DEFYING THE ODDS : THE RISE OF DALIT ENTREPRENEURS

Defying the Odds is about the new Dalit identity. It profiles the phenomenal rise of twenty Dalit entrepreneurs, the few who through a combination of grit, ambition, drive and hustle—and some luck—have managed to break through social, economic and practical barriers. It illustrates instances where adversity compensated for disadvantage, where working their way up from the bottom instilled in Dalit entrepreneurs a much greater resilience as well as a willingness to seize opportunities in sectors and locations eschewed by more privileged business groups.
Traditional Dalit narratives are marked by struggle for identity, rights, equality and for inclusion. These inspiring stories capture both the difficulty of their circumstances as well as their extraordinary steadfastness, while bringing light to the possibilities of entrepreneurship as a tool of social empowerment.

The authors are highly respected senior academics. Prof. Devesh Kapur is Director of the Centre for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania. Chandra Bhan Prasad is widely regarded as the most important Dalit thinker and political commentator in India today. D. Shyam Babu is a Fellow at the New Delhi-based Rajiv Gandhi Institute for Contemporary Studies. His areas of interest include arms control, nuclear proliferation, reforms and social justice in India with a special focus on Dalits.