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Synopsis Prof. Sabyasachi Bhattacharya is a leading historian of Modern Indian Economic History. Apart from his monumental contribution to the historical research, he has guided a generation of scholars. In his life time, he has become an institution. This volume has been composed by the collective efforts some of his former students as a mark of respect for him. The contributors narrate the historical experiences of the oppressed groups or classes in society, that is, the peasants, tenants, industrial labourers, dalit, tribals, non-Brahaman communities, low caste women, temple dancing girls or regional groups; a theme to which Prof. S. Bhattacharya returned time and again. Rather than being tied down with the meta-narratives of history, there is an attempt to grasp the micro-level realities of society. These studies open new vistas of social enquiry into various historical issues. They represent only fragments of the researches conducted by the contributors. Al these narratives assembled here relate in their unique way how contradictions enveloping specific social institutions in the process of unfolding themselves through tensions, protests and conflicts eventually result in reshaping these institutions.