Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday paid her solemn homage to legendary writer Mahashweta Devi on her death anniversary. Taking to her Twitter handle, Banerjee said, ” Solemn homage to Mahashweta di (Devi), legendary writer, on her death anniversary. ” ” We miss her a lot. Her voice of protest is dearly missed in these challenging times, ” she added.
Mahashweta Devi was born in 1926 at Dhaka, Bangladesh in a family of literateurs and social workers. Manish Ghatak, her father, was a poet and a novelist and her mother, Dharitri Devi was a social worker and also a writer. She started her schooling in Dhaka, but after the partition, she moved with her family into West Bengal in India.
She completed her high school and the bachelor’s degree (English Hons.) at Visva-Bharati, in Shantiniketan (the school founded by Rabindranath Tagore). Thereafter she earned an M.A. in English from the Calcutta University.
A prolific and best-selling author of novels and short stories in Bengali, Mahashweta Devi was equally well known for her pioneering work among the most down-trodden in the Indian society – the dispossessed tribals and the marginalized segments such as landless labourers of eastern India. The quarterly Bortika that she used to edit since 1980 was a mouthpiece for these people.
Her writings were often based upon meticulous research, conducted sometimes via unconventional means (such as oral history), into the history of the people she wrote about. Her notable literary works included Hajar Churashir Maa, Rudali, and Aranyer Adhikar.
