This book is an attempt to critically examine Dalit literature which as a distinctive form of writing not only mirrors the harsh realities of Dalit lives but also depicts their social, political, economic, cultural and geographical locations. The book surveys the nature and the scope of Dalit literature, traces its roots and illustrates authentically its evolution and significance in the present milieu. The conventionally muffled and marginalised Dalits use literature to voice their distress, indignation, and to register their collective resistance against discriminatory and dominant socio-economic and political forces. They reject the received literary conventions and aesthetic considerations and devote literature to waken, and mobilise suppressed Dalits. The issues such as caste-based violence, Dalitisation of poverty and Dalit women’s specific suffering come to frequent discussion and condemnation in the book. It brings out the Dalit strategies to liberate themselves, to smash discriminatory institutions and to initiate an egalitarian system in which all human beings may be treated as equal regardless of their caste, class, gender and religion.

Suresh Kumar is an Assistant Professor of English in the Department of Higher Education of Himachal Pradesh. He has taught in various government colleges in Himachal Pradesh and is presently posted in Govt Skt College Tungesh, District Shimla. He has not only contributed scholarly articles to various journals and books but has also presented research papers in national and international conferences. His areas of interest are Dalit, tribal and postcolonial literature in addition to women autobiographies, folklore and culture studies.