College name: Narasinha Dutt College

College id: 20221344

College roll: 22D-HISA- 877
CU roll no: 222432-11-0205
CU registration no: 432 -1211-0356-22
Paper: English (Ge3)
TOPIC: AMAR JIBON AS AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my teacher, SL, PM, as well as our
principal Dr. Soma Bandyopadhyay who give me the golden opportunity to do this wonderful
project on the topic "Amar Jibon as an autobiography" which also helped me in doing a lot of
research and I came know about so many new thing I am really thankful to them. Secondly I
would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finalizing this project
within the limited time frame.
CONTENTS:
Autobiography (Page 1-4)

Refereence (Page 5)
Malavika karlekar in her book on the early personal narratives of Bengali women
voices from within (1991) notes that any personal writing by a woman in a
conscious act in which her inner self gets reflected. At the process the writer turns
to be a different 'being', very different from what she is otherwise in her day-to-day
life. Rassundari Devi, due to her great efforts, became the first
modern autobiography in Bengali language. Her transformation from an illiterate
unknown housewife to a writer of an important genre of literature is thus
praiseworthy. Importantly when she started her autobiography she was already a
widow who had attained the age of sixty.the fact that she completed the first part of
her autobiography as early as 1868 is a matter of significance because barring a
few Indian women in general never had privilege to get a formal education so that
they could aspire to become a writer.Rassundari later added a second part to her
autobiography which combinedly came out with a tittle Amar Jiban in 1897 when
she was eighty-eight.the preface to the book was written by Jyotindranath Tagore,
Rabindranath Tagore's elder brother who praised for its"excellence"and
recommended that every household in Bengal should have a copy of
it.Dineshchandra sen wrote an introduction to the book.Reviewing the life and
writting of Rassundari sen imphesized the significance of the autobiography,"an
entire chapter of Bengali literature would have reminde incomplete"had this book
not been written.he went to an extent suggesting that Amar Jiban was not merely
"the account of Rassundari sen but a story of all Hindu women of her time".

Learning how to read and write for Rassundari was virtually an imposible task.
Getting married at the age of twelve she had heavy responsibility of running a
large household and taking cere of her eleven children.Rassundari writes how it
was difficult for her to manager her household duties even if she was busy doing
the work beginning from dawn till midnight . Time was not her only problem. It
was believed at that time by the women in Bengal and other parts of the country
that if women started learning to read and write their husbands would die as a
consequence of their violative action. Thus, female education was never
encouraged in the antahpur .But Rassundari zeal fir education was never let down
by the prohibitive social system. Rassundari informs us, how
miserable she felt when her thirst for reading Chaitanya Bhagavat arose in her
mind. What possible steps she would have taken to fulfil her dream is difficult for
us to imagine. She is Frank in the book about her stealing of a page from her
husband's Bhagabat and hiding it under the hearth of the kitchen. Whenever she
found leisure time she tried to memorise the letters, which she had come across
during her childhood days, stealthily. One can now understand
what a great effort went into Rassundari Devi's becoming literate and to write such
an autobiography. Rassundari herself bestows all credit to God. That's why
perhaps, at the beginning of every composition she invokes her God to help her in
her mission. She also openly confesses her doubts and difficulties before God
asking for excuses if she went wrong. It must be mentioned here that
by invoking the grace of God Rassundari did not in any way reconcile herself with
the abiectness of her life calling it 'fate' or god-given. Rather she advocated a kind
of 'social policy' through out her writing making it as an agenda in what Tanika
Sarkar, a historian calls succinctly , "the social making". In other words, by writing
her autobiography Rassundari was very much aware of the fact that fact that she
was going to reveal some home- truths, such as, women's education, problems of
motherhood, status of widowhood, etc, which are all modern topics relevant for
discussion even today.

Rassundari main critique was targeted at family 'which is even today known as
repressive and oppressive institution" especially for women. And Rassundari was
justified. The situations of pre-modern Bengali family can be best known from the
descriptions of the antahpur tradition.As had been the tradition an upper caste/class
family had a pure compartmentalization of dwelling i.e.,the inner and the outer
rooms.Men who were generally educated and in_charge of dealing with the public
were the lords of the houses.On the otherland, women were compelled to live an
isolated life in the inner rooms round the clock busying themselves doing what was
commonly known as women's duties. Cooking took most of their time.Rassundari
records how three- fourths of her day was spent on preparing food only.And, there
were hundred and one chores to be attended to.One cannot believe how miserably
they spent their lives unless and until one hears the account from one of the
victims. Living together for more than fortyfive years Rassundari recalls, she
never talked to her husband face to face. This was tradition of her time and she
followed it meticulously. In the book she always addressed him as karla and
revered him, perhaps, next to her God.This was not unusual because the time
Rassundari wrote her life- story men folk commanded more respect both inside and
outside the household.The idea that they were the sole bread earners of the house,
perhaps, made them to assume extra power in family. Women were treated as
inferior and they became the immediate victims in the family. Assuming power
men also controlled women's movements.They never allowed their women cross
the boundary gates to go for even socializing _let alone allow them to work
outside and be independent economically. Earlier we have already mention the
compartmental lifestyle of antahpur where women were confined to their inner
apartments. Inheriting such tradition Rassundari never got let down.She even never
accused anybody in person for such arrangements.She,however, registered protest
against the orthodox Hindu tradition which, as she believed, was responsible for
the low status of women in her time and society. On the other himd, it may seem
strange at this stage ti quote Rassundari when she had all praises for her husband in
unequivocal terms.

The tales of this Book are obviously personal. But the way she portrayed her social
and domestic life is nothing but a true picture of every woman.Dinesh Chandra sen
rightly comments. "This biography cannot be ignored for being a personal account
only. It is an account of a typical Hindu woman. The woman , who simply told us
her own tale, delineated the social picture unheeded. Amar Jibon is not only an
account of Rassundari but an account of all the Hindu women of that time;there is
no other instance, in Bengali literature, of such an exact and truthful picture of
women. Now it seems that a chapter of Bengali literature was never revealed
unless this was written. "Thus, Amar jiban is a true picture of the contemporary
society framed within the autobiography of a woman. Her autobiography constitute
itself as an instance of how to write about the self in relation to events and persons,
and in relation to the life of the soul, devotion to a deity ,and aspiration towards the
infinite. She reconnected her past to the present. Thus she represented two
generations. So, Dinesh Chandra Sen rightly said: "we can gloriously disclose to
the World an example of Bengali housewife."
REFERENCE:
 wikipedia.org
 www.lotusarise.com