| Sumario: | This article examines how Dalit popular booklets, known as 'chhoti kitab', emerge in the Dalit space and who writes these. It studies the readership and social impact of this writing, including the missionary zeal of the authors and publishers who market these booklets on cycles, in fairs, festivals, chetna mandaps, meets and rallies, melas commemorating Dalit heroes and political gatherings. It unravels how these booklets travel from the writers to the various agencies that disseminate the message of these booklets and then to the educated, aware Dalits from whom they reach the grassroots in the Uttar Pradesh villages. In open spaces, like village tea stalls, educated Dalits read these booklets, while their illiterate brethren listen with rapt attention. Discussions follow, causing a socio-political awareness amongst them. The article also addresses the Dalit popular writing as a contested domain, studying the responses of the state and the judiciary. It focuses on the making of Dalit publics in rural north India through such writings.
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