Growing up Untouchable in India: A Dalit Autobiography

vasant moon gail omvedt eleanor zelliot

There is much in Vasant Moon's extraordinary story of his vasti, his childhood neighbourhood in India, that would probably be true of any urban ghetto anywhere in the world. But there is much that is peculiarly and vividly Indian.

In this first autobiography of a so-called Untouchable, we learn about the inescapable hierarchy imposed by caste, based on ancient principles of heriditary pollution. We see the unmatched importance of the heroic Dr. B. R. Ambedkar for India's awakened and newly ambitious Dalits. We feel, viscerally, Nagpur's heat and the joy brought by the monsoon.

Vasant Moon's Vasti, the first Dalit autobiography to be published in English, is a moving and eloquent testament to a uniquely Indian life as well as to the universal human spirit.