A Study of the Representation of Dalit

Women in Baby Kambles The Prisons We

Broke
10 Sep, 2013 Articles Issue: July 2013 e Dhvani
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It is not often in Indian English literature that one finds images of rural, Dalit women. It is also
uncommon, in any Indian language, to find an autobiographical text by a non-urban, Dalit
woman writer. Most Indian texts that do deal with this subject tend to stereotypically represent
Dalit women as ignorant, passive, silent sufferers; or else Dalit communities are sentimentally
idealised as being more equal in terms of gender relations. Baby Kambles autobiographical
work, originally titled Jina Amucha in Marathi and translated into English as The Prisons We
Broke by Maya Pandit, provides a rare opportunity to study how Dalit women construct their
own identity and represent their community, in particular, the women of their community. To
quote Maya Pandit, A singularly important aspect of Jina Amucha is Baby Kambles Dalit
feminist critique of patriarchy. (Pandit: xv) This research paper seeks to critically analyse the
way in which Kambles Dalit identity and the influence of her socio-political context has
influenced her representation of her own self and of the women of different castes and classes
around her.
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It is not often in Indian English literature that one finds images of rural, Dalit women. It is also
uncommon, in any language, to find a text by a non-urban, Dalit woman writer. Most Indian texts
that deal with this subject tend to stereotypically represent Dalit women as ignorant, passive,
silent sufferers; or else, Dalit communities are sentimentally idealised as being more equal in
terms of gender relations. Baby Kambles autobiographical work, originally titled Jina Amucha
in Marathi and translated into English as The Prisons We Broke by Maya Pandit, provides a rare
opportunity to study how Dalit women construct their own identities and represent their
community.
To quote Maya Pandit, A singularly important aspect of Jina Amuchais Baby Kambles Dalit
feminist critique of patriarchy (Pandit: xv).
The complex picture that emerges at the end of this text is one of a community in flux with
changing gender roles, resistance to change and a diversity of female figures, some still caught in
the net of patriarchy, while, others are half-way out and some, like Kambles exemplary
grandmother who, to quote Kamble, was used to addressing meetings and did not experience
stage fright. She climbed onto the stage and made a fiery resounding speech, addressing the huge
crowd, in the presence of Babasaheb, thus, participating in the Dalit movement and helping in
bringing about social progress (Kamble: 65).

In the text under study, Kamble does not stress much on her own personal development but
on the changes that affected the community to which she belonged, namely, the Mahars of
Maharashtra, as well as the larger issues that concerned the Dalit movement in which they
participated. She writes about her childhood, in the 1940s, when Dr B. R. Ambedkars words had
inspired the struggle for equal rights. To quote Arjun Dangle, It is no coincidence that the Dalit
literary movement began in Maharashtra, the birthplace of Dr Ambedkars movement. His
revolutionary ideas stirred into action the Dalits of Maharashtra and gave them new self-respect.
Dalit literature is nothing but the literary expression of this awareness (Dangle: xi).
Thus, Dalit literature is written with a purpose and so its socio-historical context and resultant
effects become very important. It is also important to note that issues of gender cannot be
isolated from other issues like that of caste. Dalit women are, therefore, thrice exploited, in terms
of caste, class and gender.
Kambles text is a witness record of the struggles of her entire community as they tried to make
a move from traditional prisons towards modernity. In some ways they were successful,
especially in the spread of education and in defying the caste system, but in other ways,
especially in gender relations, the results were mixed. Dalit women writers wanted to define
themselves and not be trapped in framed images that others, including male Dalit writers, had
created regarding them. Also, Kambles desire to write can be seen as an attempt to show the role
rural women played in the Ambedkar movement, something that is not always acknowledged in
historical and literary texts written on the subject. To quote Jasbir Jain:
Why and when does a class or a category desire to possess, write or recover its history? Often
this happens when the need is felt for self-affirmation, for an intervention in the master
narrative.These alternate spaces of representation, thus assume importance, in terms of
resistance to various ideological behemoths (Jain: 226).
Kambles book is also meant to inspire other women to change their lives for the better in similar
ways, especially the Dalit women, for Kamble is conscious of her exceptional position among
them, as an educated female agent of change. This is because her father sent her to a school even
though most of his neighbours did not do the same for their children and though he did not allow
his own wife to step outside their home, he did place emphasis on educating his daughter. Her
education enabled Kamble to read and engage with the outside world in a way that most of the
dalit women around her were unable to do. This is not to suggest that she was not bound by
patriarchal and caste based strictures, but that in some ways she had the ability to read and
express in writing her feelings and struggles, thus offering a critical and resistant female Dalit
voice in her writings.
Kamble is aware also that other women must continue on the path of progress for in the text she
tells them to educate themselves and their children, stating, I am sure my sisters and mothers
will carry out this task with an iron resolve (Kamble: 135). She gleans the need for women to
challenge those conventional symbols of religion and superstitions that persuade women into
submission and justify patriarchal domination.

One of the things that Kamble repeatedly stresses upon is the importance of education. She
describes how despite the discrimination she faced at school; she still went because her father
was inspired by Dr. Ambedkar who gave the call to Educate, Agitate, Organize. Education was
not just a means of economic mobility and self-sufficiency, but it also broke down caste barriers
as no one community could claim its exclusive birth right on it. From a womans perspective of
course, it went beyond caste. Education revolutionised gender relations in terms of challenging
traditional patriarchal gender roles.
In her book, Kamble ascribes an important responsibility to educated Dalit woman, as those on
whose shoulders largely lies the duty of keeping their families in the path charted by the Father
or Dr. Ambedkar. Kamble recognises the influence education can have on empowering women
not just in public lives but also within marriage, and the role women can play in social
development. It is important to understand that Kambles focus, on educating and empowering
dalit women in particular, arises from her feelings of belonging to that community and her
emphasis in her memoir of the way dalit women, unlike the upper caste women, are oppressed
both for being a dalit by the larger community and for being women within the dalit patriarchal
household as well. The gender based oppression of dalit women is compounded by caste and
class based oppressions.
Baby Kamble describes the way she and other women of her community participated in the
Ambedkar movement, by singing songs and giving speeches, campaigning for Dalit political
candidates and sitting in demonstrations. She states how women from other communities also
showed their solidarity, by forming a Mahila Mandal with Dalit women leaders. She writes of
her admiration for them as a young girl, All these leaders were impressive young women
excellent speakers revolutionary women indeed (Kamble: 133).
The independent and strong image that these women portrayed was something that Kamble as a
little girl aspired to and seeing real life examples of strong women made the impossible seem
possible for not just Kamble but other women in her community. This example also shows how
gender solidarity could not only transcend caste divisions but also present a united front against
gender bias. For women are enslaved by patriarchy across class and caste lines. To quote Kamble
from an interview, Women are still slaves. And it is not just Dalit women; I see around me many
women from both upper and lower castes. All women are facing problems. However, at the
same time, she is wary of her role as an inspiring leader for dalit women in particular, and she is
cognisant of the double oppression on dalit women in terms of their caste and gender. Thus, in
terms of gender struggle both the unifying issue of gender rights and the other varying power
dynamics and contexts of caste and class are kept in mind by Kamble.
Baby Kamble also represents herself as a woman on a mission, who plays an important public
role and is active in changing her community for the better. Her very act of writing shows her
resistance to gender and caste restrictions that a traditional patriarchal society would like to

impose on her. She writes, I decided to begin my struggle through my writing Today, I am the
president of Mahatma Phule Dnyan Vikas Prasarak Sanstha (Kamble: 135).
Kamble is conscious of her own image as the figure representing modern Dalit women post the
Ambedkar revolution, as she states, I am a product of the Ambedkar movement. She portrays
herself as a leader and an active agent for social change. These are powerful roles for a woman
to assume in a society that is still very patriarchal. However, Kambles representation of Dalit
women reveals that the hold of patriarchy was very strong before the Ambedkar movement and it
has continued to remain quite strong even now. Kamble is very aware of the hypocrisy of Dalit
men who want social equality for their community but continue to treat their wives like slaves.
For instance, Kambles father participated in the Ambedkar movement and sent his daughter to
school, while at the same time boasting that nobody had seen ever seen his wife. Kamble is
scathing in her critique of child marriage, the violence upon women like the cutting off of their
noses on suspicions of infidelity.

The Ambedkar movement addressed the public issue of caste but it only partially addressed the
private issue of gender relations within the family home. For example, Baby Kamble got
educated, set up a shop and became an important public figure. But, in her private life, she was
married off at the age of thirteen, was subjected to domestic violence and had to hide her writing
from her husband for twenty years. Most of this information is not taken from The Prisons We
Broke but rather from an interview she gave much later to Maya Pandit. In order to study how
she represented herself and the women of her community it also becomes important to
interrogate the aspects of her life that she was silent on and the possible reasons behind this veil
over her own private life.
The hold of patriarchy is very strong and cuts across caste and class divisions, but is of course,
complicated by these divisions. Women are not encouraged to voice their emotions, or express
themselves, which is why Kamble had to hide her writing. They are allowed to expunge their
emotions in ritualistic ways, for example, Kamble talks of women who were possessed by spirits
and then shouted obscenities at even their men, and father-in-law would bend and touch the feet
of such possessed women. But otherwise, the married Mahar women covered their faces with
their sari and were supposed to be docile.
Some patriarchal ideas are too deeply entrenched in Kambles mind for when asked why she
chose not to write on the domestic violence she suffered in her work, Kamble replied, Well, he
was my husband after all! Besides I had my community to consider, our lack of education,
progress. It would be so demeaning. Besides this was the fact of most women; I wasnt an
exception. So why write about it, I felt.
There is a sort of resignation in these words which is so different from her fiery attitude towards
the issue of caste, which too affects many people but that is no reason to be silent about it or to
give up on it. Indian women are traditionally expected to shield their private life from their

public and pretend that everything is fine. Thus, Kamble practices self-censorship in order to
conform to patriarchal limits, which is a practise not limited to Dalit womens writings. To quote
Jasbir Jain on Indian womens literature:
The veil of secrecy and the habit of silence prevent them from talking about their innermost
thoughtsat times the notion of respectability, constrains women in the expression of their
innermost selves, the expression of hatred, love or guilt (Jain: 218).
People protesting caste and gender discrimination are united in their desire for equal human
rights. To quote Urmila Pawar, another Dalit writer from Maharashtra, Dalit men fight for
humanity, but what is humanity, even they do not know, because they do not have humanity
towards their wives. Thus, the private and the public do intersect in this debate on humanity and
it will be dangerous to interrogate only one and not the other.
The uniqueness of Dalit womens writing lies in the direct experience and daily struggles that
informs their writing and gives it an urgency of purpose. It is important to note the gaps in
Kambles writing as not a failure or deception on her part but as the complex nature of gender
and feminist studies in the Indian context wherein, issues of gender, class and caste all intersect,
and the socio-historical context becomes important. To refer to Gail Omvedt as G. Arunima does,
the oppression of women is both specific to a socio-historical context and simultaneous in
gender terms. Thus, to conclude, neither caste nor gender exists in isolation and urban bourgeois
Indian feminism must be sensitive to this while studying texts by women writers from
marginalised backgrounds (Arunima: 219).
Works Cited:
Arunima, G. Some Issues in an Analysis of Caste and Gender in Modern India. Translating
Caste: Stories, Essays, Criticism. Ed. Tapan Basu. New Delhi: Katha, 2002.
Basu, Tapan. Narratives of Suffering: Dalit Perspectives. Translating Caste: Stories, Essays,
Criticism. Ed. Tapan Basu. New Delhi: Katha, 2002.
Dangle, Arjun. Introduction. Poisoned Bread: translations from Modern Marathi Dalit
Literature. Ed. Arjun Damgle. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1992.
Jain, Jasbir. Indigenous Roots of Feminism: Culture, Subjectivity and Agency. New Delhi: Sage,
2011.
Kamble, Baby. The Prisons We Broke. Trans. Maya Pandit. Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2008.
Pandit, Maya. Introduction. The Prisons We Broke. by Baby Kamble. Trans. Maya Pandit.
Hyderabad: Orient BlackSwan, 2008.
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Neha Singh is currently pursuing M Phil in English Literature from Jamia Millia Islamia (4 th
semester), New Delhi. She also works as an ad-hoc assistant professor of English at Mata Sundri
College, Delhi University. Her areas of interest are cultural and postcolonial studies, literature by
women writers, subaltern studies as well as contemporary and new literatures in English.