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