Sulekha Sanyal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sulekha Sanyal, (1928–1962) was a Bengali woman writer and activist.
[edit] Biography
She grew up in Korkandi, now in Bangladesh, in a decaying zamindar family that had once been indigo planters, and was to become a member of the Communist Party of India. An early influence on her was the Brahmo philosopher and reformer, Ramtanu Lahiri, who was related to her mother. She was married, briefly and unsuccessfully, from 1948 to 1956.
Her chief work is Nabankur (The Seedling) 1956, translated by Gouranga P. Chattopadhyay and published by Stree in 2001. Its heroine, Chhobi, is a young girl from a rural zamindar family in Bengal of the 1930s, and the book follows her as she learns to fight injustice, protest against the privileges denied her but granted to her brothers, and the restrictions of the patriarchal society around her. World War II breaks out, cutting short Chhobi’s education in the city. She returns to the village, gets involved with relief work and witnesses the Bengal Famine of 1942.
Much of the story mirrors Sanyal’s own life, for she was born into a similar family, educated briefly in Chittagong, then got involved in politics during the Bengal Famine. Her first stories were accepted by the radical newspaper Jugantar. Late in life she was awarded a degree in Bengali literature by Bardhaman University.
Sulekha Sanyal also wrote a collection of short stories, Sindure Megh (Clouds Tinged with Red). Her Dewal Padma (Wallflowers) was published in 1964, after her early death from leukaemia.
[edit] Sources
- Women Writing in India: 600 BCE to the Present, edited by Susie Tharu and K. Lalitha, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993) ISBN 9780195631951
- Nabankur (The Seedling), translated by Gouranga P. Chattopadhyay, (Calcutta: Stree, 2001) ISBN 81-85604-30-4
