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• 1 2025-05-06T09:53:04-04:00 Alice Ekka (1917-1978): Author Profile 4 Author profile for Alice Ekka (एलिस एक्का) plain 2025-06-20T07:59:19-04:00 Community: Munda
  Language: Hindi
  Best-known book: Alice Ekka Ki Kahaniyan (Stories of Alice Ekka), edited by Vandana Tete, published 2015
  
  Wikipedia: "Alice Ekka (Hindi: एलिस एक्का) (8 September 1917 – 5 July 1978) was an Indian Adivasi writer known to be the first female storyteller from a tribal background. Ekka was born in Ranchi on 8 September 1917, and was from the Munda community.[1] She was the first tribal woman in Jharkhand to graduate in English, in 1938 at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta. She wrote stories in Hindi, publishing in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.[1] A collection of her stories, Alice Ekka Ki Kahaniyan, edited by Vandna Tete, (Radhakrishna Prakashan, ISBN 978-8183617918) was published posthumously in 2015. Her stories in the 1960s were published in the weekly magazine Adivasi Patrika.
  
  "She is described as "India's first female tribal storyteller", and the centenary of her birth was celebrated with a two-day conference, the "All India Tribal Women Writer's Meet", held in her home town of Ranchi."
  
  Short fiction by Alice Ekka:
  "Durgi's Children and Elma's Dreams"
  (We do not have a date on this short story, though it was probably written in the 1960s)
  This short story describes the relationship between two women, Elma and Durgi. Elma grew up in a well-off household with an unspecified caste background. She encounters Durgi, described in the story as "Jamadarin" (जमादारिन), literally "forewoman," but with a likely caste association. Durgi is likely from a Dalit caste. The two had known each other as children and young women, but have not seen each other in many years. Durgi reveals she has several children, and is on her fourth husband (earlier husbands passed away, some from disease). She works very hard for little pay, and has little prospect for relief. Meanwhile, Elma largely seems unencumbered. Towards the end of the story, Elma remembers knowing Durgi as a young woman, and finding her beautiful and dynamic. She was warned by her mother not to spend too much time with "that sweeper woman." Elma's final thoughts are of her hopes that caste divides will eventually fade away as India modernizes:

  If only such a day would come when every corner of free India became completely clean! When all the filth flowed underground. When everyone did their own cleaning! Then maybe there would be no sweepers at all!
  
  A vision of such an India began to appear before Elma’s eyes. She saw Durgi's children clean and well-kept. All of them, shoulder to shoulder, helping to uplift the country.

  
  Scholarly article on Alice Ekka:
  https://uu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1622933/FULLTEXT01.pdf