Casteless India is an idea dreamt by the framers of our constitution. As far-fetched a dream, it may seem, the necessity of making caste an irrelevant denominator in the social, economic and political life of India cannot be overstated. Despite a number of reforms initiated by successive governments nationally and across states, the overall efforts seem half-hearted, rudderless and often working at cross-purposes with one another. This book is an effort to find the basis of the caste system, tracing it from its origin and dissecting its various facets so as to chart out a practical approach to uproot this social vice from our society. The objective of the book is to give a feasible solution, understanding the ground realities of the issue, based on a broad consensus that may be favourably acceptable to all sections of the society in order to build a truly egalitarian society.

“What the Communist Manifesto is to the capitalist world, Annihilation of Caste is to India.” —Anand Teltumbde, author of The Persistence of Caste The classic work of Indian Dalit politics, reframed with an extensive introduction by Arundathi Roy B.R. Ambedkar’s Annihilation of Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar – a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois – offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world’s best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to the provocation. The hatchet was never buried. Arundhati Roy introduces this extensively annotated edition of Annihilation of Caste in “The Doctor and the Saint,” examining the persistence of caste in modern India, and how the conflict between Ambedkar and Gandhi continues to resonate. Roy takes us to the beginning of Gandhi’s political career in South Africa, where his views on race, caste and imperialism were shaped. She tracks Ambedkar’s emergence as a major political figure in the national movement, and shows how his scholarship and intelligence illuminated a political struggle beset by sectarianism and obscurantism. Roy breathes new life into Ambedkar’s anti-caste utopia, and says that without a Dalit revolution, India will continue to be hobbled by systemic inequality.

The phenomenon of caste has probably aroused more controversy than any other aspect of Indian life and thought. Susan Bayly's cogent and sophisticated analysis explores the emergence of the ideas, experiences and practices which gave rise to the so-called 'caste society' from the pre-colonial period to the end of the twentieth century. Using an historical and anthropological approach, she frames her analysis within the context of India's dynamic economic and social order, interpreting caste not as an essence of Indian culture and civilization, but rather as a contingent and variable response to the changes that occurred in the subcontinent's political landscape through the colonial conquest. The idea of caste in relation to Western and Indian 'orientalist' thought is also explored.

Over The Years This Book Has Remained A Basic Work For Students Of India Sociology And Anthropology And Has Been Acknowledged As A Bona-Fide Classic.

This is a study of how ethnic diversity is represented in public institutions in India, and how politics manages ethnic inequalities. New data on representational patterns in parliament cover the diversity of caste, tribe and religion. Material disadvantage is central to ethnic and cultural inequality as social and economic inequalities overlap.