In 1936 B. R. Ambedkar wrote a speech for a Hindu reform group in Lahore. When he would not cut his attack on the scriptures, the group cancelled its conference, so he printed the speech himself. It argues that caste can end only when people stop believing the scriptures that make it sacred.
Explains: B. R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste: speech prepared for the 1936 annual conference of the Jat-Pat-Todak Mandal, Lahore, published by the author, 1936; second edition with Gandhi's reviews and Ambedkar's reply, 1937; third edition, 1944. Online annotated edition by Frances W. Pritchett, Columbia University
This 2009 book, edited by Gopal Guru, brings together twelve essays by eleven scholars that treat humiliation as a subject of political theory in its own right. Its central argument is that humiliation is a claim made by people who have come to expect respect, and that untouchability is its Indian form.
Explains: Gopal Guru (ed.), Humiliation: Claims and Context. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-19-806030-7
Anupama Rao's 2009 history follows the Mahar Dalits of western India from the 1880s to the 1990s. It argues that Dalits turned the stigma of untouchability into a political identity, and that the laws meant to protect them also cast them as permanently vulnerable.
Explains: Anupama Rao, The Caste Question: Dalits and the Politics of Modern India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-520-25761-0 (paperback)