Voice of Marginalized Women in Baby Kamble's The Prisons We Broke

Inequality, discrimination, suppression and subjugation are the synonyms of the lives of dalit women. “The Prisons We Broke” is an autobiography presents not only the personal experiences of Baby Kamble but also the voice of entire Mahar community and marginalized women. Baby Kamble’s autobiography “Jina Amucha” was first published as a book in Marathi in 1986, and translated into English by Maya Pandit as “The Prison We Broke”. The pronoun We in the title stands for the people of Mahar and the doubly subjugated women and here the suffering of marginalized women becomes Kamble’s own suffering. Her autobiographical narrative is more social and less individual in delineating the details. She considers that the life experiences of her community people are her own experiences. Baby Kamble’s autobiography is slightly differs from traditional autobiographical genre of self-revelation, her autobiography explores the suppressed voice of dalit women who are doubly oppressed. Dalit writers’ autobiographies are the authentic voices and they play an important role to break the long endured silence and old stereotype environment prevalent among caste hegemonic present society. This paper analyses the pathetic and inhuman conditions in the lives of dalit women who are not only the prey of upper caste but also the prey of her own male dominant society. The paper tries to highlight dalit women’s firmness for gaining self identity as well as communal identity out of patriarchal dominance.