'I don't know. It's always been like this, son. Your father knew. But we got to survive, didn't we? Can't fight the whole village!' she'd say...whenever Kalu asked her how sheand Udho coped with [the] insults.In the year 1952, Kalu escaped Banjhan Kalan in Punjab's Hoshiarpur forBedford in the British Midlands, hoping to find a life of dignity that he had beendenied because of his caste. He was in his late teens and had grown up believingin Sikhism's tenet of equality preached by Guru Nanak and Ravidas, a principlethe villagers never sincerely practised.They had maimed his father, accusing himof stealing a zamindar's ox; they had thrown father and son out of a Quit Indiarally; they had mercilessly thrashed young Kalu himself for daring to enter atemple. He had never been allowed to forget-even by his schoolmates-thathe was a Chamar, destined to skin dead cattle like his ancestors.England promised a new life of respect and opportunity. But Kalu's fellowexpatriates had brought caste along when they came to that country, and hewould be forced to adhere to its degrading rules just as he was in Banjhan.Determined not to bend-as he had refused to do back home-Kalu fights back, but his resoluteness in the struggle will put him and his family at serious risk.The Past Is Never Dead is not only the story of a rural Punjabi family's search fora better life, it is also a powerful depiction of the stranglehold of caste overSikh immigrants in Britain. But even as it exposes the horror and obstinacy ofcaste, the novel pays tribute to the courage and tenacity of the human spiritand its capacity for hope.