Joothan is an autobiography of a dalit Om Prakash Valmiki. He used to live outside a village.

In his book he has highlighted how he used to get treatment because he was untouchable. His father wanted him to study so that he could rescue his caste from ill treatment. When he started going to school he was ill treated by his teachers over there as well. His teacher would beat him up, would not let him study and would make him clean the floor and would not even let him drink water from the hand pump as he belonged to the churha caste. Despite the fact that he scored well in exams other children of higher castes ridiculed him. Many-a-times because of this he felt that he wouldnt be able to study. He has also written about a couple of teachers who encouraged him and were source of inspiration. He has also written about the events like how their family and other family belonging to his caste would work for the banga family and wee paid very less and for some work the only thing that they got was swearing and beatings. Getting joothan (scraps of the food eaten by others) would be relished by them. Rainy seasons have been mentioned as a living hell when their houses would be broken/ damaged and they survived by living on mar (water left after boiling the rice). When he grew up he started challenging various customs of villages, which perpetuated low status of dalit like going door to door to get food from banga family immediately after marriage. He also retaliated various superstitious beliefs of dalits like instead of going to doctor when somebody was ill they tried getting rid of the evil spirits that was deemed to be the cause by tying threads, talismans, spells and so on. He also disliked some of the work done by dalits like disposing off the dead cattle. Later he went to Dehradun for studying. There he took part in various movements and protests for uplifting dalits. After that he took training in ordinance factory. He joined the factory and started working there. He went to Maharashtra for working. There also he continued working for dalits. There he met a girl who fell in love with him but when she came to know that he was a SC, he left him and could not marry him. His parents pressurized him to get married. He married a girl called Chanda. Everyone accepted her in the family but his father was upset due to the fact that he refused to perform the ceremonies and praying the pig even on his wedding. After wedding he again went to Maharashtra. There he started writing a lot of poems, stories about dalits. His articles were published in magazines and newspapers. He was also part of many plays. He continues to fight for the upliftment of SCs. I have stated 2 incidents of Omprkash Valmiki and have tried to analyze it according to Banura, Erickson and Bronfenbrenner.

Incident 1 This is the incident of the time when Omprakash started going to school. One day his head master called him and asked if he belonged to chuhra caste. When Omprakash said yes, he asked him to make broom and clean the rooms. After the rooms were cleaned he asked him to clean the ground. The whole day went in cleaning and he was not allowed to study. Next day again the same thing happened. Third day he went and sat down in his class. Head master came calling him mother fucker, pounced on his neck and dragged him out of the class and asked him to sweep the floor again. He started trembling with fear and with trembling hand he picked up the broom and started cleaning the floor. Tears were flowing down his cheeks. Just then his father passed by the school. Seeing him crying he stopped and asked, Munshiji, why are you crying? Tell me, what has happened? He told the whole story to his father. His father went to his head master and questioned his act of making his son sweep the floor. His teacher started abusing his father. He took his son and went to different tyagis to take action against the teacher. However nobody helped. Everybody felt that what is the use of teaching a churha. Then he went to the pradhan of the village who finally helped him and he started going to the school again. In the school he started getting good marks and was made the monitor of the class. Analysis EricksonAccording to Ericksons theory he is at the stage of industry versus inferiority. In this stage children start learning to do meaningful work as they learn different skills relevant to their society. When the child feels that she is not successfully attaining the skills she develops inferiority complex. Resolution of the conflict in this stage leads to development of the virtue competence that is she starts feeling that she is competent to perform the task assigned to her diligently without being impaired by inferiority. In the event described we can see that the act of the principal could have developed inferiority complex in Omprakash. He would have felt that he cannot attain the skills of reading and writing. He is not even eligible to attend the classes like his peers of higher caste. However the intervention of his father prevented that. Omprakash has written I have never forgotten the courage and the fortitude with which my father confronted the head master that day the decisive turn he gave my future that day had a great impact on my personality. His fathers support gave him the confidence, the courage and a faith in himself. His father also called him munshiji to signify that he will turn into the learned and intelligent man. I feel that this also must have given him faith and he must have started seeing himself as capable/ competent of doing well in school which probably resulted in his scoring good marks in the class. This in turn would have given him more confidence about his competence. Bandura

This incident can also be analyzed from the perspective of Banduras social learning theory. In this incident he saw how his father challenged the wrong actions of the head master. He had the courage to stand against the wrong and he tried to seek justice despite the caste discrimination being so prevalent in the village. He tried to break the norms of their village and stand for what he felt was justified and hence tried to bring about the social change. He has acted as a role model for his child. He was observing his father and learning these traits from him only to reproduce them later when he would be capable to do so. He adopted these traits of his father as can be seen from later part of his life when he started protesting all those acts/ rituals which led to low status of chuhras. He also saw that his father was never ashamed of his caste. He never tried to hide his caste. He wanted that his caste should get equal dignity and respect. Omprakash has written his father did not have an iota of inferiority complex. He had a stubborn temperament, which was reflected in everything about him, whether it be his manner of speaking or his gait. Later when he adopted his surname as Valmiki though many relatives and even his wife objected to it, his father was happy to see it. This is evident from the following linesHe (Omprakashs father) did not know for the longest time that I used Valmiki as my last name. He was pleased when he found out. His eyes had gleamed with pleasure, a gleam that is still fresh in my eyes. BronfenbrennerBronfenbrener talks about the nested ecological environment of the person. The developing person is surrounded by different layers of ecological environment. The first level is the ecological environment is the immediate setting like home, class etc. which is called micro system. Then is the interconnections between these settings which is called the mesosystem. The third is the events occurring in the setting of which the developing person is not the part of but affects him. This is called exo system. Finally there is overarching consistencies in culture or the subculture of the setting which is called the macrosystem. In the given event his principal (his school) and his father (his home) belonged to the microsystem, the relation between them was mesosystem. Pradhan and other tyagis to whom his father goes for his schooling belonged to exosystem. Omprakah was not in direct contact with them. He was not interacting with them. However their reaction had an impact on his schooling. It was pradhans decision which finally helped him in getting the schooling. Finally the caste system and the legal system was part of the macrosystem. It was because of the caste system that his principal asked him to sweep the floor; it was because of the caste system that principal called his father different names and it was because of the caste system because of which Tyagis refused to take any action against the head master. Finally Pradhan helped him because the laws of India said that Chuhra and Chamars are also equally entitled to education as higher caste. According to Bronfenbrenner development of the child implies change in perception of the ecological environment and action for restructuring it which is not limited by time and

space. This incident is one such incident because of which he started seeing the world beyond the immediate setting. It revealed to him the relation existing between tyagis and chuhras, the existence of caste system and the legal system. Earlier also he saw the injustice done by tyagis on chuhras but this definitely enlarged his view and he started seeing things from larger perspective. Though he could not take any action except telling about it to his father which definitely helped in restructuring the whole thing.

Incident 2 Omprakash went to Dehradun for studying in inter college. His friend introduced him to Ambedkars books. He had read books of many great Indian leaders earlier but not about Ambedkar. After reading these books he started feeling even more strongly that he must do something for upliftment of SCs. He has written-My reading of these books had awakened my consciousness. These books had given voice to my muteness. It was during this time in my life when an antiestablishment consciousness became strong in me He became more active in college events, protests and demonstrations. He took part in the procession for supporting Hindi. His uncle did not like all this. He felt that he should concentrate in his studies. However he felt that they were important part of his education. Analysis BronfrenbrennerAs can be seen he has started getting more exposure now. Earlier only exposure he had was of his village life. Earlier he mostly read books of Gandhi, Patel, Nehru, Rajendra Prasad etc. Now he got a very different perspective about his ecological perspective that is of Ambedkar which was completely different from that of Gandhi. He was not only getting different perspective he also started taking active participation for giving accurate feedback about the nature of systems existing at the remote level. He was not fighting for his education, his college or his family; he was fighting for the larger system (like fighting for supporting Hindi language). He was trying to reorganize existing systems or creating new ones of comparable or higher order that are more in accordance with his desires. It was his desire that Hindi should be given equal status and thus he was fighting to make such a system. This development was not limited by time and space. Later in his life when he went to Maharashra he continued to participate in protests and demonstrations, writing poems and doing plays for the cause similar to that of Ambedkar, that is, upliftment of the status of SCs.

Bandura Bandura in his identification theory has also talked about symbolic role models apart from real role models. In this incident we can see that Ambedkar acted as a symbolic role model for him. He was not present in front of him. He only read about him in the books that gave rise to a consciousness in him. He stated following his path. It gave him anew strength and a new voice. Bandura has talked of different processes which lead to observational learning namely attention, retention, motor reproduction process and retention and motivational process. I feel that he attended to and retained about Ambedkar because it was something which affected his personal life. Amedkar fought for issues which he was also facing in his real life. He probably also attended to it because he was a powerful personality. He was father of our constitution. He had strong opinions and wrote in a convincing style. He being an adolescent was able to reproduce similar actions. He had the motivation to do it because it would affect his life. Reading him would have given him vicarious reinforcement. He would have felt that if he being a SC could reach such heights and fight and bring changes at systemic level, why cant he also do the same. Erickson According to Erickson he was in the stage of identity versus role confusion. According to him at this stage people struggle with the question who are they and what is their place in the larger social order? As can be seen in the incident he stated identifying himself as one who would uplift the status of SCs. He adopted this as his life long commitment and later also stuck to it. Although his uncle opposed him this was the cause for which he wanted to live throughout his life. I feel that he was able to develop the virtue of fidelity, that is, the ability to sustain ones pledged loyalty as is evident from the fact the fact that till date he is working for the same cause.