Literary giant, crusader for tribal rights
Mahasweta Devi dead
Kolkata:
Eminent activist-writer, honoured with Padma Vibhushan and Magsaysay Award for
her decades of crusade for the rights of tribals and the marginalised,
Mahasweta Devi died at a city nursing home on Thursday, 28th July
2016 following prolonged old-age complications. She was 90.
"She
passed away at 3.16 p.m. following a cardiac arrest and multi-organ
failure," a doctor attending on her confirmed. Mahasweta Devi is survived
by her daughter-in-law and grandchild. Her son pre-deceased her two years back.
In a
six-decade long literary career, she authored over 120 books, comprising 20
collections of short stories and around 100 novels, and contributed innumerable
articles and columns to newspapers and magazines, a large number of them woven
around tribal life.
Adopting
a simple style laced with colloquial words and expressions, Mahasweta blended
oral histories with contemporary events to portray the sufferings of the
tribals in the hands of upper-caste landlords, money lenders and government
servants.
The
novel "Aranyer Adhikar" (The Occupation of the Forest), dwelling on
Birsa Munda's revolt against the British, fetched Mahasweta Devi the Sahitya
Akademi Award in 1979. "Choti Munda evam Tar Tir" (Choti Munda and
His Arrow), "Bashai Tudu", "Titu Mir", are among other
masterpieces.
Another
famous novel published in 1975 -- "Hajar Churashir Maa" (Mother of
1,084), inspired by Maxim Gorky's "Mother" -- has the backdrop of the
Maoist movement.
From
the late '70s, she began to intervene directly and 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
"criminal tribes".
Mahasweta
Devi later came to be revered as "The Mother of the Sabars".
Simultaneously, she lent her weight to the tribal struggles in various other
states.
People
from across the fields of art, culture, cinema and politics paid tribute to
her.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi described her as "a voice of compassion, equality
and justice", while Congress President Sonia Gandhi described Mahasweta
Devi as "India's conscience keeper, whose words echoed her inner voice,
representing the voiceless and faceless countrymen".
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee
announced that the Jnanpith winner would be given a state funeral on Friday.
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