Watch: April's Firstpost Book Club | In conversation with Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd and Omprakash Mahato

The Firstpost Book Club read The Shudras: Vision for a New Path in April.Edited by Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd and Karthik Raja Karuppusamy, The Shudras is a collection of essays that delves into the multi-layered predicaments faced by India's productive castes in the spiritual, social, economic and political spaces. The book also examines the historical and philosophical aspects of the community's collective fight against unequal upper caste structures, to reformulate its current position and carve a road towards the future.Moreover, the book aims call on the Shudra castes to resist an image of the 'national' in which they remain devoid of representation, and paints an honest portrait of the marginalised status accorded to them in all key structures of the nation.Watch Shepherd and writer Omprakash Mahato discuss the book with independent writer and filmmaker Jyoti Nisha, and elaborate on why the emancipation and progress of the productive castes are vital to sustain Ambedkar's constitutional democracy.Want to read along with us? Message us on our social media handles with #FirstpostBookClub and join the conversation. Also join our reading group on Facebook.— Editorial support and coordination by Anvisha Manral, Aishwarya Sahasrabudhe, and Aarushi Agrawal.