Shashi Bhushan Upadhyay is Professor of History at IGNOU. His research interests are mainly in the fields of intellectual history, historiography, labour history, literary history and nationalist movement. His publications include Historiography in the Modern World: Western and Indian Perspectives (2016), Existence, Identity and Mobilization: The Cotton Millworkers of Bombay, 1890-1919 (2004), two co-edited volumes, Dalit Assertion in Society, Literature and History (2010) and School Education, Pluralism and Marginality: Comparative Perspectives (2012), and about 25 articles and book chapters on labour, Dalits, Premchand, and Gandhi.

Introduction Part I: Caste and Varna 1. Intractable Caste and Benign Varna 2. No Caste and Reconstructed Varna Part II: Confronting Untouchability 3. Chronological Narrative- I 4. Chronological Narrative- II 5. Thematic Narratives: I 6. Thematic Narratives: II Part III: Understanding Gandhi 7. Did Gandhi have a Strategy?. Gandhi and the Caste Question: By Way of Conclusion.