'The Annihilation of Caste' is one of the most important - and still most controversial - works of Indian political writing. Completed in 1936, the book is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and the caste system that infuriated Gandhi yet has remained a rallying cry for 60 years.

"Once known as 'Pariahs, ' Dalits are primarily descendants of unfree agrarian laborers. They belong to India's most subordinated castes, face overwhelming poverty and discrimination, and provoke public anxiety. Drawing on a wealth of previously untapped sources, this book follows the conception and evolution of the 'Pariah problem' in public consciousness in the 1890s. It shows how high-caste landlords, state officials, and well-intentioned missionaries...

1870s India. In a tiny village where society is ruled by a caste system and women are defined solely by marriage, young Biren Roy dreams of forging a new destiny. When his mother suffers the fate of widowhood--shunned by her loved ones and forced to live in solitary penance--Biren devotes his life to effecting change. Just when his vision for the future begins to look hopeless, he meets Maya, the independent-minded daughter of a local educator, and...

The eldest of seven children born low-caste in rural India, Mamta is abused and rejected by a father who can see no reason to "water someone else's garden" until a husband is found for her. Seeking escape in matrimony, Mamta is soon forced to flee her village and the horrors of her arranged marriage to the bustle of a small city, where she struggles to find a precarious state of acceptance and make peace with her past.