hannahstohelit 's review for:

Coming Out as Dalit: A Memoir by Yashica Dutt

---

This was really interesting, and if sometimes I found the writer's style a bit frustrating, it was still well written and compelling overall, and a glimpse into a system that is completely alien to me yet significant to well over a billion people worldwide. If there's one thing I wish the book had had more of, it's the thing promised in the title- the opening chapter is all about what it took for her to decide to "come out as Dalit" but the book itself doesn't go into much detail on what the significance of that process was like for her, what was going on in her life and with her career that made that decision meaningful (except personally), etc. I'd have appreciated more insight into that. 

I'll add, as well, that as much as I get Dutt's decision not to explain/translate every word or term, I do wish that there had been a brief index of essential terms. I didn't have anything available to look up how much a lakh and a crore are, for example, and as a result there were a number of numbers listed that I was completely unable to conceptualize or contextualize. I don't think it would have detracted from the immersive/insider nature of the narrative.