This book is a ground-breaking intervention on Dalit politics in India. Challenging received ideas, it uses a comparative framework to understand Dalit mobilisations for political power, social equality and justice. The monograph traces the emergence of Dalit consciousness and its different strands in north and south India - from colonial to contemporary times - and interrogates key notions and events. These include:

• the debate regarding core themes such as the Hindu-Muslim cleavage in the north and caste in the south;
• the extent to which...