Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble (born 1 March 1923) is an Indian

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

writer and

Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold varna system of Hinduism and were seen as forming a ...

activist. She wrote the first female Dalit autobiography.

Biography

Early age

Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble was born in a

Mahar Mahar, meaning "original inhabitants of Maharashtra" (in various languages), is an Indian caste found largely in the state of Maharashtra and neighbouring areas. Most of the Mahar community followed B. R. Ambedkar in converting to Buddhism ...

family on 1 March 1923. Her birthplace was Mahud which is located in

Solapur Solapur () is a city located in the south-western region of the Indian state of Maharashtra, close to its border with Karnataka. Solapur is located on major highway, rail routes between Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and Hyderabad, with a branch lin ...

. She was from a poor family. The social and economic status of her community was quite low.

Educational struggle

In India, the traditional attitude towards those belonging to the below poverty level can be summed up as: "Education is not their cup of tea." So education was prohibited for the members of her community. Even worse, she was female and girls did not go to school in those days. But her parents decided to send her to school because of her extraordinary talent. It is also known through her autobiographical extract ''Naja Goes to School- and Doesn't'' that she was awarded with three rupees scholarship "a month for paper, ink and notebooks and so on." According to a newspaper article, "As an untouchable, she asnot allowed to enter the class-room and has to go through the humiliating experience of sitting outside the class and imbibing whatever she could."

Her autobiography ''Majhya Jalmachi Chittarkatha''

Shantabai Kamble's autobiography ''

Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha ''Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha'' (translated as ''The Kaleidoscope Story of My Life'') is an autobiography of Shantabai Kamble published in 1983. This is considered the first autobiographical narrative by a Dalit woman writer. This book shows the ...

'' translated as ''The Kaleidoscope Story of My Life'' was published as a complete book in 1986. First presented to reading audience in ''Purva Magazine'' in 1983. Later it was tele-serialzed for the viewers as Najuka on the Mumbai Doordarshan in 1990 and further translated into French and English. Kamble started writing her Chittarkatha post her retirement as a teacher. It is considered the first

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English p ...

narrative by a Dalit woman writer. This book is included in the

University of Mumbai The University of Mumbai is a collegiate, state-owned, public research university in Mumbai. The University of Mumbai is one of the largest universities in the world. , the university had 711 affiliated colleges. Ratan Tata is the appointed ...

's syllabus. Chiefly the book raises the issue of two-fold marginalisation and oppression one, faced by the Dalit group at the hands of 'Upper Caste' and secondly gendered discrimination towards women through their male patriarchal peers. In this context she portrays her struggle as a Dalit women writer. In the dedication to her book she writes, "To my Aaye-Appa

other and father Other often refers to: * Other (philosophy), a concept in psychology and philosophy Other or The Other may also refer to: Film and television * The Other (1913 film), ''The Other'' (1913 film), a German silent film directed by Max Mack * The Oth ...

who worked the entire day in the hot glaring sun, hungry and without water, and through the drudgery of labour, with hunger pinching their stomach, educated me and brought me from darkness into light."

Videos

* Pioneering autobiography : Untouchable castes' woman from India Shantabai Kamble. * "Najuka" Marathi Series on doordarshan.

Bibliography

*Poisoned Bread: Translations from Modern Marathi Dalit Literature By Arjuna Ḍāṅgaḷe Contributor Arjuna Ḍāṅgaḷe Edition: reprint

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamble, Shantabai Marathi-language writers 1923 births Living people Indian autobiographers Indian women non-fiction writers Women autobiographers Dalit women writers Dalit writers People from Solapur district Women writers from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian writers