Craving for Identity: Subaltern Anguish in “The Prisons We Broke”

Baby Kamble’s ‘The Prisons We Broke’, is most probably the first autobiography by a Dalit woman written in any language in India. She portrays the real picture of the degraded position of the Mahar community in the twelve chapters of this book, keeping her own life out of her autobiography. She doesn’t focus on any single character and its development, instead, her book is a manifesto of her community. She demonstrates how caste and religion converge to perpetuate exploitative practices against Dalits. Her autobiography can easily be divided into two distinctive parts. The first part of it portrays the oppression and exploitation of the Mahar community in those days. The second part brings forth the transformation and awakening of the Mahar community under the magnetic influence and leadership of Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar.