Ants among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India

A narrative of a father's struggle and determination to give his three children a respectable existence. Of an older son's unwavering adherance to an ideology in the honest belief that it's pursuit would bring a better world for his lot. A younger son's sense of futility at opposing an unjust social hierachy. Last but not the least, the daughter's fortitude (author's mother) in the face of gender and socio-economic inequality.It is a story of their incessant striving for a society where opportunity is not stymied by the (caste) system in which they are mired.The initial stirrings of the Telengana Peasant Revolt forms the backdrop of this remarkably honest narrative. Very well constructed by weaving family history into the then prevailing political and social landscape.Every Indian would do well to read it!

Learnt about sujatha gidlas family and their struggle and what it means to be a person from their caste. Learnt about communism and it's growth in telengana and also about the life of her uncle kg satyamurthy and people's wat group. The book potrays a deep picture of the social situation during the nizams rule ,the Andhra vs Telenganas debates origin and whole lot of information which makes you understand today's politics in retrospect.

: "My stories, my family's stories, were not stories in India. They were just life"Ants among elephants is a moving portrait of caste violence, poverty, gender imbalances & modern India. Anything I say about this book would be a gross understatement. It's brutally honest, and often horrifying on account of what many Indian lives look like.A must read for anyone who wishes to understand the society we live in.

A very well written memoir by Sujatha Gidla about an Untouchable family living in Andhra/Telangana during the years approaching independence and after. Telling us about about the founders of communist party of India, communist revolution, lives of its members and influence and struggle it had on their families. i am sure many of the horrific incidents and unjust sufferings were experienced by large number of people in todays and that times India. This book collectively speaks for those families too at times. Must read.

Must read to know the perspective from Dalit POV...You can't put down the book as it is Racy and witty. Written without any sentimentality and analysed the life and times of Dalits in contemporary India from subaltern perspective.