The Indian state of Punjab, located on the border with Pakistan in the country’s northwest, has a population of twenty-seven million, the majority of which is Sikh. In recent times, Punjab has given rise to an important movement that seeks to organize the Dalits who comprise the poorest and most downtrodden section of rural society in the state.

More than two-thirds of India’s population still lives in the countryside, and 45 percent of the workforce is employed in agriculture. A closer look at the movement in Punjab can thus shed light on some of the most important questions for Indian politics and society, such as the relationship between class and caste, the extent to which India’s neoliberal turn over the past three decades has transformed its social structures, and the potential for mobilization of oppressed and exploited groups such as Dalits.