This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: "Shantabai Kamble" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble
शांताबाई कृष्णाजी कांबळे
Born(1923-03-01)1 March 1923
Mahud, Sangola, Solapur, Bombay Presidency, British India
Died25 January 2023(2023-01-25) (aged 99)
Pune, Maharashtra, India
NationalityIndian
Notable workMajya Jalmachi Chittarkatha
ChildrenArun Krushnaji Kamble

Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble (1 March 1923 – 25 January 2023) was an Indian Marathi writer and Dalit activist. She wrote the first female Dalit autobiography.

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.[citation needed]

Educational struggle

The traditional attitude in India towards education for people of lower class and women at the time made it so education was prohibited for, however her parents decided to send her to school because of her extraordinary talent. She was awarded a three rupees scholarship for paper, ink, notebooks, and more school supplies,[1] but she wasn't allowed to sit inside the classroom and had to learn from outside.[2]

Autobiography

Shantabai Kamble's autobiography Majya Janmachi 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-serialized for the viewers as Najuka on the Mumbai Doordarshan in 1990 and translated into French and English. Kamble started writing her Chittarkatha after her retirement as a teacher. It is considered the first autobiographical narrative by a Dalit woman writer.[citation needed] This book is included in the University of Mumbai's syllabus.[3] Chiefly the book raises the issue of two-fold marginalization and oppression, both caste oppression and gendered discrimination towards women by their male peers.[4] In this context she portrays her struggle as a female Dalit 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 labor, with hunger pinching their stomach, educated me and brought me from darkness into light."[citation needed]

Death

Shantabai Kamble died at her daughter's home in Pune, on 25 January 2023, at the age of 99.[5][6]

Videos

Bibliography

Contributor Arjuna Ḍāṅgaḷe Edition: reprint[10]

References

  1. ^ Poisoned bread : translations from modern Marathi Dalit literature. Ḍāṅgaḷe, Arjuna. Bombay: Orient Longman. 1992. ISBN 0863112544. OCLC 29644277.((cite book)): 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. ^ पुढारी (25 January 2023). "पहिल्या दलित स्त्री लेखिका शांताबाई कांबळे यांचे निधन".
  6. ^ Maha: Shunned in school, eminent woman Dalit writer Shantabai K. Kamble passes away at 99
  7. ^ Animation of "Naja Goes to School" story by Shantabai Kamble on YouTube
  8. ^ Najuka" Marathi Series on doordarshan on YouTube
  9. ^ Dangale, Arjuna (2009). Poisoned Bread (First ed.). Orient BlackSwan. ISBN 9788125037545.
  10. ^ Kamble, Shantabai (22 April 2012). "Naja goes to school – and doesn't". Savari. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
Categories