Mahasweta Devi
14 January 1926 – 28 July 2016
Mahasweta Devi was an Indian writer in Bengali and an activist who worked with Adivasi and other marginalised communities in West Bengal, Bihar and Odisha. Her fiction, including Hajar Churashir Maa and Aranyer Adhikar, drew on documentary research into rural and tribal life. She received the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Jnanpith Award, the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the Padma Vibhushan.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Mahasweta Devi.
- Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1924–2018) Overlapped 90 years →
- Charles Aznavour (1924–2018) Overlapped 90 years →
- Chen-Ning Yang (1922–2025) Overlapped 90 years →
- David Attenborough (1926–present) Overlapped 90 years →
- Etel Adnan (1925–2021) Overlapped 90 years →
- James Lovelock (1919–2022) Overlapped 90 years →
Life events
Born into a literary family; her father Manish Ghatak was a poet and her uncle Ritwik Ghatak a filmmaker.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgStudied at Santiniketan and took a bachelor's degree in English.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMarried a founding member of the Indian People's Theatre Association; the marriage ended in divorce in 1962.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgA biographical account of Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi, based on field research in the Jhansi region.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgA novel about a mother investigating her son's death during the Naxalite movement in Calcutta.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgRecognised for her Bengali novel about the Munda leader Birsa Munda.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgReceived India's principal literary prize for her body of work in Bengali.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHonoured for journalism, literature and creative communication arts.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgReceived India's second-highest civilian honour.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDied of multiple organ failure at the age of 90.
Source: en.wikipedia.org