Eleanor Zelliot

Mahar and Non-Brahman Movements in Maharashtra:

awareness and unity that enabled them to create a political party, a system of hostels, schools and colleges, and an effective Buddhist conversion movement before the death of their leader, Dr. B. A. Ambedkar, in 1956. The organizational triumphs of these movements in this century were dependent on the democratizing processes of the period of political reforms, 1921-1939, but both had roots reaching back to an apolitical period in the last half of the nineteenth century. This essay is a speculative one, attempting not so much to find why these movements began, but what qualities of the Maharashtrian soil allowed both to come to fruition. Non-Brahman movements and attempts of Untouchable castes to organize for social and political purposes have occurred in other parts of India. The Non-Brahman movement of Madras actually has a more coherent history and an earlier period of successful political activity than that of Maharashtra.&dquo; There was also a movement, or a group of movements, among the Untouchables of Madras, although neither this movement nor others among the Ilavas of the Malabar coast, the Chamars of the Chhatisgarh area, the Depressed Classes of the Punjab or the Namashudras of Bengal,

India: A Million Mutinies Now.

V.S. Naipauls fascinating account of his journey around India approaches this shifting, changing land from a variety of perspectives. Through interviews with people from many different walks of life, he builds an oral history of a country constantly on the move.