Google paid tribute to social activist and Bengali author Mahasweta Devi today on the occasion of her 92nd birth anniversary.The Ramon Magsaysay awardee passed away in July 2016 following age-related illness. She was honoured with the Jnanpith Award in 1996. Counted among South Asia's most decorated authors, Mahasweta Devi was also bestowed with Padmashri, Padma Vibhushan and Sahitya Akademi award.The writer-activist was known for a lifetime of dedicated work for welfare of tribals in different parts of India. She raised her voice against forcible land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram."My India," she once said, "still lives behind a curtain of darkness". Her famous works like 'Hajar Churashir Ma' (Mother of 1084), 'Aranyer Adhikar' (Right to the Forest, 'Jhansir Rani' (The Queen of Jhansi), 'Agnigarbha' (The Fire Within), 'Rudali', 'Sidhu Kanhur Daakey', gave an insight into the oppressed lives. Many of her novels inspired filmmakers and were turned into movies. Award winning films like Govind Nihalani's 1998 movie Hazar Chaurasi ki Ma and Kalpana Lajmi Rudali were based on books authored by Mahasweta Devi. While Rudali was based on the lives of professional mourners upon the death of upper-caste males in Rajasthan, 'Hazaar Chaurasi ki Ma' (The Mother of 1084) is based on her Bengali novel on the emotional struggles of a mother who tries to understand the reasons behind her son's involvement in the Naxalite movement.Mahasweta Devi also focused on women's rights in her works. Her short story 'Choli Ke Peeche' inspired Italian director Italo Spinelli to make the multilingual 'Gangor'.
NEW DELHI: Google Doodle today celebrated the 92nd birth anniversary of the Padma Shree awardee and Bengali author and social activist Mahasweta Devi Devi, who won the the Sahitya Akademi award in 1979, wrote 100 novels and 20 collection of short stories. She was best known for her work "Hajar Churashir Ma", "Rudali", and "Chotti Munda Evam Tar Tir".In 1997, she was awarded with the Ramon Magsaysay award in journalism, literature, and the creative communication arts for "compassionate crusade through art and activism to claim for tribal peoples a just and honourable place in India's national life."Devi is well known for her crusade for the rights and empowerment of the Lodha and Shabar, the tribal people from West Bengal, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.Today's Google Doodle is reminiscent of author's contribution to the field of literature, her work for the tribal community and her association with Bengal.Born in 1926, in Decca, British India (Now Dhaka, Bangladesh), the author completed her graduation in Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in English from the Rabindranath Tagore-founded Patha-Bhavana Vishvabharati University in Santiniketan. She also completed her Master's in English from Calcutta University.She wrote her first novel, Jhansir Rani (1956), which was based on a biography of Rani of Jhansi.She won the Sahitya Akademi award (1979), the Padma Shree (1986), the Jnanpith (1997), the Magsaysay award (1997) and the Deshikottam award in 1999.In 2003, the French government awarded her with the prestigious Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Orders of Arts and Letters) for her contributions to the arts and literature.In 2007, she was the leading voice to protest against the killing of 14 people by West Bengal police who were protesting against a proposal by the Left Front government of the state to set up a chemical hub at Nandigram.
