From Joothan to Justice: Caste, Identity, and Assertion in Omprakash Valmiki’s Autobiography

Abstract

This research paper examines Joothan: A Dalit's Life by Omprakash Valmiki as a thoroughly politicized act of resistance in literature and ideas against Indian caste hegemony. Being a pioneering Hindi Dalit autobiography, Joothan breaks the silence of the past about the life of the Dalits, bearing witness in unromanticized and unglamourous language to systematic humiliation, resistance, and change. The work argues that the biography of Valmiki is not just an autobiography but a public record on caste trauma and resistance. Through close reading and in connection with subaltern theory, Ambedkarite philosophy, and Dalit literary criticism, the article examines Joothan's revelation of quotidian practice of untouchability that varies from school exclusion and obligatory menial labor to symbolic violence of food culture and naming. The story of Valmiki imitates the internalized shame generated by caste, and education, literacy, and politicization towards the retrieval of a dignified Dalit self. The article also analyzes the text’s narrative strategy, noting its rejection of upper-caste literary aesthetics in favor of raw realism, emotional intensity, and political urgency. Moments such as Valmiki’s mother rejecting “joothan” are highlighted as acts of resistance within a dehumanizing social order. Pursues Joothan in the form of a column of Dalit texts—to reframe memory as political testimony and to stake a claim for literature on the precious space as a path towards social justice.