This April, KATHA did something it hadn’t done before – participate in a month-long, largely community-led observance of Dalit, Bahujan and Adivasi strength. Yes – Dalit History Month!

If you’ve heard of Black History Month, you’re already familiar with the inspiration for its Dalit counterpart. In 2015, a group of women started observing Dalit History Month to recognize and celebrate the rich tapestry of Dalit, Adivasi and Bahujan history in our country. This is history that’s frequently brushed under the rug in favor of other agendas – but Dalit History Month centers the truth. Resilience. The refusal to succumb to oppression, and the individuals who dedicated their lives to that refusal.

Serving the underserved is at the core of KATHA’s mission. With projects like KATHA Adivasi and Dalit Learning Labs (KADL) – which blend 21st-century skills with traditional knowledge to educate children from nonliterate families – and the KADL imprint, which creates storybooks for children often overlooked, participating in Dalit History Month was an obvious choice. We believe Dalit and Adivasi children deserve to see themselves in the books they read. We believe these stories deserve to be told, read and spoken of with the same awe and reverence that tales from the more visible India receive.

That’s why we picked four books from our catalogue to feature across our social media handles this month – to cherish the cultures and histories woven into the fabric of these stories. These books are gorgeous odes to the full lives lived by Dalit and Adivasi people in our country – lives that are frequently overlooked and seen as less valuable. Take a look at our picks: