Synopsis Research on the OBCs in India is a very neglected field. This is first high quality book that presents 14 original case studies of the journey traversed by single Indian OBC communities during the 58 years of post-independence period. Each case study is analyzed by a scholar who has carried out detailed ethnographic field work, possesses incisive insight, and has written authoritatively on the nature of change registered by the selected OBC community. These case studies cover the farming, service, pastoral, fishing, artisan and other types of OBC communities and show fascinating glimpses of stagnation, retrograde change or positive progress. The book also contains such milestone documents on the OBC problematic that no single book has succeeded in presenting in a single collection so far. This is a book that is a must read for the students, teachers, researchers, policy and programme planners, and the marginalized OBCs themselves to make a reality check on the much advertised goal of empowering the OBCs.