Shikshan Sanshodhan : Journal of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences

Marathi Dalit autobiography occupies an important place in Indian literature because it brings experiences of caste oppression, poverty, humiliation, social exclusion, and resistance into literary discourse. This article examines these experiences in Sharankumar Limbale’s The Outcaste (Akkarmashi), Baby Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke, and Laxman Gaikwad’s The Branded (Uchalya). Although the three autobiographies emerge from different social, familial, gendered, and community contexts, they collectively reveal the pervasive influence of caste on identity, labour, education, dignity, and social relationships. Limbale’s The Outcaste presents the fractured identity of a person born to a Mahar mother and a high-caste father and demonstrates how caste and illegitimacy produce social and psychological humiliation. Kamble’s The Prisons We Broke presents the collective history of Mahar life, particularly the experiences of women and the intersection of caste, poverty, patriarchy, and religious customs. Gaikwad’s The Branded exposes the historical criminalization and continuing social stigma attached to the Uchalya community. The article argues that humiliation in these texts is not merely an individual emotional experience but the consequence of wider social structures. At the same time, the three autobiographies move beyond suffering through education, self-awareness, Ambedkarite consciousness, collective memory, self-respect, and autobiographical narration. A comparative reading demonstrates that Dalit experience is not homogeneous: oppression assumes different forms according to caste location, gender, family, occupation, community history, and social circumstances. Nevertheless, the three writers share a movement from imposed inferiority toward self-definition, consciousness, resistance, and dignity.