The volume covers a wide range of issues pertaining to social exclusion and inclusion. It examines the way the politics of exclusion and inclusion work in India. Focused on the states of the East and North-east India, scholars deal with marginalisation of ethnic groups, politics of ignorance and protest movement politics, Indian writing in English and exclusion of Dalit literature from the curriculum of most universities. Referring to literary works and quoting from different sources like scholarly works and newspaper reports, they discuss slums and urban poverty, cult of the serpent goddess Manasa, and economic growth and the question of inclusive soil development. The volume includes case studies as on social exclusion in the Dooars and the exclusion of the Balmiki community in the Darjeeling Hills.