Rashsundari Debi
Also called: Rassundari Devi · Topic: Print Culture and the Modern World · NCERT: Class 10, Ch 5 "Print Culture and the Modern World"
Meaning
Rashsundari Debi was a woman from an orthodox family in East Bengal in the nineteenth century. At that time, many people believed that a girl who learnt to read would become a widow. She married young and was given no schooling. She taught herself to read in secret, in her kitchen. She later wrote her life story, which shows how print helped women find their own voice.
Example
Her autobiography, Amar Jiban ("My Life", 1876), was the first full-length autobiography in Bengali. In it she describes her hard daily life as a housewife and her secret effort to learn to read.
Don't confuse with
- Kailashbashini Debi: another Bengali woman writer, from the 1860s. She wrote about the unjust treatment of women in general, not a full autobiography.