Nearly 16% of India's population - or over 100 million people - are untouchables. Most of them, despite decades of government efforts to improve their economic and social position, remain desperately poor, illiterate, subject to brutal discrimination and economic exploitation, and with no prospect for improvement of their condition.

Part 1. Muli: An Indian Untouchable 1. Introducing Muli 2. Collecting Muli's Life History 3. The Setting of Muli's Life History Part 2. Youth and Hopes 4. Muli's Childhood, 1932-44 5. Bauris 'Lift Up Their Faces', 1947-8 6. A Guru for the Bauris, 1948 7. Koki's Abortion, 1948 8. 'I Like You Sixteen Annas' Worth', 1948 9. Grandmother Dungi's Death, 1948 10. Koki's Marriage, 1948-9 11. Doctor Babu, 1949 12. Dash Babu's 'Hot Disease', 1949 Part 3. The Reluctant Householder 13. Muli's Inauspicious Marriage, 1950-2 14. Travelling with Lakhi the Prostitute, 1953 15. Kia Possessed, 1953-6 16. Grandfather Dharma, 1956-7 17. The White Bullocks, 1957 18. Starvation and Family Quarrels, 1957-8 19. Brother Anadi, 1950-60 20. Kia's Illness, 1960 21. Marrying and Divorcing a Tree Trunk, 1961 Part 4. Bad Times 22. A Successful Business Venture, 1962 23. Muli's Other Wife, 1962 24. Living with Two Wives, 1962-3 25. 'We Sit Under People's Feet', 1965-9 26. Transvestites and Prostitutes, 1969-72 27. Kia's Attempted Suicide, 1971-2 28. 'The Taker of Discarded Rinds', 1970-1 29. Harvest Tragedy, 1971-2 Part 5. Interpretations 30. Analysis of Muli's Life History 31. Conclusions