Contents: Introduction. 1. Untouchability and Stratification in Indian Civilisation/Shrirama. 2. Who is a Dalit?/John C.B. Webster. 3. Colonialism within Colonialism/Mahesh Gavaskar. I. Phule's Critique of Brahmin Power: 4. Dalit Vision of a Just Society in India/S.M. Michael. 5. Ambedkar, Buddhism and the Concept of Religion/Timothy Fitzgerald. 6. The Dalit Movement in Mainstream Sociology/Gopal Guru. 7. Liberation Movements in Comparative Perspective/K.P. Singh. II. Dalit Indians and Black Americans: 8. Sociology of India and Hinduism/S. Selvam. III. Towards a Method: 9. Hinduisation of Adivasis/Arjun Patel. IV. A Case Study from South Gujarat: 10. Ambedkar's Daughters/Traude Pillai-Vetschera. V. A Study of Mahar Women in Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra: 11. The BSP in Uttar Pradesh/Christophe Jaffrelot. VI. Party of the Dalits or of the Bahujans - or Catch-all Party?: 12. Ambedkar's Interpretation of the Caste System, its Economic Consequences and Suggested Remedies/Sukhadeo Thorat. 13. Dalits and Economic Policy/Gail Omvedt. VII. Contributions of Dr B.R. Ambedkar: 14. Reservation Policy and the Empowerment of Dalits/P.G. Jogdand. 15. Scheduled Castes, Employment and Social Mobility/Richard Pais. Index. This second, revised and enlarged edition looks back at the aspirations and struggle of the marginalised Dalit masses and 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. These articles, by some of the foremost researchers in the field, are presented in four parts: Part I deals with the historical material on the origin and development of untouchability in Indian civilisation. Part II contests mainstream explanations and shows that the Dalit vision of Indian society is different from that of the upper castes. Part III offers a critique of the Sanskritic perspective of traditional Indian society, and fieldwork-based portraits of the Hinduisation of Adivasis in Gujarat, Dalit patriarchy in Maharashtra and Dalit power politics in Uttar Pradesh. Part IV concentrates on the economic condition of the Dalits.