A person of rare talent and broad appeal, Dhan Gopal Mukerji (1890-1936)
holds the distinction of being the first South Asian immigrant to have a
successful career in the United States as a man of letters. As the
author of two dozen published volumes of poetry, drama, fiction, social
commentary, philosophy, translations, and children's stories, Mukerji
was a pivotal figure in the transmission and interpretation of Indian
traditions to Americans in the first several decades of the twentieth
century. This reissue of his classic autobiography Caste and Outcast,
with a new Introduction and Afterword, seeks to revitalize interest in
Mukerji and his work and to contribute to the exploration of the South
Asian experience in America.
Originally published in 1923, this book is an exercise in both cultural
translation and cultural critique. In the first half of the book,
Mukerji draws upon his early experiences as a Bengali Brahmin in India,
hoping to convey to readers "an intimate impression of eastern life";
the second half describes Mukerji's coming to America and his
experiences as a student, worker, and activist in California.
Mukerji's text, written in an engaging personal style, is the kind of
ethnographic writing that seeks to render intelligible and familiar the
unfamiliar and the exotic. Gordon H. Chang's substantial Introduction
locates the story of Caste and Outcast within the larger context of
Mukerji's life, tracing the author's personal history and his
connections to such major figures as Jawaharlal Nehru, M. N. Roy, Van
Wyck Brooks, Roger Baldwin, and Will Durant. The Afterword, by Purnima
Mankekar and Akhil Gupta, examines the ways in which Mukerji stretches
the limits of the autobiographical genre and provides a counternarrative
to the dominant nationalist account of American society.
