Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha
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''Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha'' (translated as ''The Kaleidoscope Story of My Life'') is an autobiography of
Shantabai Kamble Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble (born 1 March 1923) is 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. H ...
published in
1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...
. This is considered the first autobiographical narrative by a
Dalit Dalit (from sa, दलित, dalita meaning "broken/scattered"), also previously known as untouchable, is the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in India. Dalits were excluded from the four-fold Varna (Hinduism), varna syste ...
woman writer. This book shows the life of Indian woman who was from lower class of the caste.


Plot introduction

The
autobiography 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 peri ...
''Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha'' by Dalit woman writer
Shantabai Kamble Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble (born 1 March 1923) is 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. H ...
, the
protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...
of the story, Naja, bears the brunt of
class Class or The Class may refer to: Common uses not otherwise categorized * Class (biology), a taxonomic rank * Class (knowledge representation), a collection of individuals or objects * Class (philosophy), an analytical concept used differentl ...
,
caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
and gender. Naja is from the
Mahar caste 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 ...
, one of the biggest Dalit communities in
Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...
. Najabai Sakharam Babar (renamed Shantabai Krishnaji Kamble after her marriage), was the first Dalit woman teacher in Solapur district. she began teaching at the Solapur District Board School in 1942. Ten year, in 1952, she completed two years of teacher training and served as an education extension officer in the Jat
taluka A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administr ...
of
Sangli district Sangli district (Marathi pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, aːŋɡli is a Districts of Maharashtra, district of Maharashtra state in India. Sangli city is the district headquarters. It is bordered by Satara district, Solapur district to the ...
. She wrote ''Mazhya Jalmachi Chittarkatha'' (''The Kaleidoscopic Story of My Life'') after she retired from teaching in 1981. It was first serialised in ''
Purva The Fourteen Purva translated as ancient or prior knowledge, are a large body of Jain scriptures that was preached by all Tirthankaras (omniscient teachers) of Jainism encompassing the entire gamut of knowledge available in this universe. The pers ...
'' magazine in 1983 and was teleserialised as ''Najuka'' on Mumbai Doordarshan in 1990. It has also been translated into French. The word ''chittarkatha'' literally means a picture story but also indicates a sense of pieces of pictures being put together like a jigsaw puzzle.


Sources

*The Danger of Gender: Caste, Class and Gender in Contemporary Indian Women's Writing by Clara Nubile Published by Sarup & Sons, 2003The extract Naja Goes to School - and Doesn't
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References

{{Reflist Marathi people Marathi-language literature Indian autobiographies Dalit literature 1983 non-fiction books Dalit history Dalit women