The text of this complete online book has been taken from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar: Writings and Speeches, Vol. 8 (Bombay: Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1990). The work was first published by Thacker and Co., Bombay, December 1940. Second edition: February 1945. Third edition: 1946. The Government of Maharashtra's text is that of the third edition.

This online edition has been edited for research use by most readers (apart from some academic specialists, who will of course want to consult the various original print versions). Here is a description of the editing:

= Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
= All the errors in the book's list of "Errata" have been corrected in the text.
= A few omissions of section numbers, or misnumberings of sections, have been corrected.
= Nothing whatsoever has been omitted from the original text.
= All paragraph breaks are those of the original text.
= In a few cases, punctuation has been adjusted for clarity.
= All editorial annotations by FWP have been enclosed in square brackets.
= All embedded quotations that are not Dr. Ambedkar's own words are in 10-point type.
= Such embedded quotations have been reproduced exactly as in the printed text.

Needless to say, Dr. Ambedkar's opinions about many matters discussed in the text were then, and are now, controversial. In addition, some of the historical accounts on which he relied for factual information have now been rendered obsolete by later, and better-grounded, research. (For example, Chapter IV would surely have been quite different if Dr. Ambedkar had had access to more complex studies like that of Romila Thapar on Mahmud Ghaznavi, or Richard Eaton on temple destruction.)

That being said, it's a unique and fascinating work, and well deserves the new readers it will now be able to find.

-- Fran Pritchett
Columbia University