Rakshit Sonawane’s debut book, ‘Scum of the Earth: A True Story from the Margins’ from the margins, arrives at a time when B R Ambedkar is very much part of the political discourse. The book, a work of fiction, follows the life of Avinash, a first-generation learner from a Mumbai slum navigating the worlds of a factory, a dockyard, and a newsroom.

In an interview, Sonawane reveals that Avinash is modeled on his own life. When asked why he chose fiction to tell his story, he points to the changing priorities of the media industry. “The priorities of the media have changed,” he says. “It is profit-driven. Many of my stories were turned down because my boss would say, ‘Why are you writing about Dalits and women and farmers? These are all down-market issues.’”

He recounts a telling incident from his reporting days, where an editor, eager for the story on the farmer crisis to be accompanied by a poignanat photograph, asked him to take a picture of any farmer who “looks the part.” When Sonawane refused, citing it would cheat the readers, the editor retorted, “The farmer is not going to read our paper.” This casual disregard for truth, he explains, reflects a broader “ethical decay.”

This decay is a central theme in Scum of the Earth, which Sonawane sees as a continuation of the tradition of “lived experience” writing pioneered by Ambedkar in Waiting for a Visa. He argues that this epistemic framework is crucial to understanding caste, which persists 75 years after being outlawed by the Constitution. “In cities like Mumbai, it is very subtle and sophisticated,” he explains. “Caste exists and you can’t wish it away because it is linked with traditional beliefs enshrined in holy texts.”

For Sonawane, the struggle is twofold. He draws a distinction between the “untouchability of caste” and the “untouchability of morality.” While the former targets Dalits specifically, the latter, he argues, is a universal malady. “It has fuelled greed and material ambitions so much that it is harming human values and the entire planet,” he states.

This ethical hollowness is most visible in the political class. Sonawane is scathing in his assessment of how Ambedkar is used by all parties. “No political party is really interested in Ambedkar as a philosopher, as a visionary,” he asserts. “They are only interested in getting political benefits out of it. Whether it is Congress or the BJP or the communist, they want caste to exist because it can be transformed into votes.”

Sonawane says a true path to equality would require religious leaders to do what the Vatican did for Galileo, amend beliefs. “Beliefs can be amended because they are manufactured by human beings.”

He also critiques the fragmentation within marginalised groups, noting that even feminist movements are often led by upper-caste women who may not have compassion for their Dalit counterparts. The solution, he believes, lies in a broad coalition. “All marginalised sections—SC, ST, OBCs, and women—they have to collaborate,” he says. “Only then something will happen.”

Sonawane’s own life is a testament to the principles he champions. Despite his background, he refused a reserved government job at the docks, believing the limited seats should go to those more underprivileged. His son, now pursuing a PhD, is a general candidate. He is a firm believer in applying the creamy layer concept to all reservation categories. “I’ve seen families where one person is an IAS, another is a doctor,” he observes. “At some point, you have to say, ‘Enough now. Let others also have it.’”

Ultimately, Scum of the Earth is not just a tale of victimhood, but an attempt to transcend it. Sonawane hopes the story of Avinash will resonate with both the mainstream and the marginalised.