India, Jan. 3 -- This is the searing autobiography of Sushila Takbhaure, a Dalit woman whose life story reveals not only the brutal machinery of caste but also the intimate cruelties of patriarchy. Born into the Valmiki community in Madhya Pradesh, Takbhaure chronicles her struggle to rise from poverty and social stigma to become a teacher, scholar and voice of resistance for her people. Her account moves from the margins of a caste-bound village to the inner spaces of marriage and motherhood in Nagpur, where oppression takes on a different, more personal form. In her unflinching portrayal of domestic violence, she shows how Dalit women are trapped within the double bondage of caste and gender. But My Shackled Life is more than a memoir of suffering: it is a courageous act of truth-telling that asserts the right of a Dalit woman to fashion a life and an identity on her terms....