Dalit Chronicles from the Telugu Country

The colonial experience in India, confronting the pre-existing caste system, did nothing more than create a peculiar order that was neither feudal nor capitalist in its manifestation. What this deformed system did, instead, was to assimilate the privileged castes into the ruling structure, while simultaneously unleashing multiple forms of oppression on marginalised sections of the population in India. This article attempts to narrate the lesser known stories of the unacknowledged Dalits who were inspired by the Marxist ideology of class struggle and used it to mobilise agricultural labourers and manual scavengers in the Telugu country.