Late nineteenth century witnessed origin and proliferation of caste associations, emerging out of colonial policy of exploiting the internal contradictions of Indian society for further segmenting it horizontally so that the colonial power could withstand the ever-germinating disgruntlement of the people of the country. Succeeding to a great extent in sowing the seeds of divisive forces, the policy also in due course accentuated the identity-formation process by utilizing besides other constitutive elements like geographical entity, language and literature, cultural attributes, etc., caste factor as well. The Maithils following the maneuverers of the British Empire, established All India Maithil Mahasabha which along with doing away socio-religious evil practices strived for reestablishing the idiosyncratic personality of Mithila. The present book Caste and Identity: A History of Maithil Mahasabha by presenting the first ever full-length history of the mahasabha will prove beneficial not only to understand the intricacies of caste identity but also the process of identity construction especially in a peripheral society.