Mahasweta Devi

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Mahasweta Devi (Bengali: মহাস্বেতা দেবী Môhashsheta Debi) (born 1926 in Dacca in what is now Bangladesh) is an Indian writer. Born into a middle-class Bengali family, Mahasweta Devi studied at Shantiniketan, and Calcutta University. Her family shifted to India during the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. She later earned a M.A. in English at Visva-Bharati, a renowned experimental university. In 1964, she began teaching at Bijoygarh College in Jadavpur; an Indian college for working class women, while simultaneously working as a journalist and creative writer. She is noted in recent decades for her works related to the study of the rural tribal communities of West Bengal, women and dalits. She is also an activist who is dedicated to the struggle of tribal people in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In her elaborate Bengali fiction, she often depicts the brutal oppression of tribal peoples and the untouchables by potent, authoritary high-caste landlords, lenders, and venal government officials. She has written of the source of her inspiration:

:"I have always believed that the real history is made by ordinary people. I constantly come across the reappearance, in various forms, of folklore, ballads, myths and legends, carried by ordinary people across generations....The reason and inspiration for my writing are those people who are exploited and used, and yet do not accept defeat. For me, the endless source of ingredients for writing is in these amazingly, noble, suffering human beings. Why should I look for my raw material elsewhere, once I have started knowing them? Sometimes it seems to me that my writing is really their doing."

She made an impassioned inaugral speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2006, wherein she moved the audience to tears with her lines :

" This is truly the age where the Joota (Shoe in Hindi) is Japani (Japanese in Hindi), Patloon (Pants in Hindi) is Englistani (Britain in Hindi), the Topi (hat in Hindi) is Roosi (Russian in Hindi), But the Dil .. Dil (Dil is heart in Hindi)is always Hindustani (Hindustani is Indian in Hindi) [ This is from a very famous film song acted by Raj Kapoor ] .. My country, Torn, Tattered, Proud, Beautiful, Hot, Humid, Cold, Sandy, Barbaric, Savage, Shining India. My country.

[edit] Works

Hajar Churashir Ma (No. 1084's Mother, 1975)
Aranyer Adhikar (The Occupation of the Forest, 1977)
Agnigarbha (Womb of Fire, 1978)
Choti Munda evam Tar Tir (Choti Munda and His Arrow, 1980)
Breast-Giver [1]
Imaginary Maps, 1995 (translated by Gayatri Spivak) London & New York. Routledge
Dhowli (Short Story)
Breast Giver (1998)
Dust on the Road
Our Non-Veg Cow
Bashai Tudu
Titu Mir

[edit] Awards

Padma Vibhushan - the second highest civilian award from the Government of India in the year 2006.
Ramon Magsaysay Award for journalism, literature and creative communication in 1997.
Jnanpith Award - the highest literary award from the Sahitya Akademi.