Largest and lowest of the four castes of Hinduism, the Sudra (or Shudra) people are the menial labor class, roughly equivalent to the peasants of medieval Europe.  Mostly illiterate and living in constant fear of starvation, the Sudra of India are more populous than the entire United States.  Locked into a generational cycle of ignorance and illiteracy, reproduction and manual labor, a Sudra child is unlikely to ever learn how to read and write his native language of Telugu, let alone Hindi or English.  While about 20% of the Sudra rise to economic stability and even power, the vast majority live in poverty or extreme poverty, with rural families struggling to find enough day labor jobs across the country to feed themselves.  Most Christans in India are Sudra, as is the Bontha family.