The title of the book is not the only time Dutt borrows from this vocabulary, she describes her early experience with caste as a constant struggle to ‘pass’, a commonly used term in the west to describe the act of emulating the defining traits of a ‘superior’ social group to avoid being treated unfairly. Dutt’s journey begins by questioning this deep sense of internalized otherness, similar to the struggle of LGBTQIA+ people who haven’t ‘come out’ of the closet for the fear of ostracization embedded in the long history of oppression that they have endured.ĭutt’s borrowing of the term ‘coming out’ isn’t therefore merely incidental, it is a deliberate equivalence made to invoke an epistemic acknowledgment necessary to communicate an aspect of the Dalit experience that has been overlooked and resulted in hermeneutic injustices never before brought to light. The book achieves this by undertaking the delicate work of viewing Dalitness through various lenses whether it be through the lens of gender, class or the lens of a generalized ‘other’.

of being Dalit, in the backdrop of concurrent identities, politics and motivated rhetoric. While it is easy to see Dutt’s book as a book reflecting the struggles of the Dalit community in India, which it undeniably is a more wholesome view of the book is achieved only by examining how Dutt attempts to locate the identity in question i.e. Yashica Dutt’s powerful prose, that often ventures into social commentary and historical analysis, along with the main narrative of the author’s life, is successful in elevating the book from being an individualized account of a life lived, to a much more universal message about rejecting the archetypical constructions of what living on the margins as a woman and especially a Dalit woman entails. Salinger’s 1951 novel, ‘The catcher in the rye’ is a unique young adult novel.

Coming out as a Dalit is a unique autobiography, much in the same way that J.D.

Yashica dutt books