Who Were the Shudras? 1946 book by Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar on the history of the Shudra (lowest) Varna of the Indian caste system. The book is dedicated to Jyotirao Phule and seeks to dispel the idea that in India, Shudras are an untouchable caste. Ambedkar references Indian texts such as The Vedas and Mahabharata, among others, to suggest that the Shudras were really Aryan rulers who were demoted to a lower caste after a protracted struggle with the Brahmans. Ambedkar also analyses the Aryan race theory and disagrees with the widely accepted Indo-Aryan migration narrative in the history of the race. The book debunks beliefs and ideas and aims to foster compassion for a caste in India that is misunderstood and mistreated.

Vedic literature has the same word for both man and God--purusha. The Vedic seers ritually sacrifice Purusha, the God, thereby also killing purusha, the spiritual-cultural man. This births the 'caste-man', who is not man at all. The caste-man is either higher or lower. A handful are superhuman: gods, priests, Brahmans. And the masses are subhuman: the Shudra. In The Shudra, Jalalul Haq conducts a philosophical autopsy of ancient Indian texts, meticulously reading between the lines to uncover the early history of caste. He shows how inequality pervaded Buddhism, Jainism and other heterodox sects, even as they tried to counter the hegemony of Brahmanism. In this clash of gods and demons, Haq attempts to extract the human.

Peoples who think that “it is better for their life to give punishment to the peoples who r born in the ‘SHUDRA’ religious “. Who r these peoples that believe in a such foolish thing. Now it is foolish for us because we can understand but then it is very serious issue happening around india . It’s happening till now but better than previous situation.

Who were they and why they became UNTOUCHABLES ? This is the digital copy of "THE UNTOUCHABLES". a book wrote by The great Dr B.R. Ambedkar. Please give us your feedback : www.facebook.com/syag21 Your opinion is very important to us. We appreciate your feedback and will use it to evaluate changes and make improvements in our book.

The Shudras echoes Dr Ambedkar's question in Who Were the Shudras? that he asked in 1946. More than 70 years later, Kancha Ilaiah and his team of authors revisit this issue to give Shudras a voice again' -CHRISTOPHE JAFFRELOT The Shudras: Vision for a New Path weaves together multiple dimensions of the predicament of India's productive castes-in the spiritual, social, political, economic, philosophical and historical spheres. It reformulates their current position as well as future pathways. It strives to provoke Shudras-including regional political party leaders-all over India to realize their unique historical role in fighting unequal caste structures. And it gives a call to resist Hindutva, in which they have no liberated, equal space with the Dwija castes. At a juncture when the Shudra castes are regionalized and the Dwijas have become 'national', the fifth volume of the Rethinking India series, in collaboration with the Samruddha Bharat Foundation, seeks to bring home the real picture of their marginalized status in all key structures of the nation. It posits that the emancipation and progress of the Shudras are vital to sustain Ambedkar's constitutional democracy and move towards socio-spiritual equality.

Memoirs and lectures of the author, Collector of Customs and Central Excise, Calcutta and Chairman of the first Tamil Nadu Backward Classes Commission.