Get Free Shipping on orders over $0
Joothan : An Untouchable's Life - Omprakash Valmiki

Joothan

An Untouchable's Life

By: Omprakash Valmiki, Arun Prabha Mukherjee

Hardcover | 10 July 2003 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Hardcover


RRP $165.95

$124.99

25%OFF

or 4 interest-free payments of $31.25 with

 or 

This title is not currently in stock at the Booktopia Warehouse and needs to be ordered from our supplier.

Omprakash Valmiki describes his life as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the 1950s. "Joothan" refers to scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or animals. India's untouchables have been forced to accept and eat joothan for centuries, and the word encapsulates the pain, humiliation, and poverty of a community forced to live at the bottom of India's social pyramid.

Although untouchability was abolished in 1949, Dalits continued to face discrimination, economic deprivation, violence, and ridicule. Valmiki shares his heroic struggle to survive a preordained life of perpetual physical and mental persecution and his transformation into a speaking subject under the influence of the great Dalit political leader, B. R. Ambedkar. A document of the long-silenced and long-denied sufferings of the Dalits, Joothan is a major contribution to the archives of Dalit history and a manifesto for the revolutionary transformation of society and human consciousness.

Industry Reviews
As an editor and writer, Valmiki has done much to stake out a space for Dalit literary expression, well exemplified by this narrative. Fascinating cultural and personal history. Booklist Mukherjee offers English-language readers an accessible translation of Valmiki's engaging memoir that will prove invaluable. -- Maggie Ronkin The Journal of Asian Studies A "must read" for courses in postcolonial, cultural, and South Asian studies. -- Mohd. Asaduddin H-Asia

More in Biographies

The Mushroom Tapes : Conversations on a Triple Murder Trial - Helen Garner
Bread of Angels - Patti Smith

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF
Oscar Piastri : The Rapid Rise Of An F1 Star - Andrew van Leeuwen

RRP $36.99

$29.99

19%
OFF
I'm Not Mad (Anymore) : How not to lose it - Bron Lewis

RRP $36.99

$26.99

27%
OFF
Careless People : A story of where I used to work - Sarah Wynn-Williams

RRP $24.99

$21.75

13%
OFF
A Fortunate Life : The Australian Classic - A B Facey

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF
Where It All Went Wrong : The case against John Howard - Amy Remeikis
Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! : My Memoir - Liza Minnelli

RRP $55.00

$39.99

27%
OFF
Rasputin : And the Downfall of the Romanovs - Antony Beevor

RRP $55.00

$46.99

15%
OFF
Wes Anderson : The Iconic Filmmaker and his Work - Ian Nathan

RRP $59.99

$43.99

27%
OFF
Streetwise : Getting To and Through Goldman Sachs - Lloyd Blankfein

RRP $34.99

$28.75

18%
OFF
In Love and Death : The Lost Notebook - Bert McCracken

RRP $99.99

$71.75

28%
OFF
Much More to Come - Eleanor Mills

RRP $26.99

$22.99

15%
OFF