Jina Amucha and The Prisons We Broke: A Comparative Study in Translation

Abstract

The emergence of Dalit Literature has significantly expanded the Indian literary tradition. A remarkable addition to Dalit Literature is Baby Kamble’s autobiography Jina Amucha, which depicts the socio-cultural, economic and political conditions of the Dalit community in Indian society. Over time, translation of literary works from regional Indian languages to English has made the world a global village. The autobiography, Jina Amucha, the memoir of Baby Kamble, was translated into English as The Prisons We Broke (2008) by Maya Pandit. The paper highlights the importance, challenges and drawbacks of translation, and compares the original Marathi text and the English translated version. It examines the role of a translator through linguistic and socio-cultural aspects to understand the processes that translation adapts in conveying the sensibility of the original Marathi text.