Omprakash Valmiki describes his life as an untouchable, or Dalit, in the newly independent India of the 1950s. "Joothan" refers to scraps of food left on a plate, destined for the garbage or animals. India's untouchables have been forced to accept and eat joothan for centuries, and the word encapsulates the pain, humiliation, and poverty of a community forced to live at the bottom of India's social pyramid. Although untouchability was abolished in 1949, Dalits continued to face discrimination, economic deprivation, violence, and ridicule. Valmiki shares his heroic struggle to survive a preordained life of perpetual physical and mental persecution and his transformation into a speaking subject under the influence of the great Dalit political leader, B. R. Ambedkar. A document of the long-silenced and long-denied sufferings of the Dalits, Joothan is a major contribution to the archives of Dalit history and a manifesto for the revolutionary transformation of society and human consciousness.

奥姆普拉卡什•瓦尔密齐1950年生于印度，出身卑贱，是印度“贱民”群体的一员。但他依然使用“瓦尔密齐”这一令他终身耻辱的名字，以此来反抗种姓制度。他的作品被誉为印地语达利特文学的里程碑，先后一共创作了一部自传体小说、三部短篇小说集、四部诗集、六十多部剧本、两部文学批评集以及两部翻译作品，均受到了读者的热烈欢迎，并产生了广泛的影响。其中最具震撼力和影响力的当属自传体小说《剩饭》。