Introduction to work

Introduction

The study is intended to examine the implications of caste system which continues to survive as a significant aspect of our society over the centuries.  In Indian politics caste plays a vital role as the political behavior of the masses is often influenced by caste consideration.  In India, the British India period was indeed the darkest phase but, it was also the period when reformers dawned on the scene and gave a new sense of direction to society. These reformers gave India a new thought process and helped it re-discover its soul. No country could boast of such a wide array of reformers like India.These social reformers instilled a sense of pride in things Indian and helped in India stand up to the British supremacists. They also strove to rid Indian society of the evils and outmoded practices. Many of them kept aloof from politics and struggle against the British. But, they helped the cause of freedom in an indirect manner. Leaders and reformers like Mahatma Joti Rao Phule, Sahu Maharaj  E.V.Ramsami Naicker, Narayana Guru, B.R.Ambedkar  have left their historical mark in the fight for an equal society and  self-respect.

India has been identified with thousands of such Backward Castes mostly found in the middle and lower rungs of caste hierarchy but above the SCs and STs. In every village there used to be ‘community feeling’ for a long and every BC/SC is involved in one or the other ‘productive operation or exclusive service’ to society and everyone needs such service to maintain their life. The nature of deprivation in respect of broadly signified caste disabilities they suffered over centuries. Caste disabilities could broadly be in the nature of social discrimination, economic exploitation and political marginalization. 

      The term backward class was first used in the 1870s by the Madras administration in 

the framework of an affirmative action policy favoring under-educated The colonial sense undereducated means not from the historical marginalization, deprivation, and exclusion from the basic rights such as education, property and power, but it was to serve the needs of the colonial administration in the light of education system which was advocated by Lord Macaulay.