![]() Valmiki's story is one of terrible grief and oppression of survival and achievement of his emergence as a freer human being in a society that remains compassionless towards Dalits. Omprakash Valmiki describes his life as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the 1950s. In some ways it is a symbol of the demeaning existence imposed on the Dalits. Joothan refers to the scraps left on plates that are then given to Dalits to eat. As he states bleakly Dalit life is excruciatingly painful charred by experiences only he or she who has suffered this anguish knows its sting. ![]() Translated into English for the first time from the original Hindi Omprakash Valmiki's autobiography talks of growing up in a village near Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh in an untouchable caste Chuhra well before the defiant term Dalit was coined. In fighting against the gross and tremendous injustice that has been their heritage for centuries Dalit writers give voice to their aspirations for achieving equality. They have long been written about by others by anthropologists historians and novelists. ![]() For the first time Dalits are writing about their lives themselves. ![]()
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