A Journey from Ambedkar to Mayawati

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While the Indian Constitution has duly made special provisions for the social and economic uplift of the Dalits, comprising the so-called scheduled castes and tribes in order to enable them to achieve upward social mobility, these concessions are limited to only those Dalits who remain Hindu.
Another political issue is over the affirmative-action measures taken by the government towards the upliftment of Dalits through quotas in government jobs and university admissions. About 8% of the seats in the National and State Parliaments are reserved for Scheduled Caste and Tribe candidates, a measure sought by B. R. Ambedkar who did not even deter from engaging in a vitriolic polemic and conflict with a personality like Gandhi in order to secure an independent identity and place for Dalits in the Indian political landscape, and other Dalit activists in order to ensure that Dalits would obtain a proportionate political voice,
In 2008, Mayawati, a Dalit from the Bahujan Samaj Party, was elected as the Chief Minister of India's biggest state Uttar Pradesh. Her victory was the outcome of her efforts to expand her political base beyond Dalits, embracing in particular the Brahmins of Uttar Pradesh. Mayawati. together with her political mentor Kanshi Ram, saw that the interests of the average Dalit were more in conflict with the middle castes such as the Yadav caste, who owned most of the agricultural land in Uttar Pradesh, than with the predominantly city-dwelling upper castes.
This book is trying to look into the length and breadth of journey of Dalit progress. leadership it got and how it is achieving heights.

Dr Gunraj Prasad, Principal of KNIPSS, Sultanpur, a prolific writer, has teaching experience of more than thirty eight years in the field of Mathematics at undergraduate and post graduate levels. He achieved his Bachelor to Doctoral degree from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. His main area of research is Relativistic Magnetohydro-dynamics. He has authored ten books on different areas of Mathematics and one monograph on Relativistic Hydrodynamics from different International level publications. He has also published twenty seven research papers in prestigious National and International Journals. Currently he is working on dalit sahitya. This book is an outcome of his workouts in dalit sahitya.
Dr. Preeti Singh, has received her Bachelor Degree in Arts specialized in Political Science in year 2000 and further Masters Degree in Political Science in year 2002 from Bundelkhand University, Jhansi. Later on she got her M. Phill. Degree in year 2003 from Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra. She achieved her doctoral degree in year 2006 and from then onwards she is Associate professor in Government Degree College, Gonda, Aligarh. She has given many seminars at national level. She is a prolific writer and orator. Till now she has written four books on different areas of Political Science, Public Administration, Women Studies and Dalit Sahitya.

"A Journey from Ambedkar to Mayawati" by Dr. G. Prasad and Dr. Preeti Singh is a great tribute to Dalit movement in India. Both the authors have dealt with this long neglected issue in a chronological manner. In introductory chapter they talk of an alternative social movement which has become a phenomenon in the modern era. They have traced the modern history of anti-caste movement which grew under the inspiration of Mahatma Jyotiba Phule in 19th century and development in 1920s as non-Brahman movement in Maharastra and Tamilnadu under the leader ship of Baba Saheb Ambedkar. Author have rightly pointed out that the Dalit movement during post- independent India has been reformist which was mobilised along caste line but could not destroy caste system.
In second chapter "Jyotiba Phule and Social Reform" author have analysed the role of Mahatma Phule in entitling anti-Brahmanic movement for the liberation of those who suffered under wretched caste system, specially the Dalits.

Dalits, or ex 'Untouchables', comprising one-sixth of India's population, a majority of whom still live at the bottom of the social hierarchy called caste system live a precarious existence. The plight of this section - which is routinely discriminated against and subjected to overt- covert violence of many forms - has of late been much discussed in the international fora as well.
There is no denying the fact that despite half-a-century of constitutional measures - which has helped a minority among it benefit from the affirmative action programmes and has helped emergence of a more vocal and assertive section among it - the system of exclusion in the form of untouchability continues in myriad ways and forms. Dalits till date are denied entry into temples or served tea in different glasses in hotels and restaurants or are not allowed to draw water from government wells which are situated in dominant caste areas or dalit women are driven to prostitution thru' religious customs like Devadasi or are forced to do menial and polluting jobs like scavenging. And it is a sign of the longevity of this system that despite many a superficial changes due to the compulsions of modernity it has maintained the core of purity and pollution intact. Of late one is witness to the growing awareness about the plight of this section of society.