Shantabai Kamble
| Shantabai Krushnaji Kamble | |
|---|---|
Shantabai Kamble
|
|
| Born |
1 March 1923 Mahud , Sangola, Solapur, Maharashtra, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Children | Arun 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 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.
In India, the traditional attitude towards those belonging to the lower castes 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. 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."
After her marriage, she converted to Buddhism. The inspiration behind the conversion was to register a protest and fight against the many damaging rituals and severity of casteism which characterize Hinduism. The chief inspiration behind conversion was Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. Ambedkar's message to Dalits was to adopt Education as a way of empowerment and emancipation. Shantabai Kamble chose to follow this path and she excelled in her chosen path.
Shantabai Kamble's Majya Jalmachi Chittarkatha published as a complete book in 1986 but presented to readers and television audiences in serial form named as Najuka through the early 1980s, is considered the first autobiographical narrative by a Dalit woman writer. This book is included in the University of Mumbai's syllabus.
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