Bibliographical note

"Caste in India, despite its historical resilience, has been undergoing transformation since independence. If caste as a system of rigid stratification has been on the decline, castes as autonomous interest-serving groups have
been on ascendance. This book critically engages with the changing
notions of caste and its intersection with public policy in India. It
discusses key issues such as social security, internal reservation, the
idea of Most Backward Classes, caste issues among non-Hindu religious
communities, caste in census, caste in market, and service castes and
urban planning. Drawing on in-depth case studies from states including
Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, and
West Bengal, the volume explores the cyclical process of how caste
drives policies, and how policies in turn shape the reality of caste in
India. It looks at the impact of factors like protective discrimination,
adult franchise and democratic decentralization, horizontal and vertical
mobilisation, land reforms, and religious conversion on social mobility,
and traditional hierarchy in India. Empirically rich and analytically
rigorous, this book will be an excellent reference for scholars and
researchers of public policy, public administration, sociology,
exclusion studies, social work, law, history, economics, political
science, development studies, social anthropology, and political
sociology. It will also be of interest to public policy and development
practitioners"-- Provided by publisher.