In a sensitive and compelling account of the lives of those at the very bottom of Indian society Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany explore the construction of the Untouchables as a social and political category the historical background which led to such a definition and their position in India today. The authors argue that despite efforts to ameliorate their condition on the part of the state a considerable edifice of discrimination persists on the basis of a tradition of ritual subordination. Even now therefore it still makes sense to categorise these people as 'Untouchables'. The book promises to make a major contribution to the social and economic debates on poverty while its wide-ranging perspectives will ensure an interdisciplinary readership from historians of South Asia to students of politics economics religion and sociology. Language: English