaggeration.In exploding one myth, we have to be careful not to fall for another"; however, "it is an illustrative book of the disastrous consequences of fierce economic inequality combined with a drastic imbalance of political voice and power.The late-Victorian tragedies exemplify a wider problem of human insecurity and vulnerability ultimately related to economic disparity and political disempowerment.