Preface to the Third Edition [1944]

[1:] The Second Edition of this Essay appeared in 1937, and was exhausted within a very short period. A new edition has been in demand for a long time. It was my intention to recast the essay so as to incorporate into it another essay of mine called "Castes in India, their Origin and their Mechanism," which appeared in the issue of the Indian Antiquary Journal for May 1917. But as I could not find time, and as there is very little prospect of my being able to do so, and as the demand for it from the public is very insistent, I am content to let this be a mere reprint of the Second Edition.

[2:] I am glad to find that this essay has become so popular, and I hope that it will serve the purpose for which it was intended.

B. R. AMBEDKAR
22, Prithwiraj Road
New Delhi
1st December 1944