Rise and awakening of depressed classes in India ib

Social history might be defined negatively as the history of a people with politics left out. But it is impossible to leave out the politics from the history of the downtrodden and oppressed part of the humanity which has been subjected to untold miseries and agonies for centuries together in our country. This book takes into account a mighty saga of the awakening of the scheduled castes to whom the society denied even the elementary right to live, eat, and work.

It is indeed a great lacuna on the part of the historians and writers of modern Indian history to have left out such a soul stirring saga of a people who rose from the dust to be the legislators, politicians and constitution makers of the country. Many history books have consisted of political annals with little reference to their social environments, social, cultural and reli gious movements which were more important than the rise and fall of dynasties. The statesmen, thinkers and the reformers could appeal to the conscience of society, reform it or transform it, in a revolutionary way without the slightest recourse to the sword and the philosophy of Blood and Iron. Therefore social history which takes into account the struggle and the awakening of the downtrodden in India must undoubtedly form an interesting accompaniment to the political history of India.