Fair chance

Talking about the project jointly done with Bharati Vidyapeeth University,Khandge says,”We had compiled the women’s literature in Maharashtra in 2003. That time it was three volumes with 1600 pages that we took to cover literary forms from various parts of the state. It not only included stories,novels,biographies and even children’s literature,” says Khandge.

Sahityapremi Bhagini Mandal established in 1965 has been working on the literature in Maharashtra for over 40 years and Khandge adds that no such documentation was made even on a national level prior to this. Explaining the importance of such compilations,Khandge adds,”Literature is a reflection of the era it belongs to. Women have been writing since 1850s and if one takes note of the transition,it can be observed that the initial writings were about emotions,suppression that woman went through during those days. Due to illiteracy,many of the works were not even written down. If you take a later period,the writings are revolutionary and talk about the outside world. For instance,when Maharshi karve first started women’s education or when Jyotiba Phule and Savitribai Phule contributed to the movement,woman in Maharashtra started going to schools and that is the period that one can see major shift in the topics handled by them.”

After the compilation limited only to Maharashtra,Sahityapremi Bhagini Mandal thought of broadening the scope to the entire country. With contribution by over 60 experts,expenditure of over 10 lakhs and relentless efforts for over four years,the compilation of women’s literature from India was released in Marathi language in 2008. The real achievement came when volumes were appreciated not only by literary experts but even by President Pratibha Patil.

“And while compiling the information we also came to know the status of women in different parts of the nation. While some of the writers in south India,Maharashtra,Bengal have over 100 novels each to their credit,there are areas in the northeast where the total number of books written by women in the state does not cross 100. We asked experts to send us the reviews from their regions and languages and after translating them in English,published the same compilations in English this year,” adds Khandge.

With 1100 copies,the books in two volumes and 1200 pages are meant for sociology,literature,comparative studies and so on. “We are planning to send the copies to various libraries across the country,” smiles Khandge.