MALA
The Malas are a large geographically dispersed community found in Andhra Pradesh.. They are technically "scheduled castes" but in reality they are a key part of the rural scene, being agricultural workersand village watchmen . The upper crust of the Malas in cities are taking to education in a big way and rapidly modernizing
Overall, the Malas are still very poor labourers, but many have taken to education and have joined the middle class. The number of educated professional people with a Mala background, like doctors, engineers is rising steadily. There are many in government service. Long time Mala politicians are quite rich, of course. There are very few Mala industrialists.

History
Accurate history of the Malas in Andhra is not well known or thoroughly researched as yet. The Malas seem to hail primarily from the drier upland areas like the Deccan plateau. According to researchers like Ambedkar, the malas and similar communities were actually warriors of some defeated kingdom: they were pushed down in social status. Another story is that the terrible 12 years' drought and famine of 1396 obliged the people to eat anything to survive: some ate dead cattle, and this was noted by other people and they were then pushed down in the social scale from kshatriyas (soldiers) to untouchables.
The community is found all over the Deccan : while some say they were Buddhists and persisted in retaining Buddhism after it had sort of faded away, and were punished by the others who turned to new ideas or brahmanic notions. Some say exactly the opposite, that they were penalised by the turki sultans for stubbornly retaining their old ('hindu' ) ways. (could be true----the malas may have been among the soldiers of the Seunas of Devagiri) Another opinion is that the malas are not a single community but an amalgamation of several communities, common thread being those excluded from land ownership and status. A large proportion is said to be derived from the various immigrant nomads like Sakas -Ahirs -Gurjars . Now these people were also hierarchical : the uppercrust became rajas and rajputs while the humble horseman or shepherd nomad slowly became absorbed in the mahar or similar group.

Today
They are very tough and capable of sustained physical work which few communities can match. Perhaps thats why they have a good sense of humour and are cheerful. By the way Andhra area was renowned for wrestlers and wrestling, locally called Malla yuddha. At the same time they are said to be always thinking about some shortcut scheme or the other, somewhat lazy . They are very much attached to their community-caste.