Who Were the Shudras? The Short Answer In his 1946 book Who Were the Shudras?, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar argued that the Shudras were originally an Aryan people who ranked as Kshatriyas, the warrior-ruler class. After a long conflict with Brahmins, they were denied Upanayana, the sacred-thread initiation, and pushed down to the fourth and lowest … Continue reading Who Were the Shudras? Dr. Ambedkar’s Book Explained – Summary, Chapters, Theory and Criticism