Mahasweta Devi

Mahasweta Devi (14 January 1926 – 28 July 2016) was an Indian Bengali fiction writer and social activist. Her notable literary works include Hajar Churashir Maa, Rudali, and Aranyer Adhikar. She worked for the rights and empowerment of the tribal people (Lodha and Shabar) of West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh states of India. She was honoured with various literary awards such as the Sahitya Akademi Award (in Bengali), Jnanpith Award and Ramon Magsaysay Award along with India's civilian awards Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan.

Childhood & Early Life

· Mahasweta Devi was born in 1926 in Decca, British India (now Dhaka, Bangladesh) to literary parents. Her father, Manish Ghatak, was a well-known poet and novelist of the Kallolmovement, who used the pseudonym Jubanashwa. Ghatak's brother was noted filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak. Devi's mother, Dharitri Devi, was also a writer and a social worker whose brothers were very distinguished in various fields, such as the noted sculptor Sankha Chaudhury and the founder-editor of Economic and Political Weekly of India, Sachin Chaudhury.

· Mahasweta Devi's first schooling was in Dhaka, Eden Montessori school (1930) but after the partition of India she moved to West Bengal in India. Then she studied in Midnapur Mission School(1935). After that she admitted in Santiniketan from 1936 to 1938. After that she studied in Beltala Girls' School (1939-1941) and got metric. Then in 1944 she got I.A. from Asutosh College. Then she joined the Rabindranath Tagore-founded Patha-Bhavana Vishvabharati University in Santiniketan and completed a B.A. (Hons) in English, and then finished an M.A. in English at Calcutta University.

Career

· Devi wrote over 100 novels and over 20 collections of short stories primarily written in Bengali but often translated to other languages.^[10] Her first novel, titled Jhansir Rani, based on a biography of Rani of Jhansiwas published in 1956. She toured the Jhansi region to record information from the people and folk songs for the novel.

· In 1964, she began teaching at Jadavpur, Kolkata-32 (an affiliated college of the University of Calcuttasystem). During those days, Vijaygarh jyotish Ray College was an institution for working-class women students. During that period she also worked as a journalist and as a creative writer. She studied the Lodhasand Shabars, the tribal communities of West Bengal, women and dalits. In her elaborate Bengali fiction, she often depicted the brutal oppression of tribal peoples and the untouchables by potent, authoritarian upper-caste landlords, lenders, and venal government officials.

· Mahasweta Devi raised her voice several times against the discrimination of tribal people in India. In June 2016, the Jharkhand State Government freed the statue of noted tribal leader Birsa Munda upon Devi's activism. The statue showed Birsa in chains as was photographed by the then ruling British government. Her 1977 novel Aranyer Adhikar was on the life of Munda.

Major Works

· Devi spearheaded the movement against the industrial policy of the earlier Communist Party of India (Marxist) government of West Bengal. Specifically, she stridently criticized confiscation of large tracts of fertile agricultural land from farmers by the government and ceding the land to industrial houses at throwaway prices. she supported the candidature of Mamata Banarjee in the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election that resulted in the end of the 34-year long rule of CPI(M).

· She had connected the policy to the commercialization of Santiniketan of Rabindranath Tagore, where she spent her formative years. Her lead in the Nandigram agitation resulted in a number of intellectuals, artists, writers and theatre workers joining together in protest of the controversial policy and particularly its implementation in Singur and Nandigram.

· At the Frankfurt Book Fair 2006, when India was the first country to be the Fair's second time guest nation, she made an impassioned inaugural speech wherein she moved the audience to tears with her lines taken from the famous film song "Mera Joota Hai Japani" by Raj Kapoor.

Awards & Achievements

· 1979: Sahitya Akademi Award (Bengali): – Aranyer Adhikar (novel)

· 1986: Padma Shri for Social Work

· 1996: Jnanpith Award – the highest literary award from the Bharatiya Jnanpith

· 1997: Ramon Magsaysay Award – Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts for "compassionate crusade through art and activism to claim for tribal peoples a just and honorable place in India’s national life."

· 2003: Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres

· 2006: Padma Vibhushan – the second highest civilian award from the Government of India

· 2007: SAARC Literary Award

· 2009: Shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize

· 2010: Yashwantrao Chavan National Award

· 2011: Banga Bibhushan – the highest civilian award from the Government of West Bengal

Personal Life & Legacy

· On 27 February in 1947, she married renowned playwright Bijon Bhattacharya, who was one of the founding fathers of the Indian People's Theatre Association movement. In 1948, she gave birth to Nabarun Bhattacharya, who became a novelist and political critic. She worked in a post office but was fired from there for her communist leaning.^[9] She went on to do various jobs, such as selling soaps and writing letters in English for illiterate people. In 1962, she married author Asit Gupta after divorcing Bhattacharya. After that she broke up relationship with Gupta in 1976.

· On 23 July 2016, Devi suffered a major heart attack and was admitted to Belle Vue Clinic in Kolkata. Devi died of multiple organ failure on 28 July 2016, aged 90. She also suffered from diabetes, septicemia and urinary infection.

· On her death, Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal tweeted "India has lost a great writer. Bengal has lost a glorious mother. I have lost a personal guide. Mahasweta Di rest in peace." Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted "Mahashweta Devi wonderfully illustrated the might of the pen. A voice of compassion, equality & justice, she leaves us deeply saddened. RIP."

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Mahasweta Devi

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