The British government, from 1916 onwards, deployed the bureaucratic term Depressed Classes (used first in the volumes of the Bombay Gazetteer in 1877), which was replaced by Scheduled Castes in 1935 by the Government of India Act—a term that continues to be used in official parlance till date.

Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The …, loc. 803