Mamoni Raisom Goswami
Encyclopedia
Indira Goswami known by her pen name
Mamoni Raisom Goswami and popularly as Mamoni Baideo, was an Assamese
editor
, poet
, professor
, scholar and writer
.
She was the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award
(1983), the Jnanpith Award
(2001) and Principal Prince Claus Laureate
(2008) A celebrated writer of contemporary Indian literature
, many of her works have been translated into English
from her native Assamese
which include The Moth Eaten Howdah of the Tusker, Pages Stained With Blood
and The Man from Chinnamasta
.
She was also well known for her attempts to structure social change
, both through her writings and through her role as mediator between the armed militant group United Liberation Front of Asom
and the Government of India
. Her involvement led to the formation of the People's Consultative Group
, a peace committee. She referred to herself as an "observer" of the peace process rather than as a mediator or initiator.
Her work has been performed on stage
and in film
. The film Adajya
is based on her novel won international awards. Words from the Mist is a film made on her life directed by Jahnu Barua
.
family in Guwahati
, India
; her father is Umakanta Goswami. She studied at the Pine Mount School in Shillong
, which was the capital of undivided Assam
. She later majored in Assamese literature
at Cotton College
in Guwahati.
Popularly known as Mamoni Raisom Goswami in Assam, she was encouraged by Kirti Nath Hazarika who published her first short stories — when she was still in Class VIII (thirteen years old) — in a literary journal he edited.
since her childhood. In the opening pages of her autobiography
, The Unfinished Autobiography, she mentions her inclination to jump into the Crinoline Falls located near their house in Shillong. Repeated suicide
attempts marred her youth. After the sudden death of her husband, Madhaven Raisom Ayengar, in a car accident in the Kashmir
region of India, after only eighteen months of marriage, she became addicted to heavy doses of sleeping tablets
. Once brought back to Assam, she joined the Goalpara Sainik School as a teacher.
At this point she went back to writing. She claims that she wrote just to live and that otherwise it would not have been possible for her to go on living. Her experiences in Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh
, an Indian state
where her husband had worked as an engineer
, was used in her novels Ahiron and The Chehnab's Current, respectively.
in Goalpara
, Assam, she was persuaded by her teacher Upendra Chandra Lekharu to come to Vrindavan
, Uttar Pradesh
, and pursue research for peace of mind.
Her experiences as a widow
as well as a researcher
finds expression in her novel The Blue Necked Braja (1976), which is about the plight of the Radhaswami
s of Vrindavan who lived in abject poverty and sexual exploitation in everyday life. One of the main issues that the novel touches upon is the plight of young widows for whom companionship beyond the confines of their ashram
s and fellow widows become impossible. Their urge to live, as well as the moral dilemma that they face vis-a-vis the order of precepts of religion in this regard, are brought out with astonishing clarity and feeling in the novel. The novel exposed the uglier face of Vrindavan — the city of Krishna
, an Hindu
deity
— inviting criticism of Goswami from conservative sections of the society. It remains a classic in modern Indian Literature
. It is autobiographical in character as she says the anguish of the main character Saudamini, reflects what she had gone through after her husband had died. It was also the first novel to be written on this subject. The novel was based on Goswami's research on the place as well as real-life experience of living in the place for several years before she joined the University of Delhi
as a lecturer
.
In Vrindavan she was involved in Ramayana
studies. A massive volume of Tulsidas
's Ramayana
purchased during her stay there for just eleven rupee
s was a great source of inspiration in her research. This finds expression in the unparalleled comparative study of Tulsidas's Ramayana and the fourteenth-century Assamese Ramayana
(the first Ramayana to be written in any modern Indian language
) written by Madhava Kandali
in her work Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra.
, India, to become Head of Assamese Department at the University of Delhi, the most glorious phases of her life begins. While at the university, she wrote most of her greatest works. Several short stories, including Hridoy, Nangoth Sohor, Borofor Rani, used Delhi as the background.
Her two classics — Pages Stained With Blood and The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker— were also written during this period. The other books completed while she lived in Delhi were Ahiron,The Rusted Sword, Uday Bhanu, Dasharathi's Steps and The Man from Chinnamasta.
In Pages Stained With Blood she writes about the plight of Sikh
s in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots
following the assassination of Indira Gandhi
, the Prime Minister of India
. Goswami had witnessed the riots while staying in the Shakti Nagar
area of Delhi. She visited many of the other sites to complete this novel. She even went to G. B. Road
, Delihi's red-light district
, to depict the lives of the prostitute
s who lived there which forms a part of her novel.
In The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker she writes about the plight of Assamese Brahmin widows in Satra, religious institutions of Assam. This novel was anthologised
in the The Masterpieces of Indian Literature and was made into a film, Adajya, which won several national and international film-festival
awards. The novel was also made into two television
mini-series
; Nandita Das
played the role of Giribala in one of the mini-series.
At the peak of her literary career she wrote the controversial novel The Man from Chinnamasta, a critique of the thousand-years-old tradition of animal sacrifice
in the famous Hindu Shakti
temple to Kamakhya
, a mother goddess
, in Assam. Goswami reported that there was even threat to her life after writing the novel. In this novel she quotes scriptures to authenticate the argument she puts forward in the novel — to worship the Mother Goddess with flowers rather than blood. She said in an interview, "When the novel was serialized in a popular magazine, I was threatened with dire consequences. Shortly after this, a local newspaper, Sadin, carried an appeal about animal sacrifice, which resulted in quite an uproar—the editor was gherao
ed and a tantrik
warned me. But when the appeal was published, the response was overwhelmingly in favour of banning animal sacrifice. I also had to contend with rejection from a publisher
who was initially keen and had promised me a huge advance
, but who later backtracked, offering instead to publish any other book of mine. But the rest, as they say, is history and Chinnamastar Manuhto went on to become a runaway bestseller
!"
Another major piece of her fiction during the period was Jatra (The Journey), based on the problem of militancy
/secession
ism that has affected almost the entire North-East India
frontier
ever since Indian independence.
Mamoni Raisom Goswami passed away in Guwahati on 29th November, 2011 at 7:45 AM IST.
(1982). She received the Jnanpith Award
(2000), India's highest literary award, for writing about the subalterns and marginalised. Two of the main features in Goswami's writing has been the focus on women and the cultural and political construct of the Assamese society. However, it is also to her credit that she also created possibly one of the finest male characters in contemporary Assamese literature, viz. the character of Indranath in Datal Hantir Une Khowa Howdah (The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker).Her contribution in the Assamese feminist literature is self evident in this work.She takes up the issue of patriarchy existing within Assamese Brahmin families with an illustration taken from a small place in Assam known as Amranga,Borihat.This work is also encrusted with a post-colonial tinge in it as we see the mimicry of the colonizers among the colonised. It is also to her credit that she made extensive use of the relation between different variants of the modern Assamese language as both signifiers of the politics of social and cultural differences among the various Assamese communities. But the overall emphasis remained on the unity of the Assamese identity. This may be taken as her way of dealing with the nature of contemporary politics in Assam marked by ethnic confrontation, besides the larger politics of the militant secessionism.She also contributed a major sum of the Claus Laureate[2008] to a Public Health Centre of Amranga,Borihat in Assam.This contribution is not merely material in its nature but a dream since her childhood,come true.
she left the mortal world on 29 th of november , 2011 after suffering a long ailment in GUWAHATI MEDICAL COLLEGE.
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
Mamoni Raisom Goswami and popularly as Mamoni Baideo, was an Assamese
Assamese people
The Assamese people are a well-defined subgroup of People of Assam. Though sometimes they are defined as the Assamese-speaking Indo-Aryans of the Brahmaputra valley,, this definition is not legally binding...
editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, poet
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
, scholar and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
.
She was the winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...
(1983), the Jnanpith Award
Jnanpith Award
The Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country...
(2001) and Principal Prince Claus Laureate
Prince Claus Awards
The Prince Claus Fund was inaugurated in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of The Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs....
(2008) A celebrated writer of contemporary Indian literature
Indian literature
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages....
, many of her works have been translated into English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
from her native Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
which include The Moth Eaten Howdah of the Tusker, Pages Stained With Blood
Pages Stained With Blood
Pages Stained With Blood originally published as Tej Aru Dhulire Dhushorito Prishtha is an Assamese novel by Indira Goswami that depicts the gory Sikh pogrom in Delhi as an aftermath of the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in June 1984...
and The Man from Chinnamasta
The Man from Chinnamasta
The Man from Chinnamasta is a novel published in 2005 and written by Indira Goswami, who was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983, the Jnanpith Award in 2001 and the Prince Claus Awards in 2008...
.
She was also well known for her attempts to structure social change
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
, both through her writings and through her role as mediator between the armed militant group United Liberation Front of Asom
United Liberation Front of Asom
The United Liberation Front of Asom is a separatist group from Assam, among many other such groups in North-East India. It seeks to establish a sovereign Assam via an armed struggle in the Assam Conflict...
and the Government of India
Government of India
The Government of India, officially known as the Union Government, and also known as the Central Government, was established by the Constitution of India, and is the governing authority of the union of 28 states and seven union territories, collectively called the Republic of India...
. Her involvement led to the formation of the People's Consultative Group
People's Consultative Group
The People’s Consultative Group was a citizen’s group in Assam constituted by ULFA to initiate the talk process as mediator between the central government and the outfit itself. It was constituted on September 8, 2005 with 11 members in it.It was dissolved by ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa on the...
, a peace committee. She referred to herself as an "observer" of the peace process rather than as a mediator or initiator.
Her work has been performed on stage
Stage (theatre)
In theatre or performance arts, the stage is a designated space for the performance productions. The stage serves as a space for actors or performers and a focal point for the members of the audience...
and in film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
. The film Adajya
Adajya
Adajya is a 1996 Assamese language film directed by Santwana Bardoloi based on a novel by Indira Goswami.-Plot:The film is set in 1940s Assam. Three widows in 1940's Assam struggle to lead dignified lives despite the extreme restrictions mandated by law and custom...
is based on her novel won international awards. Words from the Mist is a film made on her life directed by Jahnu Barua
Jahnu Barua
Jahnu Barua is a multiple national and international award-winning Indian film director from Assam. He has directed a number of Assamese and Hindi films, and along with Bhabendra Nath Saikia was one of the pioneers of Assamese Art cinema...
.
Early life and education
She was born Indira Goswami to a BrahminBrahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
family in Guwahati
Guwahati
Guwahati, Pragjyotishpura in ancient Assam formerly known as Gauhati is a metropolis,the largest city of Assam in India and ancient urban area in North East India, with a population of 963,429. It is also the largest metropolitan area in north-eastern India...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
; her father is Umakanta Goswami. She studied at the Pine Mount School in Shillong
Shillong
-Connectivity:Although well connected by road, Shillong has no rail connection and a proper air connection. Umroi Airport exists but has only limited flights.-Roadways:Shillong is well connected by roads with all major north eastern states...
, which was the capital of undivided Assam
Assam
Assam , also, rarely, Assam Valley and formerly the Assam Province , is a northeastern state of India and is one of the most culturally and geographically distinct regions of the country...
. She later majored in Assamese literature
Assamese literature
Assamese literature is the entire corpus of poetry, novels, short stories, documents and other writings in the Assamese language. It also includes popular ballads in the older forms of the language during its evolution to the contemporary form. The literary heritage of the Assamese language can...
at Cotton College
Cotton College, Guwahati
Cotton College is a premier institution for higher education located in the heart of Guwahati, Assam, a northeastern state of India.240px|right|thumb| Cotton College, the premier college of Assam-History:...
in Guwahati.
Career
In 1962, she published her first collection of short stories, Chinaki Morom, when she was a student.Popularly known as Mamoni Raisom Goswami in Assam, she was encouraged by Kirti Nath Hazarika who published her first short stories — when she was still in Class VIII (thirteen years old) — in a literary journal he edited.
Depression
Goswami has suffered from depressionDepression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
since her childhood. In the opening pages of her autobiography
Autobiography
An autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
, The Unfinished Autobiography, she mentions her inclination to jump into the Crinoline Falls located near their house in Shillong. Repeated suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
attempts marred her youth. After the sudden death of her husband, Madhaven Raisom Ayengar, in a car accident in the Kashmir
Kashmir
Kashmir is the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term Kashmir geographically denoted only the valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal mountain range...
region of India, after only eighteen months of marriage, she became addicted to heavy doses of sleeping tablets
Hypnotic
Hypnotic drugs are a class of psychoactives whose primary function is to induce sleep and to be used in the treatment of insomnia and in surgical anesthesia...
. Once brought back to Assam, she joined the Goalpara Sainik School as a teacher.
At this point she went back to writing. She claims that she wrote just to live and that otherwise it would not have been possible for her to go on living. Her experiences in Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
, an Indian state
States and territories of India
India is a federal union of states comprising twenty-eight states and seven union territories. The states and territories are further subdivided into districts and so on.-List of states and territories:...
where her husband had worked as an engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
, was used in her novels Ahiron and The Chehnab's Current, respectively.
Life in Vrindavan
After working at the Sainik SchoolSainik School
The Sainik Schools are a system of schools in India established and managed by the Sainik Schools Society. They were conceived in 1961 by V. K. Krishna Menon, the then Defence Minister of India, to rectify the regional and class imbalance amongst the Officer cadre of the Indian Military, and to...
in Goalpara
Goalpara
Goalpara is the district headquarter of Goalpara district, Assam, India. It is situated west of Guwahati.-Etymology:The name of Goalpara is said to have originally derived from `Gwaltippika` meaning `Guwali village` or the village of the milk men. In the local dialect "para" means...
, Assam, she was persuaded by her teacher Upendra Chandra Lekharu to come to Vrindavan
Vrindavan
Vrindavan also known as Vraj is a town in the Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, India...
, Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
, and pursue research for peace of mind.
Her experiences as a widow
Widow
A widow is a woman whose spouse has died, while a widower is a man whose spouse has died. The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed widowhood or occasionally viduity. The adjective form is widowed...
as well as a researcher
Researcher
A researcher is somebody who performs research, the search for knowledge or in general any systematic investigation to establish facts. Researchers can work in academic, industrial, government, or private institutions.-Examples of research institutions:...
finds expression in her novel The Blue Necked Braja (1976), which is about the plight of the Radhaswami
Radhaswami
Radhaswami can refer to:* Krishna* Radhaswami , a Brahmin Buddhist sage, under whose guidance the Mauryan emperor Ashoka adopted Buddhism* Radha Soami, a spiritual movement founded by Shri Shiv Dayal Singh Sahab...
s of Vrindavan who lived in abject poverty and sexual exploitation in everyday life. One of the main issues that the novel touches upon is the plight of young widows for whom companionship beyond the confines of their ashram
Ashram
Traditionally, an ashram is a spiritual hermitage. Additionally, today the term ashram often denotes a locus of Indian cultural activity such as yoga, music study or religious instruction, the moral equivalent of a studio or dojo....
s and fellow widows become impossible. Their urge to live, as well as the moral dilemma that they face vis-a-vis the order of precepts of religion in this regard, are brought out with astonishing clarity and feeling in the novel. The novel exposed the uglier face of Vrindavan — the city of Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
, an Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
deity
Deity
A deity is a recognized preternatural or supernatural immortal being, who may be thought of as holy, divine, or sacred, held in high regard, and respected by believers....
— inviting criticism of Goswami from conservative sections of the society. It remains a classic in modern Indian Literature
Indian literature
Indian literature refers to the literature produced on the Indian subcontinent until 1947 and in the Republic of India thereafter. The Republic of India has 22 officially recognized languages....
. It is autobiographical in character as she says the anguish of the main character Saudamini, reflects what she had gone through after her husband had died. It was also the first novel to be written on this subject. The novel was based on Goswami's research on the place as well as real-life experience of living in the place for several years before she joined the University of Delhi
University of Delhi
The University of Delhi is a central university situated in Delhi, India and is funded by Government of India. Established in 1922, it offers courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate level. Vice-President of India Mohammad Hamid Ansari is the Chancellor of the university...
as a lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
.
In Vrindavan she was involved in Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
studies. A massive volume of Tulsidas
Tulsidas
Tulsidas , was a Hindu poet-saint, reformer and philosopher renowned for his devotion for the god Rama...
's Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
purchased during her stay there for just eleven rupee
Rupee
The rupee is the common name for the monetary unit of account in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Mauritius, Seychelles, Maldives, and formerly in Burma, and Afghanistan. Historically, the first currency called "rupee" was introduced in the 16th century...
s was a great source of inspiration in her research. This finds expression in the unparalleled comparative study of Tulsidas's Ramayana and the fourteenth-century Assamese Ramayana
Kotha Ramayana
Kotha Ramayana is a poem written by the powerful Assamese poet Madhava Kandali during the 14th century and is one of many versions of Ramayana in a regional Indian language other than Valmiki's Ramayana in Sanskrit...
(the first Ramayana to be written in any modern Indian language
Linguistic history of India
Originating more than 5,000 years ago, records of the linguistic history of India began with early pictures that transformed into pictorial scripts and engravings and eventually to modern orthographies...
) written by Madhava Kandali
Madhava Kandali
Kaviraja Madhava Kandali was an Assamese poet of India, notable for the earliest rendering of the Valmiki Ramayana into Assamese verse . His another work is a narrative poem, Devajit on superiority of Krishna over the other avatars of Vishnu...
in her work Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra.
Life at the University of Delhi
After relocating to DelhiDelhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, India, to become Head of Assamese Department at the University of Delhi, the most glorious phases of her life begins. While at the university, she wrote most of her greatest works. Several short stories, including Hridoy, Nangoth Sohor, Borofor Rani, used Delhi as the background.
Her two classics — Pages Stained With Blood and The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker— were also written during this period. The other books completed while she lived in Delhi were Ahiron,The Rusted Sword, Uday Bhanu, Dasharathi's Steps and The Man from Chinnamasta.
In Pages Stained With Blood she writes about the plight of Sikh
Sikh
A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...
s in the 1984 anti-Sikh riots
1984 anti-Sikh riots
The 1984 Anti-Sikh pogroms / riots or the 1984 Sikh Massacre was a sikh genocide there was four days of violence in northern India, particularly Delhi, during which armed mobs killed Sikhs, looted and set fire to Sikh homes, businesses and schools, and attacked gurdwaras, in response to the...
following the assassination of Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi assassination
Indira Gandhi, then Prime Minister of India, was assassinated on 31 October 1984, 9.20 am, at her 1, Safdarjung Road, New Delhi residence.She was killed by two of her Sikh bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, to avenge the military attack on the Harmandir Sahib during Operation Blue...
, the Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
. Goswami had witnessed the riots while staying in the Shakti Nagar
Shakti nagar
Shakti Nagar is a neighborhood of Delhi, in the North district of Delhi.the article shakti nagar page is a stub . you can help wikipedia by expand it through editing....
area of Delhi. She visited many of the other sites to complete this novel. She even went to G. B. Road
G. B. Road
G. B. Road or guru teg bahadur marg is the biggest red light area in New Delhi, India. Its name was officially changed to Swami Shradhanand Marg in 1965.- History :...
, Delihi's red-light district
Red-light district
A red-light district is a part of an urban area where there is a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, adult theaters, etc...
, to depict the lives of the prostitute
Prostitution
Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...
s who lived there which forms a part of her novel.
In The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker she writes about the plight of Assamese Brahmin widows in Satra, religious institutions of Assam. This novel was anthologised
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
in the The Masterpieces of Indian Literature and was made into a film, Adajya, which won several national and international film-festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
awards. The novel was also made into two television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
mini-series
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
; Nandita Das
Nandita Das
Nandita Das is an award-winning Indian film actress and director. As an actress, she is known for her performances in Fire , Earth , Bawandar , Kannathil Muthamittal and Aamaar Bhuvan . As a director, she is known for her directorial debut Firaaq , which has won a number of national and...
played the role of Giribala in one of the mini-series.
At the peak of her literary career she wrote the controversial novel The Man from Chinnamasta, a critique of the thousand-years-old tradition of animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice
Animal sacrifice is the ritual killing of an animal as part of a religion. It is practised by many religions as a means of appeasing a god or gods or changing the course of nature...
in the famous Hindu Shakti
Shakti
Shakti from Sanskrit shak - "to be able," meaning sacred force or empowerment, is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism. Shakti is the concept, or personification, of divine feminine creative power, sometimes...
temple to Kamakhya
Kamakhya
Kamakhya is an important Tantric mother goddess closely identified with Kali and Maha Tripura Sundari, according to the Tantric texts that are the basis for her worship at the Kamakhya temple, a 16th century temple in the Kamrup district of Assam...
, a mother goddess
Mother goddess
Mother goddess is a term used to refer to a goddess who represents motherhood, fertility, creation or embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother.Many different goddesses have...
, in Assam. Goswami reported that there was even threat to her life after writing the novel. In this novel she quotes scriptures to authenticate the argument she puts forward in the novel — to worship the Mother Goddess with flowers rather than blood. She said in an interview, "When the novel was serialized in a popular magazine, I was threatened with dire consequences. Shortly after this, a local newspaper, Sadin, carried an appeal about animal sacrifice, which resulted in quite an uproar—the editor was gherao
Gherao
Gherao, meaning "encirclement," is a word originally from Hindi and is a typically Indian way of protest. Usually, a group of people would surround a politician or a government building until their demands are met, or answers given...
ed and a tantrik
Tantra
Tantra , anglicised tantricism or tantrism or tantram, is the name scholars give to an inter-religious spiritual movement that arose in medieval India, expressed in scriptures ....
warned me. But when the appeal was published, the response was overwhelmingly in favour of banning animal sacrifice. I also had to contend with rejection from a publisher
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
who was initially keen and had promised me a huge advance
Advance payment
An advance payment, or simply an advance, is the part of a contractually due sum that is paid in advance for goods or services, while the balance included in the invoice will only follow the delivery. It is called a prepaid expense in accrual accounting.-See also:*Advance against royalties*Pay or...
, but who later backtracked, offering instead to publish any other book of mine. But the rest, as they say, is history and Chinnamastar Manuhto went on to become a runaway bestseller
Bestseller
A bestseller is a book that is identified as extremely popular by its inclusion on lists of currently top selling titles that are based on publishing industry and book trade figures and published by newspapers, magazines, or bookstore chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and...
!"
Another major piece of her fiction during the period was Jatra (The Journey), based on the problem of militancy
Militant
The word militant, which is both an adjective and a noun, usually is used to mean vigorously active, combative and aggressive, especially in support of a cause, as in 'militant reformers'. It comes from the 15th century Latin "militare" meaning "to serve as a soldier"...
/secession
Secession
Secession is the act of withdrawing from an organization, union, or especially a political entity. Threats of secession also can be a strategy for achieving more limited goals.-Secession theory:...
ism that has affected almost the entire North-East India
North-East India
Northeast India refers to the easternmost region of India consisting of the contiguous Seven Sister States, Sikkim, and parts of North Bengal...
frontier
Frontier
A frontier is a political and geographical term referring to areas near or beyond a boundary. 'Frontier' was absorbed into English from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"--the region of a country that fronts on another country .The use of "frontier" to mean "a region at the...
ever since Indian independence.
Mamoni Raisom Goswami passed away in Guwahati on 29th November, 2011 at 7:45 AM IST.
Success
She received the Sahitya Akademi AwardSahitya Akademi Award
Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...
(1982). She received the Jnanpith Award
Jnanpith Award
The Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country...
(2000), India's highest literary award, for writing about the subalterns and marginalised. Two of the main features in Goswami's writing has been the focus on women and the cultural and political construct of the Assamese society. However, it is also to her credit that she also created possibly one of the finest male characters in contemporary Assamese literature, viz. the character of Indranath in Datal Hantir Une Khowa Howdah (The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker).Her contribution in the Assamese feminist literature is self evident in this work.She takes up the issue of patriarchy existing within Assamese Brahmin families with an illustration taken from a small place in Assam known as Amranga,Borihat.This work is also encrusted with a post-colonial tinge in it as we see the mimicry of the colonizers among the colonised. It is also to her credit that she made extensive use of the relation between different variants of the modern Assamese language as both signifiers of the politics of social and cultural differences among the various Assamese communities. But the overall emphasis remained on the unity of the Assamese identity. This may be taken as her way of dealing with the nature of contemporary politics in Assam marked by ethnic confrontation, besides the larger politics of the militant secessionism.She also contributed a major sum of the Claus Laureate[2008] to a Public Health Centre of Amranga,Borihat in Assam.This contribution is not merely material in its nature but a dream since her childhood,come true.
she left the mortal world on 29 th of november , 2011 after suffering a long ailment in GUWAHATI MEDICAL COLLEGE.
Novels
- Ahiron (1980)
- Budhasagar, Dhushar Geisa aru Mohammad Mucha (The Budha Sea, Hazy Geishas and Mohammad Mucha)
- Chinavar Srota (The Chenab's Current) (1972)
- Chinnamastar Manuhto (The Man from ChinnamastaThe Man from ChinnamastaThe Man from Chinnamasta is a novel published in 2005 and written by Indira Goswami, who was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983, the Jnanpith Award in 2001 and the Prince Claus Awards in 2008...
) - Dashorothir Khuj (Dashorothi's Footsteps)
- Datal Hatir Une Khowa Howda (The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker)
- Mamore Dhora Tarowal aru Dukhon Uponyas (The Rusted Sword and Two Other Novels) (1980)
- Nangoth Sohor
- Budhosagor Dhukhor Geisha Aru Mohammed Musa
- Nilakanthi Braja (The Blue-Necked Braja) (1976)
- Ekonshor Dostabej
- Shadow Of The Dark God (1986)
- Tej Aru Dhulire Dhusarita Prishtha (Pages Stained With BloodPages Stained With BloodPages Stained With Blood originally published as Tej Aru Dhulire Dhushorito Prishtha is an Assamese novel by Indira Goswami that depicts the gory Sikh pogrom in Delhi as an aftermath of the assassination of the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in June 1984...
) - Udaybhanur Choritro (Udaybhanu) (1986)
Short stories
- Beasts
- Dwarka and His Gun
- Parasu's Well
- The Journey
- Sanskar
- To Break a Begging Bowl
- Udang Bakach
Non-fiction
- Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra, Delhi 1996. (Research work on Kotha RamayanaKotha RamayanaKotha Ramayana is a poem written by the powerful Assamese poet Madhava Kandali during the 14th century and is one of many versions of Ramayana in a regional Indian language other than Valmiki's Ramayana in Sanskrit...
)
Online Works
- "The Journey" (short story)
- "Pakistan" (poem)
Awards
- 1982 — Sahitya AkademiSahitya AkademiThe Sahitya Akademi ', India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India...
Award (for Mamore Dhora Tarowal) - 1988 — Asam Sahitya Sabha Award
- 1989 — Bharat Nirman Award
- 1992 — Sauhardya Award of Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan of Government of India.
- 1993 — KathaKathaKatha may refer to:* The Sanskrit for "speech, narration, story, fable", see Katha * The Kaṭha or Caraka-Katha school of the Black Yajurveda** Katha Upanishad, a Hindu text associated with the Katha school...
National Award for Literature - 1996 — Kamal Kumari Foundation National Award in 1996
- 2000 — Jnanpith AwardJnanpith AwardThe Jnanpith Award is a literary award in India. Along with the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, it is one of the two most prestigious literary honours in the country...
- 2002 — D Litt Degree from Rabindra Bharati University, West Bengal
- 2002 — Mahiyoshi Jaymati Award with a citation in gold by Ahom Court of Assam
- 2002 — Padma ShriPadma ShriPadma Shri is the fourth highest civilian award in the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan...
(She refused to accept)
- 2007 — D Litt Degree from Rajiv Gandhi University Arunachal PradeshArunachal PradeshArunachal Pradesh is a state of India, located in the far northeast. It borders the states of Assam and Nagaland to the south, and shares international borders with Burma in the east, Bhutan in the west, and the People's Republic of China in the north. The majority of the territory is claimed by...
- 2008 — D Litt Degree from Indira Gandhi National Open UniversityIndira Gandhi National Open UniversityThe Indira Gandhi National Open University , known as IGNOU is a national university with its headquarters in New Delhi, Delhi, India. Named after former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, the university was established in 1985 with a budget of 2000 crore, when the Parliament of India passed...
- 2008 — Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar Gold Plate from Asiatic SocietyAsiatic SocietyThe Asiatic Society was founded by Sir William Jones on January 15, 1784 in a meeting presided over by Sir Robert Chambers, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at the Fort William in Calcutta, then capital of the British Raj, to enhance and further the cause of Oriental research. At the time of...
- 2008 — Principal Prince Claus AwardPrince Claus AwardsThe Prince Claus Fund was inaugurated in 1996, named in honor of Prince Claus of The Netherlands. It receives an annual subsidy from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs....
- 2009 — Krishnakanta Handique Award, Asom Sahitya Sabha
- Awarded the Ambassador for Peace from the Inter Religious and International Federation for World Peace
- The International Tulsi Award from Florida International University for her book, Ramayana From Ganga To Brahmaputra
See also
- 1984 anti-Sikh riots1984 anti-Sikh riotsThe 1984 Anti-Sikh pogroms / riots or the 1984 Sikh Massacre was a sikh genocide there was four days of violence in northern India, particularly Delhi, during which armed mobs killed Sikhs, looted and set fire to Sikh homes, businesses and schools, and attacked gurdwaras, in response to the...
- Assamese literatureAssamese literatureAssamese literature is the entire corpus of poetry, novels, short stories, documents and other writings in the Assamese language. It also includes popular ballads in the older forms of the language during its evolution to the contemporary form. The literary heritage of the Assamese language can...
- Bhabananda DekaBhabananda DekaProf Bhabananda Deka , is a multi-faceted writer of one hundred twelve books, textbooks on economics, literature and political science, and articles from Assam, a state in the north-eastern part of India.-Biography:...
- Jyoti Prasad AgarwalaJyoti Prasad AgarwalaJyoti Prasad Agarwala was a great Assamese playwright, songwriter, poet, writer and film maker from Assam. He was considered as Assamese cultural icon, deeply revered for his creative vision and output and is popularly called the Rupkonwar of Assamese culture...
- Krishna Kanta HandiqueKrishna Kanta HandiqueKrishna Kanta Handique was a Sanskrit scholar, an Indologist and philanthropist from Assam.-Biography:...
- Laxminath BezbaruaLaxminath BezbaruaLakshminath Bezbaruah was a great Assamese personality in Assamese literature. He gave a new impetus to the Assamese literature that had stagnated for some time and enriched it through his essays, plays, fiction and poetry. As a sensitive artist he responded to the influences of social environment...
- Literature from North East IndiaLiterature from North East IndiaLiterature from North East India refers to literature of Languages of North East India, and also the body of work by English-language writers from this region. North-East India is an under-represented region in many ways...
- Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankardeva
- Music of AssamMusic of AssamThe music of Assam, a state in the northeastern part of India, can be divided into various categories of folk music. In recent times starting the late eighties popular artistes have modernized the music that caters to local popular demand....
- People's Consultative GroupPeople's Consultative GroupThe People’s Consultative Group was a citizen’s group in Assam constituted by ULFA to initiate the talk process as mediator between the central government and the outfit itself. It was constituted on September 8, 2005 with 11 members in it.It was dissolved by ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa on the...
External links
- Principal Prince Claus Award 2008 Citation
- Indira Goswami receiving Jnanpith Award from V S Naipaul
- http://www.asianviews.net/interviews
- Chronicles of Courage
- Ramayana research institute to come up in Guwahati
- http://www.newstrackindia.com/news-article/features
- http://www.assamtribune.com/oct0408/horizon.html
- An Interview with Puravee Kalita
- Mamoni Raisom Goswami - Profile & Biography