‘Voice of justice’ Mahasweta Devi dies

Eminent writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi, who served as the voice of the marginalised and oppressed, passed away on Thursday after prolonged illness. She was 90.

Mahasweta Devi was a recipient of the Raman Magsaysay award, Jnanpith Award, Sahitya Akademi Award, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Shri and other accolades. She is survived by her daughter-in-law and grandchild. Her writer son, Nabarun Bhattacharya, died two years back. She was admitted at Belle Vue Clinic since May 22 and passed away today at 3:16 pm following multi-organ failure and cardiac arrest. Prime Minister Narednra Modi, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, eminent writers and prominent people from all walks of life commiserated her death. In a literary career spanning over six decades, Mahasweta Devi wrote over 120 books, including 100 novels and 20 collections of short stories. She received national as well as international fame for her famous novels Hajar Churashir Maa published in 1975 and Aranyer Adhikar. She also worked extensively for the tribal and marginalised people and was a prominent face from literary field in Singur and Nandigram movements.

“Mahasweta Devi wonderfully illustrated the might of pen. A voice of compassion, equality and justice, she leaves us deeply saddened. RIP,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted.

After learning about her demise, chief minister Mamata Banerjee cut short her trip and returned to the city at night from Delhi.

“India has lost a great writer. Bengal has lost a glorious mother. I have lost a personal guide. Mahasweta Di, Rest in Peace,” Ms Banerjee tweeted. Later she informed that Mahasweta Devi would be cremated on Friday with full state honours.

“She was my guardian and I was very close to her. She always enquired about me and she was like my mother. As we were deeply connected with her, we have decided to cremate her with full state honours. Her body will be kept at Peace Haven and tomorrow we will keep her body at Rabindra Sadan from 10 am to 1 pm where people and her admirers will pay their final tributes,” Ms Banerjee said.

Mahasweta Devi’s grandchild and family members reached the city from Delhi at night and went to Belle Vue Clinic. Two of her family members were by her side when she breathed her last. “We tried our level best but her condition deteriorated suddenly and at 3.16 pm she passed away,” said chief executive officer of the clinic, P Tandon.

State ministers Partha Chatterjee, Aroop Biswas, Sovan Chatterjee and minister of state, Indranil Sen, visited the south Kolkata nursing home and paid their final tributes to the author.

Mahasweta Devi was born in 1926 in Dhaka into a family of poets, writers, and artists. Her father, poet-novelist Manish Ghatak, and mother, writer-social activist Dharitri Devi, shaped her liberal outlook.

She cleared her graduation with English honours at Rabindranath Tagore-founded Visva Bharati at Santiniketan, and later got her master’s degree from Calcutta University.

In the 1970s, she championed the cause of two tribal groups — the Lodhas of erstwhile Midnapur district and the Kheria Sabars of Purulia — who were among those notified by the British in 1871 as “criminals.”

The novel ‘Aranyer Adhikar’ (The Occupation of the Forest), dwelling on Birsa Munda’s revolt against the British, earned her the Sahitya Akademi award in 1979. Published in 1975, her famous novel ‘Hajar Churashir Maa’ (Mother of 1,084) — inspired by Maxim Gorky’s ‘Mother,’ was written in the backdrop of the Maoist movement. ‘Choti Munda evam Tar Tir’ (Choti Munda and His Arrow), ‘Bashai Tudu,’ ‘Titu Mir,’ are among other masterpieces by her.

Her short story collections, including ‘Imaginary Maps’ and ‘Breast Stories,’ ‘Of Women, Outcasts, Peasants, and Rebels,’ and short stories like ‘Dhowli’ and ‘Rudali’ also deal with tribal life. She was known as ‘Mother of the Sabars.’ She also successfully campaigned for the release of women kept in West Bengal jails for years as non-criminal lunatics.

Mahashweta Devi helped tribal and the marginalised in organising themselves in groups to help them take up development activities in their own areas. She founded several grassroots level societies for the welfare of the tribal. Besides writing novels, she also contributed in innumerable articles and columns to newspapers and magazines, a large number of them on tribal life.