Abstract
This article examines Chhotke Chor (1915), a pioneering short story written in Awadhi by Shrimati Mohini Chamarin, considered the first known Dalit woman to publish fiction in Hindi. Overlooked for nearly a century, the story was rediscovered by researcher Naiya at Jawaharlal Nehru University and republished in Tehelka and Dastak: Naye Samay Ki. Drawing on the version reprinted in Lok Lay, this study situates the story within the socio-historical context of early twentieth-century North India, characterized by caste-based exclusion, colonial rule and the emergence of a nascent Hindi public sphere. Through its portrayal of a Dalit widow and her children, Chhotke Chor offers a rare lens into the gendered and caste-inflected realities of subaltern life. Written in a regional dialect and published under the caste-assertive name ‘Chamarin’, the story challenges the Brahmanical and patriarchal literary canon. Its themes of poverty, resilience, irony and quiet rebellion make it a foundational text for Dalit feminist aesthetics. The article argues that the recovery of Chhotke Chor reshapes the timeline of Hindi Dalit literature, revealing the cultural resistance embedded in early Dalit women’s voices and demanding their rightful place in literary historiography.
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