The World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held at Durban in South Africa in 2001 gave an opportunity for Dalits in India to represent the issue of caste discrimination and practice of untouchability on an international platform. With their demand that the UN should recognize caste and caste-based discrimination on par with racial discrimination, the event increased (in spite of the counter propaganda of the then Hindu rightist government in India) the international visibility of caste oppression as violation of human rights and denial of human dignity. In recent history, the flutters at the Durban conference and the resurgence of Dalits in the Indian political landscape leading to their assertion in civil society have impelled scholars, policy makers, and global organizations to take notice of their presence and also to search for their antecedents. It is against this historical backdrop of Dalit assertion and the recent culmination of events at the socio-political level in India that the present study, Dalits in India: Search for a Common Destiny by Sukhadeo Thorat, needs to be placed.

Even though there is no dearth of writings on Dalits in India ranging from the colonial census, anthropological and government reports, and missionary writings to the more recent quasi-academic scholarship by social scientists, the uniqueness of the present work lies in its ability to combine disparate information into an all-India level study. Moreover, by collating statistical data from the government records of last two decades it provides an overview of the post-Independence Indian government policy towards Dalits.

The fate of Indian democracy since Independence has been inextricably entwined with the active participation of Dalits and other oppressed groups as they engender the process of democracy by using the franchise as a weapon to fight the casteist feudal oppressive structures and also to bargain better policies for their socio-economic emancipation. The book clearly demonstrates that on one hand, more than sixty years of democratic politics in India have opened up new avenues of opportunities for Dalits to achieve better living conditions and to work against oppression and caste inequalities; on the other hand, India's institutional structures are still caught in the dominant caste Hindu feudal paradigm, which inhabits enormous contempt and abets violence against Dalits. In recent years the Dalit vote bank has proven to be a very crucial factor in shifting the balance of power and this book provides a fascinating balance sheet on the successes and failures of the interventionist role of the government in the lives of Dalits.

In a nutshell, this work is an excellent reference handbook for understanding the life of Dalits in contemporary India—their demographic concentration, their social and economic status, literacy and educational levels, and the details of atrocities and practice of untouchability across India. The research for the book was undertaken by an institute working exclusively on Dalits in India (Indian Institute of Dalit Studies), and although it did a superb job of collecting data about realities of Dalit existence in India (which is not always easily available, especially the data on caste-based atrocities and crimes), the book suffers from a few lacunae that raise concerns about its seriousness as a critical intervention and its academic validity. The book compiles data from the last few decades pertaining to the Dalit population in India but lacks in a fuller analysis of the data, especially from a historical perspective, thus failing to incorporate the narrative of Dalit struggles and the slow yet steady process of their success in influencing governmental (colonial and post-Independence) policy initiatives to protect the civil rights of Dalits and the measures for their emancipation. The graphs and charts, without corresponding analyses to situate this plethora of information and linking it with the larger historical narrative, thus overlook the Dalit agency in bringing about change through influencing policy decisions, etc. This lack risks the interventions to be interpreted by a lay reader as merely benevolent government initiatives, thereby overshadowing more than one hundred years of the history of Dalit assertion in South Asia.

The author provides a historical account about the origin and use of the term Scheduled Castes but ignores the historical conjuncture behind the more radical and empowering identity of the Dalit. There is no discussion on the potent appellative “Dalit,” beyond its use in the title of the book. The reliance on facts and figures, especially the details of numerous constitutional provisions, governmental Acts under which various initiatives are taken and implemented, also conveys the impression of representing the perspective of the state. This in turn lends the text the feel of a very sophisticated and carefully edited annual report of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes rather than a critical academic scrutiny of the role of post-independent Indian state and its policies towards Dalits.

In spite of these concerns, however, it is necessary to reiterate the importance of rich empirical data for larger theoretical formulations in the field of Dalit studies, which is still at a formative stage and looking to carve its own niche in the academic pantheon. This study will also prove useful to policy makers and global organizations with interest in South Asian history, democracy, and its people in general. The text, on a careful analysis reveals however, that in spite of what has been done, much remains undone and it acts as a lucid reminder that despite a movement forward, Dalits still suffer severe deprivations and discrimination both in civil society and with respect to the state and its institutional structures.