While it is true that India is one of the world's biggest democracies, the country is nevertheless deeply entrenched in its caste system. It has been discovered that a sizable proportion of the population in India is subjected to servitude and extreme misery on a daily basis. Thousands of Dalits in India have been excluded from mainstream society and forced to live in dehumanising conditions due to the country's rigid caste or varna system. Babasaheb Ambedkar is leading a liberation effort to free the Dalits, who have been oppressed for generations. Education, in Dr. Ambedkar's opinion, was the only means by which the oppressed Dalits might be liberated. All over Maharashtra, he established schools and universities for the Dalit population. Hundreds of Dalits, realising the value of education, enrolled their children in schools founded and staffed by Dalits. After graduating from these schools, the first generation of Dalit literates went on to create their own publications and publishing houses. The Dalits' education bolstered their sense of self-worth and inspired them to resist their oppressors. The voiceless have a voice here; the wordless have a word, to quote M.F. Jilthe. The fight for freedom and equality that African Americans waged in a White-dominated America has had a profound impact on Dalit literature. Dalits in the Indian state of Maharashtra banded together to resist caste discrimination. In 1972, inspired by the Black Panther Party, a group of Dalits banded together to create the Dalit Panthers Party to raise awareness of the Dalits' dehumanised life and the need to break free of untouchability.
The caste system in India is very hierarchical, and the lowest rung is reserved for the Dalits. One of the effects of India's caste system is that many people there are marginalised from society and assigned to do the lowest-paying, filthiest work. Dalits in India have no access to land, live in depolarized circumstances isolated from other caste Hindus, and are obliged to perform out occupations that are meant to be ritually unclean for the caste Hindus.