Abstract
The Dalits or depressed castes labour under both economic and social disablilities, facing landlessness and ‘untouchability’. The mobilisation of agricultural labour in Andhra by the Communists in the 1930s and 1940s was a significant achievement. But the failure to secure land for the landless and more conscious struggle against caste undermined the Dalit support they had earlier attained, and this may partly explain the decline of Communist influence in Andhra after the 1950s.
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