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.

1 Biography
2 Career
3 Patriotism
4 Works
5 Awards
6 External links

[edit] Biography

Born into a middle-class Bengali family, Mahasweta Devi studied at the school system of Visva-Bharati University, and at the University of Calcutta. Her family shifted to India during the partition of the subcontinent in 1947. She later earned a M.A. degree in English from the Visva-Bharati University as well.

[edit] Career

In 1964, she began teaching at Bijoygarh College (an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta system). During those days, Bijoygarh College was an institution for working class women students. Also during that period, she also worked as a journalist and as a creative writer. Recently, she is more famous for her work 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 struggles 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, authoritarian upper-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.

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 by Raj Kapoor (the English equivalent is in brackets):

This is truly the age where the Joota (shoe) is Japani (Japanese), Patloon (pants) is Englistani (British), the Topi (hat) is Roosi (Russian), But the Dil... Dil (heart) is always Hindustani (Indian)... My country, Torn, Tattered, Proud, Beautiful, Hot, Humid, Cold, Sandy, Barbaric, Savage, Shining India. My country.

[edit] Patriotism

Her patriotic statement was furnished with the lyrics:

Mera joota hai Japani
Ye pataloon Inglistani
Sar pe lal topi Roosi
Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani

My shoes are Japanese
These trousers are English
The red hat on my head is Russian
But still my heart is Indian

The song was commissioned by Kapoor for a Bollywood film in 1955. It is still extremely popular and has been featured in a number of movies since.

[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.