Introduction

In just the last few years, scholarly attention to the subject of Dalit literature in India has increased almost as dramatically as the recent surge in the production of Dalit literature across India. The first significant example of Dalit writing in English translation appeared in Orient Longman's anthology of the literature of the Dalit Panthers, Poisoned Bread (Dangle 1992), and though for almost a decade afterwards there was no significant publication of Dalit literary texts outside of India, save for the lifelong work of scholars such as Eleanor Zelliot and Gail Omvedt, the dearth of Western access to Dalit texts and scholarly attention paid to them has recently turned around. English translations of Dalit literature now abound, thanks to a surge in interest by academic publishing houses in India and abroad as well as the rise of specialty publishing houses such as Navayana whose entire catalog focuses on matters of caste in literature and society.