ABSTRACT
When Dalit Literatures in India was published by Routledge, it was the first time a volume of critical essays on Dalit literatures was published by a renowned press with South Asian and global audiences in mind. Substantial work has been done in Dalit studies, on caste, marginality and on the emergence of the Dalit struggle in the 1970s, on its constant reinvention of itself to this day, as well as on the role of literature in the Dalit social and political protest. Yet, it is difficult not to have the impression that the necessary emphasis on the social and political significance of Dalit literatures has consigned them to the social and political domains. The fact that Dalit literature has for a long time been a political tool is more and more obvious in the present day from the rise in everyday violence against Dalits and other marginalized communities.
