Mahatma Gandhi’s Campaign against Untouchability in Karnataka

Academician’s opinion about the book

                             

Dr. G.A. Biradar's book is a timely and most important intervention into debates about the history of the social reform of caste, and of untouchablity. The book focuses on the little known episode of untouchability reform during the anticolonial period in the Karnataka region, an area with a long history of anti-caste protest dating back to Basavanna. Dr. Biradar deftly draws on previously unknown archival materials to shed new light on the development of the anti-untouchability movement in Karnataka, and reveals Gandhi's signal role in the development of the movement in this region. The book thus brings an understudied region within the purview of Gandhian politics, caste history, and the history of anticolonialism more broadly.

Arvind Rajagopal

Professor of Sociology

New York University.

Dear Dr. G.A. Biradar,

 Mahatma Gandhi’s Campaign against Untouchability in Karnataka, which I read with great interest. This is one of the most comprehensive accounts I have read of an important, but understudied, phase of Gandhi’s career. You have done future scholars a service by putting together this record in an engaging and persuasive narrative. I feel I have learned a great deal from the book. The book is clearly a labour of love; and I congratulate you on its successful completion. I look forward to reading more of your work.

Mrinalini Sinha

Alice Freeman Palmer Professor of History

University of Michigan.