Coming Out as Dalit is now available worldwide
Award-winning memoir and nonfiction book on caste, Coming Out as Dalit is now out in the United States and worldwide. Published by Beacon Press, Coming Out as Dalit includes new chapters and a renewed focus on caste as it operates within South Asian communities in America.
NPR GOATS and SODA
Q&A: Yashica Dutt on her life as part of an oppressed caste in 'Coming Out As Dalit
Winner of the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puruskar (India's National Letters' Award) 2020
“Vital and extensively researched commentary on… what it means to be a Dalit today” - Outlook
“An eye opening contribution to Dalit literature... Required reading” - Caravan Magazine
“An ode to defiance.” - Hindu Business Line
“Humane in its assertion, extensive in its research, brilliant in its articulation” -
The Wire
Upcoming events.
Yashica Dutt
Yashica Dutt (she/her) is a leading anti-caste expert, journalist and the award-winning author of the non-fiction memoir, Coming Out as Dalit.
Coming Out as Dalit, Dutt’s first book, has been lauded both critically, and embraced by readers. It was recently awarded the Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puruskar, 2020 (India’s National Academy of Letters’ Young Writers Award; among the country’s highest literary honors). A meticulously reported memoir that presents a scathing and intimate account of how the caste system brutally affects Dalits in today’s India, Coming Out as Dalit is currently being taught at several universities across the United States.
Yashica Dutt is an emerging figure recognized for highlighting Dalit rights globally and her voice has been instrumental in understanding the realities of caste within the increasingly prominent Indian diaspora. Dutt’s work seeks to expose caste as ‘the invisible arm that turns the gears in nearly every system in India', and highlights why this issue needs urgent attention. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Foreign Policy and The Atlantic and Dutt has been featured on The BBC, The Guardian and PBS Newshour. Dutt graduated from Columbia Journalism School and lives in New York. She is planning to soon release Coming Out as Dalit worldwide.
Articles and Essays
The Specter of Caste in Silicon Valley
Opinion piece in The New York Times on the Cisco caste discrimination lawsuit by the state of California; July 14, 2020.
The Oscar Nominated Film That Offers a Masterclass in Journalism
Essay in The Atlantic on Writing with Fire, the Oscar Nominated Documentary on India’s Dalit owned media outlet Khabar Lahariya; February 14, 2022.
Feeling Like an Outcaste - An Indian Dalit Reading of Isabel Wilkerson’s Bestseller ‘Caste’
Review of Isabel Wilkerson’s ‘Caste’ for Foreign Policy Magazine; September 17, 2020.
Long Live Comrade Gail
Essay on sociologist and historian Gail Omvedt’s legacy in India’s caste movement for Foreign Policy Magazine; September 12, 2021
‘Indian Matchmaking’ Exposes the Easy Acceptance of Caste
Essay in The Atlantic on the practice of matchmaking as seen on the hit Netflix show, and caste; August 1, 2020.