Multiple Marginalities: An Anthology of Identified Dalit Writings

This volume compiles popular booklets representing grass-root dissent and protest of the dalit community in north India. Dalits have remained excluded not only from the economic and cultural mainstream of society but also from the ambit of the expression of their existential notions in the hierarchical order of the society. Despite their multiple sociological layers and also multiple expressions, it is the dominant expression produced in the urban and literary centres of India that has been subjected to academic exposition. And yet not much attention is given to the fact that there are multiple voices in print that are being assiduously transmitted in the newly emerged public spheres of this community. It ought to be noted that such voices of the dalits are mere expressions of their identity assertion, political mobilization and capture of political power through the negation of earlier notions of Brahminical history and sociology. An attempt has been made in this volume to compile a small part of this literature for those who wish to undertake an alternative exploration of the political culture of this emerging society in the modern context.