Muktabai Salve
Muktabai Salve was a nineteenth-century Indian writer, who is considered one of the earliest Dalit women figures who contributed to the early Dalit literary movement.[1] She is known for an early critique of caste and gender discrimination in her essay Mang Maharachya Dukhavishayi (lit. 'Grief of Mang-Mahars'). She belonged to the Mang community and was educated at a school run by social reformer Jyotirao Phule and his wife Savitribai Phule.
Muktabai Salve | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1840s[2] |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Period | 1850s–1860s |
| Subject | Dalit literature |
| Notable works | Mang Maharanchya Dukkhavishayi (1855) |
Career
[edit]Born into the Mang community, Muktabai had studied in Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule's school for around three years since the age of 10.[3] Historian Shailaja Paik writes that Salve's 'newly acquired literacy' allowed her to articulate the social suffering of Untouchable communities and to question prevailing caste hierarchies and Brahman authority.[4] In 1855, at the age of fourteen, Salve authored an essay titled Mang Maharachya Dukhavishayi (lit. 'Grief of Mang-Mahars') published in the Marathi periodical Dnyanodaya (lit. 'Rise of Knowledge').[5] In the essay, she discussed the caste based inequality and criticised Brahminical domination.[6][7][8] Paik notes that through the essay Salve connected personal experiences of suffering with broader structures of gender and caste power in colonial society.[6][9] In this context, Paik considers her "an early enunciator of intersectionality."[10]
According to Hanumant Ajinath Lokhande, Salve's essay represents a significant early articulation of Dalit consciousness in literature and "the genealogy of Dalit literature can be traced in Salve's essay."[11] Lokhande refers to her as the 'first Dalit feminist writer' of India.[12]
Later, in 1946, Salve's essay was reprinted in the Dnyanodaya Centenary Volumes, edited by B. P. Hivale.[13] Apart from her 1855 essay, little is known about Salve's later life.[13] Sharmila Rege dedicated her book Writing Caste, Writing Gender to Salve and referred to her essay as "the first feminist testimonio."[14][15]
References
[edit]- ↑ Das 2026, p. 206–.
- ↑ Kawade 2025, p. 10, "We do not know Salve's exact date of birth, but given that she was 14 when her essay was published, she must have been born in 1840 or 1841.¹
[Note 1]; Mukta's birth anniversary has recently started to gain relatively widespread recognition in popular commemorations as 5 January 1840. However, this date of birth is unconfirmed". - ↑ Chakravarti 2017, p. 60.
- ↑ Paik 2014, p. 86.
- ↑ Lokhande 2024, p. 67.
- 1 2 Paik 2014, p. 150.
- ↑ Singh & Sinha 2024, p. 61.
- ↑ Lokhande 2024, p. 68.
- ↑ Paik 2025, p. 254.
- ↑ Paik 2021, p. 58.
- ↑ Lokhande 2024, p. 66-67.
- ↑ Lokhande 2024, p. 67-68.
- 1 2 Tharu & Lalita 1991, p. 214–215.
- ↑ Kawade 2025, p. 1.
- ↑ Rege 2014, p. for.
Bibliography
[edit]- Uma, Chakravarti (2017). "Did girls have a childhood in the past? Mythologies, ideologies, histories". In Saraswathi, T. S.; Menon, Shailaja; Madan, Ankur (eds.). Childhoods in India: Traditions, Trends and Transformations. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-351-57998-8.
- Lokhande, Hanumant Ajinath (2024). Representations of Dalit Protagonists: Indian English Fiction and Marathi Dalit Literature. Springer Nature. ISBN 978-3-031-66444-1.
- Tharu, Susie J.; Lalita, Ke (1991). Women Writing in India: 600 B.C. to the early twentieth century. Feminist Press at CUNY. ISBN 978-1-55861-027-9.
- Paik, Shailaja (2014). Dalit Women's Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-67330-9.
- Singh, Lata; Sinha, Shashank Shekhar (2024). Gender in Modern India: History, Culture, Marginality. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-890080-1.
- Das, Damayanti (2026). "Dalit Literature". In Mandal, Mahitosh; Kondekar, Sanjiv (eds.). Dalit Studies: Key Terms and Concepts. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-04-087064-8.
- Paik, Shailaja (2025). "Dalit Womenism-Humanism : Against Caste and Gender Hierarchies". In Dube, Saurabh; Banerjee, Ishita; Banerjee-Dube, Ishita (eds.). The Routledge Handbook of Subalterns Across History. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-032-57883-5.
- Kawade, Ankit (2025). "wl-3295-The Age of a Thinker: On Mukta Salve's Dukkha". Economic & Political Weekly. 60 (18): 10–13. doi:10.71279/epw.v60i18.39289. ISSN 2349-8846.
- Rege, S. (2014) [2006]. Writing Caste/Writing Gender: Narrating Dalit Women's Testimonies. Zubaan. ISBN 978-93-83074-67-9.
- Paik, Shailaja (2021). "Dalit Feminist Thought". In Fernandes, Leela (ed.). Routledge Handbook of Gender in South Asia. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-000-47128-1.