It was in Maharashtra that he grasped the importance of Babasaheb Ambedkar, the contribution of the Dalit Panther movement, and the tradition of the Dalit autobiographies in Marathi.” It was only Rama and Krishna and the Hindu gods. In Uttar Pradesh, he was exposed to the conventional narrative epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata. As poet and confidante Loknath Yashwant from Chandrapur says, “Omprakash Valmiki was shaped by Maharashtra and its Ambedkar-Dalit politics. This is surprising when one considers the years Valmiki worked in an ordnance company in Ambernath and later in Chandrapur. But no translation of the book in Marathi was available. Translations, play-film adaptations followed, and it was also included in the MA course in universities in India and overseas. We will provide the summary of the novel, important developments in the plot and a list of important characters in this novel in our next post.When Valmiki wrote his searing autobiography Joothan 21 years ago, he was known as the greatest living Hindi author most people had never heard of.

It should be kept in mind that you can be asked questions based on the entire novel and not just the extract from Joothanincluded in The Individual and Societywhich you must have studied in your first semester in the English Discipline subject.

In order to prepare for your exams, it is advised that you try writing answers to the questions mentioned below. You can download the pdf version of this novel, notes and important questions from the links given below. He brought alive the memories of trauma that he had suppressed. She also notices that high-caste Indian writers, both Hindu and non-Hindu who are published both in India and abroad as “representers” of Indian life, seldom deal with caste and caste oppression in their works.Īccording to Valmiki, he had to relive all those miseries, torments, neglects, admonitions and suffered a deep mental anguish while writing this book. When they asked for water, it was poured into their cupped hands, from a distance. Until the advent of Dalit literature, literary representations either ignored untouchables or portrayed them as victims in need of saviors, as objects without voice and agency.Īruna Prabha Mukherjee, who translated this text from Hindi to English, recalls that Valmiki’s Joothan brought alive her memories of childhood and adolescence in a small town in northern India where casteism and untouchability were accepted, where untouchables cleaned their latrines and carried the excrement away on their heads. ‘ Joothan’ is an autobiographical account of Omprakash Valmiki’s journey from his birth and upbringing as an untouchable in the newly independent India of the 1950s and his pride in being a Dalit.

Joothan omprakash valmiki