Joothan

Joothan literally means leftovers. These leftovers are given to the Dalits as food, an obnoxious custom, symbolic of the inhuman injustices imposed on the Dalits. An autobiographical account, Valmiki is born into an untouchable caste, Chuhra. Grows up in a village near Muzaffarnagar, in Uttar Pradesh. Lucid writing, which forcefully conveys the author's feelings on suffering the gross humiliation of a Dalit existence. Scholarly introduction by Mukherjee, describing Dalit society, literature and literary theory.