Surveyors and Scholars

The questions, posed in this book are: How do caste backgrounds influence, in contemporary India, the distribution of income, wealth, and secular status (toge­ther called socio-economic status or ‘class’)? How important are caste back­grounds for political involvement? Have the statutory hostility to untouchability, and the package of reverse discrimination in favour of the ex-untouchables, made a dent in their traditional disabilities in relation to occupations (and therefore in­come and wealth) and to political parti­cipation?