This article argues that the politics of lower castes and their struggles for social equality and political representation cannot be effectively subsumed under a homogenous non-Brahmin category. Contesting the argument that the mobilisation of the lower castes/non-Brahmins in southern India was organised around the ideology of Dravidianism, this research examines what is today called Dalit activism in the Telugu country, related to the ideology of Adi-Dravida/Adi-Hindu. It also identifies discrimination of Dalits as well as between Dalits, in times before Gandhi and Ambedkar appeared on the scene.
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