For the first time, Dalits are writing about their lives themselves. They have long been written about by others, anthropologists, historians and novelists. 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. 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. As he states bleakly, 'Dalit life is excruciatingly painful, charred by experiences only he or she who has suffered this anguish knows its sting.''Joothan' refers to the scraps left on plates that are given to Dalits to eat. In some ways it is a symbol of the demeaning existence imposed on the Dalits. 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.' About The Author: Omprakash Valmiki, a poet and a literary critic, is an established name in Hindi literature. He works at the Ordinance Factory, Dehradun.Arun Prabha Mukherjee is Assistant Professor, Department of English, York University, Toronto. She is a well-known scholar of postcolonial studies and also a literary critic.
