Sharan, the protagonist, is haunted by his fractured identity- 'Am I an upper caste or an untouchable?' Providing rare insights on the question of identity, The Outcaste is considered a milestone in Indian literature in translation that helped publicize the Dalit cause. An acknowledged masterpiece, The Outcaste is the emotionally violent autobiography of a half-caste growing up in the Mahar community, and the anguish he suffers from not belonging fully to it. A first-perosn narrative, it is the numbling account of a community at the hands of an unthinking privileged class. The novel, a classic in its own right, and the Introduction by G.N. Devy tracing the Dalit literary movement, will appeal to students and scholars of translation studies, comparative literature, cultural studies, and general readers.
