Scheduled castes and the struggle against inequality : strategies to empower the marginalised

The material presented in this book includes papers from a Workshop on the Scheduled Castes held at the Indian Social Institute in November 1981. These papers have been revised for publication. For various reasons, we have not been able to include all the important papers discussed at the Workshop..

One way to write this introduction would be to give a sum mary of the papers presented here or to give a report on the Workshop. I have not attempted to do this here. Instead, some of the important issues concerning the Scheduled Castes have been selected for discussion. In doing this I have freely drawn from the discussions and papers presented at the Workshop.

In this book social activists and research scholars analyse the burning problems of the Scheduled Castes. Untouchability and law, caste and class, the reservation policy, the religious factor and the problem of Scheduled Caste women are examined from different theoretical perspectives and in the light of research findings in different areas. A unique experience in dialogue between social activists, scholars and administrators on the problems of the Scheduled Castes, this book will be necessary for everyone who is seeking strategies to empower the marginalised to achieve their own liberation.