5/18/2023 0 Comments Omprakash valmiki's joothanHe writes about the ill treatment meted out to him when he was at school because he was an untouchable. Valmiki describes his childhood in the village in Barla district of Uttar Pradesh. Instead of following a linear pattern, the author moves from memory to memory, demonstrating how his present is deeply scarred y his past in spite of the distance he has traversed to become one of the prominent authors in Dalit literature. The treatment meted out to them was worse than that to animals. The untouchables or Dalits who were social outcasts not only had to rely on the joothan of others but also had to relish it. The title of this autobiographical account, Joothan, encapsulates the pain, the humiliation and the poverty of the “untouchable” Chuhra community of Uttar Pradesh, to which the author belongs. In the book, Joothan – A Dalit’s Life, Omprakash Valmiki writes, “ One can somehow get past poverty and deprivation but it is impossible to get past caste.” With this statement, Valmiki highlights the rigidity of the caste system in India that has resulted in the socio-economic oppression of thousands across India over centuries merely because of the “lesser caste” to which they belong.
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