Table Of ContentBaby Kamble lives in Phaltan, a small town in the Satara district of Maharashtra.
She is a veteran of the Dalit movement in Maharashtra. Inspired by the radical
leadership of Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, she has been involved with the struggle
from a very young age. She has established a government approved residential
school for socially backward students in Nimbure, a small village near Phaltan.
She has been honoured with awards for her literary and social work. Collections
of her poetry have also been published.
Maya Pandit is an activist who is involved with the womens and teachers’
movements in Maharashtra for the last two decades. She has published research
papers on issues in the women’s movement as well as education. She has also
been associated with the alternative Marathi theatre and has translated Marathi
plays into English. She now works as a professor and teacher educator at English
and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad.
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ASHOKAMITRAN
THE PRISONS WE BROKE
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For all my comrades who wish to change the world
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Introduction
The Prisons We Broke
An Interview with Baby Kamble
Afterword
Glossary
Acknowledgements
It has been my privilege to translate Baby Kamble’s Jina Amucha into English.
These memoirs were first serialised in 1984 in Stree, a Marathi women’s
magazine, and later published as a book in 1986. The memoirs have been
translated into many languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, French and
Spanish. It gives me great pleasure to have been able to make this book available
to readers of English.
Translating these memoirs has not been easy. Baby Kamble uses the dialectal
Marathi of the Mahars living around Phaltan—a small town in Satara district of
Maharashtra—while writing about the life of her community, and a standard and
more formal language for discussing political developments. The dialectal
Marathi comes alive with live cadences, subtle humour and varied tonal patterns.
I am aware that much of that flavour is probably lost in translation.
The last chapter in this translation is an addition and is being published for
the first time. Many details of Baby Kamble’s growth as an activist are
recorded in this chapter. Another distinctive feature of this work is a long
interview with Baby Kamble, where she discusses her personal life and work, and
raises many issues related to women and patriarchy, family and violence,
problems encountered by Dalit women in the articulation of their experiences
and in political struggles.
During the course of this translation, I have received help from many quarters.
I would especially like to thank K. Satyanarayana for his help in the initial stages
of this project and later on for having read the translation; Jayanti Alam, for
reading the initial draft of the translation and pointing out many problem areas
as well as for her extremely valuable suggestions. The responsibility for any gaps
that remain in the final translation are, of course, entirely mine.
I would like to thank Malathy Krishnan and Meera Manavi for reading the
translation and for their encouragement; Baby Kamble and her family for giving
me so much time and making me and Uday feel at home; Uday for being with
me throughout and for helping at each stage of this project, including the
interview; Nikhil and Neeraj for their invaluable support. I do not know what I
would have done without them.
I am grateful to Prakash, Kumari and Nagamani for taking care of the home
front. Without them cooking, cleaning and washing, this translation would not
have been possible. And, finally, Sivapriya for taking a keen interest in this
project.
MAYA PANDIT
