COMMUNICATION 53 land, wages and social honour, fighting under the leadership of almost every conceivable kind and using almost every conceivable means of struggle, from the murder of class enemies to court battles. At the same time, another crucial fact about this emerging class of the rural poor must be noted. Whereas at the time of independence Dalits constituted the core and often the overwhelming majority of agricultural labourers (as opposed to poor peasants, and tenants), increasingly caste Hindus have joined their ranks and now normally constitute the majority. This fact lays a basis for class unity across caste lines among the rural poor. but this unity is not created automatically and there are many barriers which prevent it from being achieved. A crucial fact about the ways in which the landlord-rich farmer elements have sought to repress the uprising of the rural poor has been the use of caste divisions among them. In many cases, too many, caste Hindu poor peasants and labourers have either been uninvolved in the struggles, have stood aside, or have even actively participated in repression. So this repression is characterized as "atrocities against Harijans". Marathwada saw a ghastly new event only because it represented a mass explosion, and did not lay bare the dividing line of caste among the exploited. Caste Division But this "caste division" or "caste form" of class struggle cannot simply be dismissed as insignificant. For there are in fac significant differences among "agricultural labourers". They do not constitute an economically, let alone ideologically, unified class. Such differences are many, but for simplicity I shall focus only on those between caste Hindus and Dalits. (There are of course also differences among caste Hindus, and amon^ different Dalit castes). The ways in which caste Hindu agricultural labourers differ from Dalits include the following: 1) Caste Hindu labourers are more likely to have small bits of land and almost certainly to have lost their land more recently* 2) Caste Hindu labourers generall y get more skilled work and more days of work than Dalit labourers and are more likely to be hired by month or year on contract. One reason frequently given for this is that rich farmers see them as "peasants" who possess the skills needed for the land; Dalits traditionally performed less skilled labourer labour indirectly productive. 3) There are still some types of field work which Dalits are