By Press Information Bureau
NEW DELHI: The President Pranab Mukharee , the Vice President M. Hamid Ansari has condoled the passing away of acclaimed writer and activist Mahasweta Devi. In a message, he said that she will be remembered for her popular stories that sought to raise awareness about social injustice, discrimination, poverty in our country.
“I am deeply grieved to hear about the passing away of acclaimed writer and activist Mahasweta Devi. She will be remembered for her popular stories that sought to raise awareness about social injustice, discrimination, poverty and the plight of the marginal people in our country.I offer my heartfelt condolences to her family members and pray for eternal peace for the departed soul.”
The Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has condoled the demise of Indian social activist and writer Mahashweta Devi. “Mahashweta Devi wonderfully illustrated the might of the pen. A voice of compassion, equality and justice, she leaves us deeply saddened. RIP”, the Prime Minister said.
Devi was born in 1926 in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to literary parents. Her father, Manish Ghatak, was a well-known poet and novelist of the Kallol movement, who used the pseudonym Jubanashwa.[3] Ghatak’s brother was noted filmmaker Ritwik Ghatak. Mahasweta’s mother, Dharitri Devi, was also a writer and a social worker whose brothers were very distinguished in various fields, such as the noted sculptor Sankha Chaudhury and the founder-editor of the Economic and Political Weekly of India, Sachin Chaudhury.
Mahasweta’s first schooling was in Dhaka, but after the partition of India she moved to West Bengal in India. She joined the Rabindranath Tagore-founded Vishvabharati University in Santiniketan and completed a B.A. (Hons) in English, and then finished an M.A. in English at Calcutta University.
She later married renowned playwright Bijon Bhattacharya, who was one of the founding fathers of the IPTA movement. In 1948, she gave birth to Nabarun Bhattacharya, one of Bengal’s and India’s leading novelists, whose works have been noted for their intellectual vigour and philosophical flavour. She got divorced from Bijon Bhattacharya in 1959.
