Study relates to villages in Tumkur District, Karnataka.

This book addresses the familiar issue of unequal access to education in a new perspective. In this regard, whether one looks at gender or caste or tribes or class differences, the gap between the privileged and the dispriviliged is a matter of everyday experience. In what manner and form are these asymmetries reflected in the domain of education is the question at the core of this collection of essays. This volume is likely to be useful to those interested in understanding the interface between education and society in India as well as in other developing countries.

This volume is an introduction to the role of caste and class in Indian society, meant to emphasize certain important aspects of Indian society such as continuity and change in caste, economic classes, status of women, status of Harijans, village poli-tics, overseas Indians, and casteism and tribalism. Its theoretical interest is to explain the dynamics of social inequalities in Indian society. All but one of the essays are based on research conducted in India. The other is based on research on Indian plantation workers in Sri Lanka, and included here to demonstrate that the concepts of caste and class are relevant to understanding In-dians who have emigrated to overseas countries.