'Dalit' is basically a Sanskrit word which means 'broken' and 'downtrodden'. There has been narrow defination, based on caste alone, and a broader one to encompass all those considered to be either similarly placed on natural allies. Since the early 1970s, the word has come into increasingly wide ussage in the press and in comman paralance where it is normally used in the original, narrower, caste based sence.
