Gandhi and the Caste Question in Colonial India

This book comprehensively surveys and critically analyses Gandhi's ideas on caste and untouchability. It emphasizes the fact that Gandhi was a considerable thinker who had seminal ideas on the caste question. As an intellectual history, this book is not just a study of his ideas but also of what he practised. It narrates his lifelong struggle against untouchability since his South African days and focuses on his distinctive understanding of the caste question which differed sharply from that of his contemporaries both on the right and the left.

The book also critically analyses and questions the attribution of strategy to Gandhi with regard to both the nationalist and anti-untouchability movements. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of history, caste and discrimination studies, and South Asian studies.