NEW DELHI: Google today paid tribute to eminent Bengali writer-activist Mahasweta Devi on her 92nd birth anniversary with a doodle depicting her contribution to literature and her work with the tribal community.The Padma Vibhushan awardee was best known for her works including "Hajar Churashir Maa", "Chotti Munda Evam Tar Tir", " Rudali ", and "Jhansir Rani".With over 100 novels and over 20 short stories collections, Mahasweta Devi's work primarily focused on social issues and common people.Born in 1926 in Dhaka to well-known poet Manish Ghatak and Dharitri Devi, also a writer and social worker, she grew up in a political and literary environment.After graduating in Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in English from the Patha-Bhavana Vishvabharati University, Santiniketan, she also completed her Master's degree in English from Calcutta University.For her work in the literary field, she received Sahitya Akademi Award for "Aranyer Adhikar" in 1979, Jnanpith Award in 1996, Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1997 and was shortlisted for Man Booker International Prize in 2009.Apart from her literary work, Devi was also known for her social work for the rights of tribal communities in West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.She had also taken active part in Nandigram agitation and headed the movement against the earlier CPI (Marxist) government's industrial policy.She was awarded Padma Shri for social work in 1986, Padma Vibhushan in 2006 and Banga Bibhushan in 2011.Devi passed away in July, 2016 following a heart attack and other age-related illnesses.
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.
Google on Sunday celebrated the 92nd birthday of eminent Bengali littérateur and social activist Mahasweta Devi with a doodle that depicts the writer’s love for literature, and her crusade for the rights of rural and tribal people.
Hailing from a family of prolific playwrights and writers, Mahasweta Devi wielded the power of the pen to bring to light the plight of “suffering spectators” in our fast-developing country. Writing came naturally to her. Her father Manish Ghatak was an eminent poet and novelist, as was her mother. Her father’s brother Ritwik Ghatak was considered one of the finest directors in Bengal and her husband Bijon Bhattacharya was a prominent left-wing playwright and actor. Having grown up partly in Rabindranath Tagore's Santiniketan, Mahasweta Devi went on to work as an English lecturer at a Kolkata university until 1984 when she retired to concentrate on her writing.
Read: Tearing the curtain of darkness
Her first book, Jhansir Rani was a biography of the Rani of Jhansi. Following its publication 1956, she went on to write over 100 books and twenty collections of short stories. Her early works include Amrita Sanchay and Andhanmalik, both set in the British colonial period. Later in the 1970s, influenced by the Naxalite movement, she wrote Hajar Churashir Ma, Aranyer Adhikar and NairhiteMegh, among others.
A long time champion for the political, social and economic rights of the tribal communities, Mahasweta Devi has said that the reason why she writes has evolved over the years. First it was primarily for the money, then to document change and later, to share what she has seen. “I want to reach as many people as possible,” she said. “I write for the masses.”
In her tribute to the writer following her demise, Antara Dev Sen wrote about how Mahasweta Devi’s books often mirror the society. “When you see women in Argentina protesting restrictions by breastfeeding in public, you remember Mahasweta’s Gangor, the young tribal mother who was horribly tormented by the police because someone took a photo of her breastfeeding her baby and published it,” she wrote. “When you hear of Odisha’s Dongria Kondh tribe’s historic victory against Vedanta, the powerful multinational corporation intent on mining in the land where the tribal gods reside in the form of forests and hills, you remember the little people in Shishu (Children), the neglected ones whose beliefs are trampled upon, who are forced out of their own land by mining projects and made into criminals by the greed of the mainstream.”
A writer-activist through and through, Mahasweta Devi had been awarded numerous accolades, including the Padma Vibhushan, the Jnanpith, Magsaysay, Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi, among others. Her work has been translated into multiple languages. She passed away on July 28, 2016, at the age of 90, in Kolkata, West Bengal.
