Every sixth human being in the world today is an Indian, and every sixth Indian is an untouchable. For thousands of years the untouchables, or Dalits, the people at the bottom of the Hindu caste system, have been treated as subhuman. In this remarkable book, at last giving voice to India’s voiceless, Narendra Jadhav tells the awe-inspiring story of his family’s struggle for equality and justice in India. Based on his father’s diaries and family stories, Jadhav has written the triumphant story of his parents—their great love, unwavering courage, and eventual victory in the struggle to free themselves and their children from the caste system. He vividly brings his parents’ world to light and unflinchingly documents the lives of untouchables—the hunger, the cruel humiliations, the perpetual fear, and the brutal abuse. Untouchables is an eye-opening work that gives readers insight into the lives of India’s 165 million Dalits, whose struggle for equality continues even today.
Narendra Jadhav was born in Mumbai, India. He is currently the principal adviser and chief economist for the Reserve Bank of India and is the author of seven books and more than seventy research papers.
“Jadhav marches in the vanguard of a trend that is eviscerating the caste.”—International Herald Tribune
“This moving story of perseverance from a sector of India rarely represented to American readers will be a standard text on Indian and Dalit themes for years to come.”—Library Journal
316 pp.6 x 9
9780520252639$34.95|Paper
Mar 2007