Joothan Author:Omprakash Valmiki, Arun Prabha Mukherjee Omprakash Valmiki's Joothan, an autobiographical account of his birth and upbringing as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the 1950s, is one of the first portrayals of Dalit life in north India from an insider's perspective.