Maïna Kataki, née Juliette Pierre-Marie and nicknamed Nishtatai (1923 – 20 November 2011 in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

) was a French-born feminist author based in Pune, India. She is known in the field of

postcolonial Postcolonialism is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic legacy of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and their lands. More specifically, it is a ...

foreign

charity Charity may refer to: Giving * Charitable organization or charity, a non-profit organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being of persons * Charity (practice), the practice of being benevolent, giving and sharing * Ch ...

activities in

Early life

Kataki was born in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. She then moved to Pune in 1970 after being attracted to the spiritual aspects of

Indian culture Indian culture is the heritage of social norms, ethical values, traditional customs, belief systems, political systems, artifacts and technologies that originated in or are associated with the ethno-linguistically diverse India. The term al ...

. She became an Indian citizen in 1976.Kataki, M (1992) ''La joie d'Être: journal en Inde'', Editions Beauchesne, where she taught at the university level in slums and villages where she founded the ''Samarpan

Ashram An ashram ( sa, आश्रम, ) is a spiritual hermitage or a monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or a ...

'' in 1983.

Bibliography

Kataki is the author of ''La Joie d'Être'', which is an autobiographical account of ''L'Inde Secrète des Villages.'' It details a young woman's attempt at reforming village practices in relation to medicine. She also wrote ''Femme de Pierre ou Femme de Chair'' where she expressed her views on feminism. Kataki, M. (2002) ''Femme de pierre ou femme de chair'', J.C. Limasset

References

1923 births 2011 deaths French emigrants to India French women writers Recipients of the Ordre national du Mérite {{france-nonfiction-writer-stub