During the 1920s and 1930s, Ram Charana, of the Mallah caste and a resident of Lucknow, led the campaign for his caste to secure a place in the plans for constitutional and electoral reform being drawn up by the colonial authorities. His objective was to ensure the inclusion of the caste within the administrative category of the Depressed Classes and subsequently as a Scheduled Caste even though it was labelled and stigmatised as a caste defined primarily by its criminality. Ram Charana was appointed to the United Provinces Legislative Council as the sole nominee to represent the Depressed Class population, and he participated in all of the investigations of the time into constitutional reform. Although he personally achieved a leading role in the reform proceedings, he was unable to secure any recognition for the Mallah. This article examines the criminalisation of the Mallah particularly in the light of police sources not consulted previously. It describes Ram Charana’s role and analyses the reasons for his failure, despite his personal prominence and official promotion, to gain a more advantageous position for the Mallah.

中文翻译：

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联合省的马拉和拉姆查拉纳

在 1920 年代和 1930 年代，马拉种姓和勒克瑙居民拉姆查拉纳领导了他的种姓运动，以确保在殖民当局制定的宪法和选举改革计划中占有一席之地。他的目标是确保将种姓纳入抑郁阶级的行政类别，并随后将其列为预定种姓，即使它被贴上标签并被污名化为主要由其犯罪行为定义的种姓。Ram Charana 被任命为联合省立法委员会成员，作为代表抑郁阶级人口的唯一候选人，他参与了当时所有关于宪法改革的调查。虽然他个人在改革进程中取得了领导作用，但他无法获得对马拉的任何认可。本文根据之前未咨询过的警方消息来源，研究了对马拉的刑事定罪。它描述了 Ram Charana 的角色，并分析了他未能为马拉获得更有利地位的原因，尽管他的个人声望和官方晋升。