Shantabai Kamble

Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble (born 1 March 1923) is a Marathi writer and Dalit activist. She wrote the first female Dalit autobiography.

shantabai Krushnaji Kamble
Born (1923-03-01) 1 March 1923
Mahud, Sangola, Solapur, Maharashtra, India
NationalityIndian
Notable work
Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha
ChildrenArun Krushnaji Kamble

Biography

Early age

Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble was born in a Mahar Dalit family on 1 March 1923. Her birthplace was Mahud which is located in Solapur. 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."[1] According to a newspaper article, "As an untouchable, she [was] not allowed to enter the class-room and has to go through the humiliating experience of sitting outside the class and imbibing whatever she could."[2]

Her autobiography Majhya Jalmachi Chittarkatha

Shantabai Kamble's autobiography Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha 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 narrative by a Dalit woman writer. This book is included in the University of Mumbai's syllabus.[3] 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.[4] In this context she portrays her struggle as a Dalit women writer. In the dedication to her book she writes, "To my Aaye-Appa [mother and father] 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.[5]
  • "Najuka" Marathi Series on doordarshan.[6]

Bibliography
  • Poisoned Bread: Translations from Modern Marathi Dalit Literature By Arjuna Ḍāṅgaḷe[7]

Contributor Arjuna Ḍāṅgaḷe Edition: reprint[8]

References
  1. Poisoned bread : translations from modern Marathi Dalit literature. Ḍāṅgaḷe, Arjuna. Bombay: Orient Longman. 1992. ISBN 0863112544. OCLC 29644277.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. Bande, Usha. "The double burden".
  3. Majhya Jalmachi Chitra Katha (TYBA) Shantabai K. Kamble Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  4. Joseph, Ancy (February 2018). "An Exploration on the Tormenting Expressions of Caste System, through the Narratives of Some Dalit women Writers". 49042.
  5. Animation of "Naja Goes to School" story by Shantabai Kamble on YouTube
  6. Najuka" Marathi Series on doordarshan on YouTube
  7. Dangale, Arjuna (2009). Poisoned Bread (First ed.). Orient BlackSwan. ISBN 9788125037545.
  8. Kamble, Shantabai. "Naja goes to school – and doesn't". Savari. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
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