Rakshit Sonawane gave up his cushy job in the Bombay Port Trust (BPT) and joined his first job as a journalist at mid-day in 1985. Today at the age of 68, Sonawane’s book, Scum of the Earth, is due to be released on September 2. Why did this book take so long, we ask him; he replies, “I have found when we speak about casteism many people often feel that in 2025 and in a city like Mumbai, caste doesn’t exist. I want them to understand how misguided that notion is.”

Sonawane talks about himself through the eyes of Avinash, a boy born in a home where Dr Ambedkar and Buddhism were the guiding philosophy. Avinash (aka Sonawane) who studied in school where there was no dearth of savarna kids who reminded him about the caste divide was a testament to how caste is taught from adults to children. “Another reason I wanted to write this book now was the fact that a lot of constitutional safeguards have been subverted by liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation (LPG) . While caste prejudices still exist, LPG has shrunk government recruitment in which reservation is provided. Besides, the quota for EWS shuts out poor Dalits, who are not easily welcomed in the open category,” he says.