Jerry Pinto
Memoir, Non-fiction
Paperback with flaps
$5.79000 $4.34000
In Stock
Click here to read an excerpt from the book.
$5.79000 $4.34000
(Paperback with flaps | ISBN 9789385288203 | 336 pages | June 2015)
The first Dalit autobiography to be published, Baluta caused a sensation when it first appeared, in Marathi, in 1978. It quickly acquired the status of a classic of modern Indian literature and was also a bestseller in Hindi and other major languages. This is the first time that it has been translated into English.
Set in Mumbai and rural Maharashtra of the 1940s and ’50s, it describes in shocking detail the practice of untouchability and caste violence. But it also speaks of the pride and courage of the Dalit community that often fought back for dignity.
Most unusually, Baluta is also a frank account of the author’s own failings and contradictions—his passions, prejudices and betrayals—as also those of some leading lights of the Dalit movement. In addition, it is a rare record of life in Maharashtra’s villages and in the slums, chawls and gambling dens of Mumbai.
Click here to read an excerpt from the book.
Daya Pawar (1935-1996) was born in Dhamangaon, Maharashtra in 1935. Primarily a poet, he published his first poem in the Dalit literary journal Asmitadarsh in 1967. His first collection of poems, Kondvada, appeared in 1974 and won the Maharashtra Government Award for literature. In 1979, he won the award for the second time for Baluta. […]
