Laura Brueck on the emerging complexity of Dalit consciousness in Himal Southasian:

Hindi Dalit literature’s moment has arrived.
After years of obscurity and unflattering comparisons to the maturity
and expressiveness of Dalit literature in languages such as Marathi and
Tamil, creative Dalit writing in Hindi is finally reaching a more
visible level of popular recognition. Hindi Dalit novels,
autobiographies, short-story and poetry anthologies, as well as volumes
of literary criticism, are today being regularly published by Delhi’s
top Hindi-language publishing houses, Rajkamal and Radhakrishna
Prakashan. Dalit writers infuse the pages of Delhi’s top Hindi literary
magazines, such as Hans and Katha Desh, with their
poetry, prose and political perspectives….

With the growing shift of Hindi
Dalit literary voices from marginalised spheres of ‘alternative’ social
discourse to more mainstream platforms, Hindi Dalit literature is
quickly becoming deeply embedded in the changing cultural politics of
modern India. But it is wrong to think of Dalit literature as speaking
in a single voice in the Hindi literary and political landscapes. In
what might be best categorised as the Hindi Dalit literary sphere, there
exists a plurality of people, life experiences, literary voices and
perspectives that often find themselves at odds with one another when
trying to fulfil the demands of a mainstream audience for a
recognisable, ‘authentic’ and even ‘digestible’ Dalit literary voice.
There are fissures within the Dalit literary sphere, situated along the
fault-lines of gender, geography (urban and rural) and class, which
create a vibrant and vital field of debate over the strategies of
‘writing resistance’.

Here is another article on the topic in the WSJ. My review of Omprakash Valmiki’s Joothan with appear here and in 3 Quarks Daily on 29th March, along with pointers to other English translations of recent Dalit literature from other Indian languages.