coming out as dalit a memoir yashica dutt

Her book is well researched and covers not only the real life account of violent atrocities against Dalits but also the more subtle forms of discrimination meted out to Dalits by upper castes. And they almost always exclude lower caste or dalits.” “Whether we realise it or not, almost all critical decisions and development in the country, weather in the justice system, government or media, are upper caste decisions. Stemming out of her own personal experiences as a middle class Dalit student, Yashica Dutt has enumerated the various aspects of being born into a lower caste in India and its implications on our day to day lives. Furthermore the Indian Government provided for ‘social’ reservation in education and employment to uplift SC and ST, which is a bone of contention among the Upper Castes in India demanding economic reservation in place of social reservation. But unfortunately it has still not ended entirely. Untouchability as a common practice against them was declared illegal by Independent India as a Fundamental Right under Article 17 in the Indian Constitution. Beyond these four exists the Avarnas comprising of Dalits, Adivasis etc now known as Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST). And even includes ‘shudras’ as the fourth and the lowest Varna or caste, mainly peasants and artisans, now known as Other Backward Castes (OBC). They had occupied mainly the white collar occupations and compromise of the priestly class, warrior class, trading class etc. She writes: “Everything that I had done so far or that happened to me was somehow related to my caste.”įor the uninitiated, in India’s four-fold Varna System exists four Varnas called Savarnas. An upper caste may choose to never bother about her caste for once, but this privilege is not available to those of us born as Dalits. And rightly so, because no Dalit has remained inmune to caste in this country.

Writer Yashica Dutt calls her first book ‘Coming out as Dalit’ her memoir.

Coming out as dalit a memoir yashica dutt