The Author
Arjun Dangle is a major writer and stalwart of the Dalit literary, socio-cultural and political movements in Maharashtra, who has through his writings lent a voice of reason to the angst of Dalits and a political edge to their struggle. A founder member of the Dalit youth organisation, the Dalit Panthers, he has also been the president of the State Unit of the Bharatiya Republican Party of India. His poetry, essays and short stories have been published to critical acclaim, awarded and translated into several Indian and foreign languages. His published works include Dalit Sahitya: Ek Abhyas (1978), his poetry collection Chhavani Halte Ahe, which won the Maharashtra State Award in 1978, and the edited volumes of translations from modern Marathi Dalit literature, Homeless in My Land (1992) and Poisoned Bread (2009).

The Translator
Maya Pandit is an academic, translator, cultural critic and activist who has been involved with the women’s movement in India and alternative theatre movement in Maharashtra for the last three decades. A Charles Wallace scholar and an accomplished translator, she works with Marathi and English and has translated several plays, fiction and autobiographies across the two languages, including The Weave of My Life by Urmila Pawar (2007), The Prisons We Broke by Baby Kamble (2008, 2017) and Let the Rumours be True by Pradnya Daya Pawar (2017). A former professor and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, she has also published widely in feminist, Dalit and translation studies, and English language training (ELT).

List of Photographs
Acknowledgements
Translator’s Note
Author’s Statement

1. Introduction
2. The Dalit Literary Movement
3. The Inception of Dalit Panther: The Background and Beginnings
4. First Steps Forward
5. The Progressive Literature Movement: 1967–1970
6. The Seventies: An Uneasy Period
7. The Birth of Dalit Yuvak Aghadi in Siddharth Vihar Hostel
8. Dalit Yuvak Aghadi: The Sequence of Events
9. The Sadhana Issue: An Intellectual Storm in Maharashtra
10. Some Landmark Events in Maharashtra
11. The Rise of Dalit Panther
12. The Establishment of Dalit Panther
13. Worli Riots, By-Elections and the Dalit Panther
14. Fractures and Ruptures, Part I
15. Fractures and Ruptures, Part II
16. Dalit Panther Dissolved!
17. Facts and Fabrications
18. The Epilogue
19. Down Memory Lane
20. Delving Deep

Photographs
Appendices

1. Fatwa I: The First Young Marathi Poet
Namdev Dhasal and Others

2. Report on Meeting in Siddharth Vihar Hostel Where the Dalit Yuvak Aghadi is Formed
Na. Na. Wandrekar, Sobat, 4 June 1972

3. We Must Face the Reality
(Arjun Dangle, writing as) Jagdish Karanjgaonkar, Sadhana, 15 August 1972

4. Report on the Two Morchas to the Sadhana Office in Pune
Anil Awachat, 8 September 1972

5. Snakes in the Sleeves of the Republican Party
Rajneesh Kamble, Saptahik Republican, 6 October 1972

6. Fatwa II: Dalit Writers and the Fight with Chairs
Raja Dhale, January 1973

7. Statement of the Morcha of Left Youth Organisations to the Maharashtra Government
Bombay, 21 January 1974

8. The Spark from the Worli Chawl that Caused a Huge Fire: Report on Namdev Dhasal’s Speech Before the Morcha of Left Youth Organisations at Oval Ground, Mumbai
Nava Kal, 22 January 1974

9. Report on the Huge Historic Joint March of Dalits and Workers on 5 February 1974
Nava Kal, 6 February 1974

10. Jahirnama: The Dalit Panther Manifesto
Namdev Dhasal, November 1973

11. Jahirnama or Nama Jahir? Part I
Raja Dhale, Nava Kal, 17 October 1974

12. Jahirnama or Nama Jahir? Part II
Raja Dhale, Nava Kal, 18 October 1974

13. Enough is Enough—Let’s Start Work Again
Arjun Dangle, Mahanagar, 13 January 2003

14. Eleanor Zelliot’s Letter to Arjun Dangle, 7 July 1992

Bibliography