Contents: Introduction. 1. Institution of caste : origin and growth. 2. The Buddhism : towards social transformation. 3. Social transformation : impact of Bhakti movement. 4. The untouchables and Shudras in medieval India. 5. Sikh religion and Bhakti cult : impact on removal of casteism. 6. Sufism : influence on low castes. Index.
"The present comprehensive and systematic study 'Dalits in Ancient and Medieval India' is intended mainly to trace and focus on the plight and suppression of the untouchables and the degraded Shudras covering a period of 3000 years.
From Vedic to the beginning of the Buddhist era the defeated race of non-Aryans, ignored and suppressed, with degraded nomenclatures lived as slaves, serfs and servile class. The emergence of the Buddhism was certainly an era of social transformation when the untouchables, the Shudras, the womenfolk, the fallen men and women got equal treatment in the society. The Buddha himself initiated many Shudra-Dalits in his order who during Vedic period were denied civil rights, right to education and knowledge and treated worst than animals.
The Arab races and Mughals did nothing for the uplift of the Shudras and the Untouchables and even encouraged conversions. It was the Bhakti cult, Sikhism and Sufism, which greatly influenced the untouchables and the castes of low origin to rise in revolt against social odds and oppressive features of the dominating society.
It is hoped this historical study will be helpful in understanding, the plight, suppression and miseries of the Dalits in India of that period." (jacket)