Radha Chakravarty is a writer, critic and translator. She has co-edited The Essential Tagore, nominated Book of the Year 2011 by Martha Nussbaum. She is the author of Feminism and Contemporary Women Writers and Novelist Tagore: Gender and Modernity in Selected Texts. Her Tagore translations include Gora, Chokher Bali, Boyhood Days, Farewell Song: Shesher Kabita, Four Chapters and The Land of Cards: Stories, Poems and Plays for Children. Other works in translation are Bankimchandra Chatterjee's Kapalkundala, Mahasweta Devi's Our Santiniketan and In the Name of the Mother (nominated for the Crossword Translation Award, 2004), Vermillion Clouds: Stories by Bengali Women,and Crossings: Stories from Bangladesh and India. She has edited Shades of Difference: Selected Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Bodymaps: Stories by South Asian Women and co-edited Writing Feminism: South Asian Voices and Writing Freedom: South Asian Voices. Her poems have appeared in numerous books and journals. She has contributed to Pandemic: A Worldwide Community Poem, nominated for the Pushcart Prize 2020. Her forthcoming books include The Tagore Phenomenon and translations of Kazi Nazrul Islam's essays. She was Professor of Comparative Literature & Translation Studies at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi, India.

List of photographs

Preface to the Series

Preface

Acknowledgements

Introduction

The Searing Vision of Mahasweta Devi

RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

PART I

Spectrum: The Writer's Oeuvre

1. Fictionalised Biography - The Queen of Jhansi (extract)

TRANSLATED BYSAGAREE AND MANDIRA SENGUPTA

2. Novel - Mother of 1084 (extract)

TRANSLATED BY SAMIK BANDYOPADHYAY

3. Short fiction - Giribala (extract)

TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

4. Drama - Bayen (extract)

TRANSLATED BY SAMIK BANDYOPADHYAY

5. Children's Writing - Nyadosh the Incredible Cow (extract)

TRANSLATED BY PARAMITA BANERJEE

6. Literary Criticism - Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (extract)

PART II

Kaleidoscope: Critical Reception

7. Novelist Mahasweta Devi: The Critical Tradition

ARUP KUMAR DAS

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

8. Mahasweta Devi: In Search of a Rare Uniqueness

DIPENDU CHAKRABARTI

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

9. Hajar Churashir Ma, Mahasweta and the Next Phase of the Bangla Novel

DILIP KUMAR BASU

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

10. Mahasweta Devi: Forests and Nature

PARTHA PRATIM BANDYOPADHYAY

TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

11. Mahasweta Devi's Writings: An Evaluation

SUJIT MUKHERJEE

12. Reading "Pterodactyl"

GAYATRI CHAKRAVORTY SPIVAK

13. Douloti as a National Allegory

JAIDEV

14. Re-ordering the Maternal: Histories of Violence in Mahasweta Devi, Toni Morrison and Amrita Pritam

SHREEREKHA SUBRAMANIAN

15. The Politics of Positionality: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Samik Bandyopadhyay as Translators of Mahasweta Devi

SHREYA CHAKRAVORTY

16. Reconsidering 'Fictionalised Biographies': Mahasweta Devi's Queen of Jhansi and Mamoni Raisom Goswami's The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar

ARUNABH KONWAR

17. Writing for the Stage: The Plays of Mahasweta Devi

ANJUM KATYAL

18. Sahitya as Kinesis: Performative Potential in Stage and Screen Adaptations of Mahasweta Devi's Works

BENIL BISWAS

PART III

Ablaze With Rage: The Writer As Activist

19. Tribal Language and Literature

MAHASWETA DEVI

TRANSLATED BY MAITREYA GHATAK

20. Eucalyptus: Why?

MAHASWETA DEVI

21. Palamau is a Mirror of India

MAHASWETA DEVI

TRANSLATED BY IPSITA CHANDA

22. The Adivasi Mahasweta

G.N. DEVY

23. Haunted Landscapes: Mahasweta Devi and the Anthropocene

MARY LOUISA CAPPELLI

PART IV

Personal Glimpses: A Life in Words

24. Our Santiniketan

MAHASWETA DEVI

TRANSLATED BY RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

25. "Talking Writing: Conversations with Mahasweta Devi"

NAVEEN KISHORE

26. 'To find me, read my work': Dialogues with Mahasweta Devi

RADHA CHAKRAVARTY

27. Family Reminiscences

1. I Am Truly Amazed
2. Baba, Ma, Our Home

SOMA MUKHOPADHYAY

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

3. The Didi I have Known

SARI LAHIRI

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

4. My Mother

NABARUN BHATTACHARYA

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

5. Mahasweta Devi: The 'Mashi' Who Wrote Fearlessly About Caste, Class and Patriarchy

INA PURI

1. Shobor Mother Mahasweta Devi

RANJIT KUMAR DAS

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

2. Small Big Things

ANAND (P. SACHIDANANDAN)

3. A Legend Who Lived on Her Own Terms

ANITA AGNIHOTRI

TRANSLATED BY NANDINI GUHA

4. "Every Dream Has the Right to Live"

Dakxin Bajrange

Bio-chronology

Bibliography

List of Contributors

Index