Though analogous institutions like caste can be traced in various parts of the world, the caste system that developed in India is particularly an Indian product.
The caste system on which the traditional order of Hindu society is based attached particular importance to the all-pervasive rules of endogamy and commensality.
There have been religious and social reform movements to fight against the ascriptive system, but the integrative processes set in motion by our social reformers and lower caste people themselves through the Sanskritization process were set at naught by the Britishers themselves by pursuing a policy of dividing the Hindus on the basis of caste.
The term 'Scheduled Castes' was first time introduced in the Government of India Act, 1935 to mean such castes, races, or tribes which correspond to the classes of persons formerly know as the 'Depressed Classes'. The Indian Franchise (Lothian) committee, specially constituted in 1931 for the purpose of defining the depressed classes and estimating their number.
Independent India saw a different trend and attitude in the 'scheduling' of castes. Shorn of the stigma to which the former Depressed Classes were subjected to, there were persistent demands led to the inclusion of a large number of castes in the schedules. The higher mobility within the castes witnessed in the first four decades of this century was irrevocably reversed.
Attempts have been made in this study to present an over-all profile of the Scheduled Castes from different dimensions. Facts and figures and their interpretations reveal the policy of perpetuating segregation of a sizeable section of Indian population solely on the basis of caste through decades, for obvious reasons. This analytical study will serve as a base-line for further microlevel investigations.
S. K. Chatterjee has recently retired from the Indian Police Service. An anthropologist by training and inclination, he kept himself in touch with the burning social issues. During his career he had occasion to deal with highly sensitive problems corroding the integrity of the country. He has been consistently engaged in an indepth study that included both historical and constitutional facts and documents with a view to finding out the causes and remedies. He has authored a number of books under the pen-name of Anirban Kashyap.
While doing the research work for my books "Communal-ism and Constitution" and "Disintegration and Constitu-tion", I stumbled upon the fact that as the process of constitution-making advanced, the Constituent Assembly decided to do away with the original scheme of providing safeguards to the minority communities because that would have perpetuated the communal divide. It, however, provided safeguards for the Scheduled Castes because their representatives had not only specifically asked for the same but also persistently demanded for their categorisation as a separate political economic and social minority. The debates in the Constituent Assembly and the compulsions of the Framers to provide safeguards for 'a section of Hindu community known as Scheduled Castes' prompted me to undertake an indepth study of the Scheduled Castes in all its facets. I knew it was a vast and complex subject and would require a lot of painstaking research. When I took up this project in 1992 my plan was to write a single book on this subject. As the study progressed I found that the subject was so enormous and engrossing that it would be difficult to do justice to it within the confine of a single book. So I planned to spread it to four volumes-all self-contained, yet continuum of the same subject.
To understand the emergence of the 'Scheduled Castes' in its proper perspective, it is imperative to have a lirsthand knowledge about the caste system that developed in India through the ages and its relevance in the Indian context as also the role of the Britishers in caste matters. The first volume is, therefore, devoted to the study of the origin and growth of the caste system upto the British period, because the Scheduled Castes emerged as a separate entity in our body politic only towards the fag end of the British rule. The second volume discusses the framing of the constitutional provisions relating to the Scheduled Castes.
The third volume deals with the genesis, growth and demographic pattern of the Scheduled Castes.
The fourth volume deals with the tables related to the scheduled castes of India.
I am highly thankful to those who assisted me in completing this project, though it is not possible here to mention all of them.
In the first place, I am extremely greatful to Dr. A.K. Das and Sri S.K. Das Sharma. Frankly speaking. I would not able to repay their debt throughout my life. The way they helped me is beyond description. Despite his multifarious activities, as it is usual with a renowned Anthropologist and presently a Member of the West Ben-gal Backward Classes Commission, Dr. Das went out of his way in discussing all the chapters with me in great details and guiding me in every conceivable way. Sri S.K. Das Sharma, in spite of his old age and busy schedule, scrutinised the manuscript very minutely and offered his valuable suggestions for improvement.
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