Joothan: An Untouchable's Life Book

The untouchables constitute about sixteen percent of India´s population. Because untouchability was legally abolished when independent India adopted a constitution in 1949, today these people are routinely called "erstwhile untouchables" or "ex-untouchables" but they prefer to call themselves "Dalits." Sympathetic upper caste people and anthropologists, historians, and novelists (e.g., Arundhati Roy´s character Velutha in The God of Small Things) have written about Dalits, but at last they are beginning to tell their own story. Although they continue to face bias and hardship, they are playing a decisive role in shaping India today. Valmiki tells a riveting story of growing up in a village in the newly independent India. It is a story of survival, of oppression as grievous as slavery or apartheid, and of victory as well, as the author manages to get an education and ultimately learns to embrace his identity and become a spokesman for his community.