India, March 26 -- In the summer of 1924, Dr BR Ambedkar received an unusual request. A young man in his 20s, RB More, approached the scholar recently returning from the United States to preside over a conference in Mahad in coastal Maharashtra. A busy market town, Mahad was at the crossroads of regional trade in British India and often frequented by merchants and labourers from across India. Yet, business was conducted using the rigid rules of caste, for instance, Dalit artisans and businessmen were often denied water from the local facility, and even places to sit. Members of the Mahar community, to which More and Ambedkar belonged, opened a tea shop because upper-caste shopkeepers refused to serve them.

Dr Ambedkar was intrigued. The ...