Table of Contents

Introduction - S.M. Michael
Untouchability and Stratification in Indian Civilisation - Shrirama
Who is a Dalit? - John C.B. Webster
Colonialism within Colonialism - Mahesh Gavaskar
Phule′s Critique of Brahmin Power
Dalit Vision of a Just Society in India - S.M. Michael
Ambedkar, Buddhism and the Concept of Religion - Timothy Fitzgerald
The Dalit Movement in Mainstream Sociology - GOPAL GURU
Liberation Movements in Comparative Perspective - K.P. SINGH
Dalit Indians and Black Americans
Sociology of India and Hinduism - S. Selvam
Towards a Method
Hinduisation of Adivasis - Arjun Patel
A Case Study from South Gujarat
Ambedkar′s Daughters - Traude Pillai-Vetschera
A Study of Mahar Women in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra
The BSP in Uttar Pradesh - Christophe Jaffrelot
Party of the Dalits or of the Bahujans - or Catch-all Party?
Ambedkar′s Interpretation of the Caste System, its Economic Consequences and Suggested Remedies - Sukhadeo Thorat
Dalits and Economic Policy - Gail Omvedt
Contributions of Dr B.R. Ambedkar
Reservation Policy and the Empowerment of Dalits - P.G. Jogdand
Scheduled Castes, Employment and Social Mobility - Richard Pais
Index

About the Author

S M Michael is Reader at the Department of Sociology, University of Mumbai, and Honorary Director, Institute of Indian Culture, Mumbai. He is a member of the visiting faculty at the Anthropos Institute, Bonn, and Magdeburg University, both in Germany. Dr Michael is a consultant to the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Inter- Religious Dialogue as well as Chairman of the Bombay Archdiocesan Commission for Inter-Religious Dialogue. 

His published work includes The Cultural Context of Evangelization in India (1980), Anthropology as a Historical Science: Essays in Honour of Stephen Fuchs (co-edited, 1984), Culture & Urbanization (1989), Anthropology of Conversion in India (1998), Culture and Nationalism: Clarifying the Cultural Reality of India (co-edited with Leela D’Souza and Rowena Robinson, 2000), Globalization and Social Movements: Struggle for a Humane Society (co-edited, 2003), Communal Harmony, Secularism and Nation Building (2005), and about 60 articles in national and international journals.

Reviews

The book is interdisciplinary in nature and the contributors are drawn from the various subjects that come under the rubric of social science. The essays are insightful and some are even passionate…This is not a book that can be ignored by anyone trying to understand the social dynamics that will probably transform India’s political landscape.
*The Telegraph*

Looking back at the aspirations and struggle of the marginalised Dalit masses, the book looks forward to a new humanity based on equality, social justice and human dignity. Within the context of Dalit emancipation, it explores the social, economic and cultural content of Dalit transformation in modern India, presenting articles by the foremost researchers in the field.
*The Asian Age*

Dalits in Modern India, Vision and Values, has much to recommend [it]. There are several combative and exceptionally insightful papers in this volume.... The editor offers a long introduction familiarising the lay reader [with the long-drawn-out] and complex debate on caste and untouchability.
*Economic and Political Weekly*

The book traces a vast and interdisciplinary canvas about the Dalits in India. Every conceivable dimension of the concept of `Dalit` is touched upon or discussed in detail. . . . I must congratulate the editor for bringing together [contributions] from such diverse disciplines.
*Business Standard*