Yashica Dutt

Yashica Dutt is a leading anti-caste journalist and the author of Coming Out as Dalit. She spent a decade covering arts, culture, and fashion in New Delhi and a lifetime hiding her Dalitness to pass as ‘upper’ caste. Until she ‘came out’ as Dalit in a Facebook note and wrote a book that’s part non-fiction, part-memoir and wholly a scathing account of how the caste system operates and affects Dalits in today’s India. Hint: brutally. Her work seeks to expose caste as the “the invisible arm that turns the gears in nearly every system in India,” and highlights why this issue needs urgent attention. While her voice has been instrumental in understanding the realities of caste as they exist globally and operate within the increasingly prominent Indian diaspora.

Coming Out as Dalit is her first book and has received immense critical acclaim from the press and the readers. Her work has been published in the New York Times, Foriegn Policy and the Atlanic and Coming Out as Dalit is currently being taught at several universities across the United States. Dutt graduated from Columbia Journalism School and lives in New York. She is planning to release Coming Out as Dalit worldwide.