Caste is one of the most important, yet neglected, works of political writing from India. Written in 1936, it is an audacious denunciation of Hinduism and its caste system. Ambedkar - a figure like W.E.B. Du Bois - offers a scholarly critique of Hindu scriptures, scriptures that sanction a rigidly hierarchical and iniquitous social system. The world's best-known Hindu, Mahatma Gandhi, responded publicly to the provocation.