Dark Interiors: Essays of Caste and Dalit Culture

'Except women and dalits, I do not think there is anyone discriminated at birth.'

These words give an idea of Raj Gauthamans succinct and provocative critique, translated into English for the first time by Theodore Baskaran. The essays engage with dalit liberation politics, the relationship of dalits with Tamil history and the many strands that constitute radical dalit culture. Gauthaman discusses dalit history and what the progress of non-brahmin politics in Tamil Nadu has meant for dalits. This analysis of the alternative cultural expressions of dalits, politics, art and literature comes from essays written in 19922002, which remain perennial and startlingly new. The authors discussion of Iyothee Thass Panditharwho preceded Ambedkar by 50 yearsof Ambedkar and Periyar, of postmodernism and Subaltern Studies, provides a new cultural history that tells us about dalit assertion today.