Our Santiniketan

by Mahasweta Devi, Radha Chakravarty (Introduction)

A brief, evocative memoir from one of India’s greatest writers.

“Like a dazzling feather that has fluttered down from some unknown place. . . . How long will the feather keep its colours, waiting? The ‘feather’ stands for memories of childhood. Memories don’t wait.”
 
In Our Sanitikentan , the late Mahasweta Devi, one of India’s most celebrated writers, vividly narrates her days as a schoolgirl in the 1930s. As the aging author struggles to recapture vignettes of her childhood, these reminiscences bring to the written page not only her individual sensibility but an entire ethos.
 
Santiniketan is home to the school and university founded by the foremost literary and cultural icon of India, Rabindranath Tagore. In these pages, a forgotten Santiniketan, seen through the innocent eyes of a young girl, comes to life—the place, its people, flora and fauna, along with its educational environment, culture of free creative expression, vision of harmonious coexistence between natural and human worlds, and the towering presence of Tagore himself. Alongside, we get a glimpse of the private Mahasweta—her inner life, family and associates, and the early experiences that shaped her personality.
 
A nostalgic journey to a bygone era, harking back to its simple yet profound values—so distant today and so urgent yet again— Our Santiniketan is an invaluable addition to Devi’s rich oeuvre available in English translation.

120 pages, Hardcover

Published August 4, 2022

About the author

Mahasweta Devi was an Indian social activist and writer. She was born in 1926 in Dhaka, to literary parents in a Hindu Brahmin family. Her father Manish Ghatak was a well-known poet and novelist of the Kallol era, who used the pseudonym Jubanashwa. Mahasweta's mother Dharitri Devi was also a writer and a social worker.

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 as well. 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, currently one of Bengal's and India's leading novelist whose works are noted for their intellectual vigour and philosophical flavour. She got divorced from Bijon Bhattacharya in 1959.

In 1964, she began teaching at Bijoygarh College (an affiliated college of the University of Calcutta system). During those days, Bijoygarh College was an institution for working class women students. During that period she also worked as a journalist and as a creative writer. Recently, she is more famous for her work related to the study of the Lodhas and Shabars, the tribal communities of West Bengal, women and dalits. She is also an activist who is dedicated to the struggles of tribal people in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. In her elaborate Bengali fiction, she often depicts the brutal oppression of tribal peoples and the untouchables by potent, authoritarian upper-caste landlords, lenders, and venal government officials.

Major awards:
1979: Sahitya Akademi Award (Bengali): – Aranyer Adhikar (novel)
1986: Padma Shri[2]
1996: Jnanpith Award - the highest literary award from the Bharatiya Jnanpith
1997: Ramon Magsaysay Award - Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts
1999: Honoris causa - Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)
2006: Padma Vibhushan - the second highest civilian award from the Government of India
2010:Yashwantrao Chavan National Award
2011: Bangabibhushan - the highest civilian award from the Government of West Bengal
2012: Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Sahityabramha - the first Lifetime Achievement award in Bengali Literature from 4thScreen-IFJW.

মহাশ্বেতা দেবী একটি মধ্যবিত্ত বাঙালি পরিবারে জন্মগ্রহণ করেছিলেন । তাঁর পিতা মনীশ ঘটক ছিলেন কল্লোল যুগের প্রখ্যাত সাহিত্যিক এবং তাঁর কাকা ছিলেন বিখ্যাত চিত্রপরিচালক ঋত্বিক ঘটক। মা ধরিত্রী দেবীও ছিলেন সাহিত্যিক ও সমাজসেবী। মহাশ্বেতা দেবী বিখ্যাত নাট্যকার বিজন ভট্টাচার্যের সঙ্গে বিবাহবন্ধনে আবদ্ধ হন। তাঁদের একমাত্র পুত্র, প্রয়াত নবারুণ ভট্টাচার্য স্মরণীয় কবিতার পঙ্‌ক্তি ‘এ মৃত্যু উপত্যকা আমার দেশ নয়’ এবং হারবার্ট উপন্যাস লিখে বাংলা সাহিত্যে স্থায়ী স্বাক্ষর রেখে গেছেন।

তাঁর শৈশব ও কৈশোরে স্কুলের পড়াশোনা ঢাকায়। দেশভাগের পর চলে আসেন কলকাতায়। এরপর শা‌ন্তিনিকেতনের বিশ্বভারতী বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় থেকে ইংরেজিতে অনার্স এবং কলকাতা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয় থেকে স্নাতকোত্তর ডিগ্রি নেন।

১৯৬৪ খ্রীষ্টাব্দে তিনি বিজয়গড় কলেজে শিক্ষকতা শুরু করেন । এই সময়েই তিনি একজন সাংবাদিক এবং লেখিকা হিসাবে কাজ করেন। পরবর্তীকালে তিনি বিখ্যাত হন মূলত পশ্চিমবাংলার উপজাতি এবং নারীদের ওপর তাঁর কাজের জন্য । তিনি বিভিন্ন লেখার মাধ্যমে বিভিন্ন উপজাতি এবং মেয়েদের উপর শোষণ এবং বঞ্চনার কথা তুলে ধরেছেন। সাম্প্রতিক কালে মহাশ্বেতা দেবী পশ্চিমবঙ্গ সরকারের শিল্পনীতির বিরুদ্ধে সরব হয়েছেন । সরকার কর্তৃক বিপুল পরিমাণে কৃষিজমি অধিগ্রহণ এবং স্বল্পমূল্যে তা শিল্পপতিদের কাছে বিতরণের নীতির তিনি কড়া সমালোচক । এছাড়া তিনি শান্তিনিকেতনে প্রোমোটারি ব্যবসার বিরুদ্ধেও প্রতিবাদ করেছেন ।

তাঁর লেখা শতাধিক বইয়ের মধ্যে হাজার চুরাশির মা অন্যতম। তাঁকে পদ্মবিভূষণ (ভারত সরকারের দ্বিতীয় সর্বোচ্চ নাগরিক পুরস্কার,২০০৬), রামন ম্যাগসেসে পুরস্কার (১৯৯৭), জ্ঞানপীঠ পুরস্কার (সাহিত্য একাডেমির সর্বোচ্চ সাহিত্য সম্মান), সার্ক সাহিত্য পুরস্কার (২০০৭) প্রভৃতি পদকে ভূষিত করা হয়।

২০১৬ সালের ২৮ জুলাই, বৃহস্পতিবার বেলা ৩টা ১৬ মিনিটে চিকিৎসাধীন অবস্থায় তিনি শেষনিশ্বাস ত্যাগ করেন।


जन्म : 1926, ढाका।

Reviews

[Vivek Tejuja · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think Bedanabala was my introduction to Mahasweta Devi’s works. That was way back in 2006, and since then I haven’t stopped reading whatever she had to offer. I think my extreme fan boy moment happened when I got to meet her briefly at Jaipur Literature Festival in 2013. As a writer, if there’s anyone that has made an impact on me, it would be her.

Our Santiniketan is a short memoir of her days spent at Santiniketan of course and how what she learned there and unlearned shaped her entire life – her thoughts, ideologies, and even her writing to a large extent.

This book is also about ageing and what you choose to remember in the form of a memoir. Mahasweta Devi brings that up in so many places in the book – subtly, and sometimes not so. It hovers throughout. But as a reader you believe it all, because that’s her writing and conviction of what she recalls.

You know as a reader that your childhood was not like the one Mahasweta Devi spent at Santiniketan and will never be. Yet, you relate when she speaks of nature and trees, the food eaten there, the friendships forged, the lessons taught, and idyllic evenings which one wouldn’t think of as the case, given the place.

Mahasweta Devi’s writing goes back and forth in time – there is the past and the present, in which she speaks to the reader as well about time being what it is and doing what it does to the nature of memory. Radha Chakravarty’s translation serves the original the way it is (you can tell a little by the tone adopted), but also adds her own element to it – I think when it comes to dialogue and some descriptions to make it easier for the reader.

Our Santiniketan is a book that must be read slowly, to be savoured really, to know more about Mahasweta Devi, her writing that came later, more importantly her family and her relationship with them, and the place that came to be second-home to her.

[Pratheeksha (nirvana_reads) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nostalgic journey to the bygone era of 1930s India—Tagore's Santiniketan. Is it just a residential school, or is it a paradise? The idea of Santiniketan has always enthralled me. Mahasweta Devi's memoir had been on my to-read list for a long time, and I'm so glad I finally got to read it and glimpse life at Santiniketan.

Tagore's philosophy of child education was truly unique. He was a creator who molded human character. His concern was to ensure that children learned to use their time productively and find joy in active effort.

Mahasweta Devi wrote this memoir when she was in her 70s. Naturally, some of her memories had faded. But one will notice that she never forgot what Santiniketan offered her. Again and again, she fondly recalls how Santiniketan taught her and her fellow students to love and respect nature—how her Tejes da, a teacher, held earthworms, squirrels, and little birds in the highest esteem, and how Santiniketan opened her mind’s eye to observe images, architecture, culture, art, and beauty.

As a teacher, I yearn to be part of an education system that follows Tagore's model. Oh, how lucky the children of Santiniketan are! Mahasweta Devi recounts one particular incident where, as an adult, she engaged in a conversation with someone who was surprised that she recognized the local trees of his state. She simply told him, "My teacher taught me these things when I was a child."

Is there any greater gift for a teacher than a former student fondly remembering the knowledge they received? Is such a thing even possible in our education system?

"Nobody speaks of Rabindranath's thoughts on child education. Because to speak, you need to think. And thought calls for action. We love words, after all, not action."

How true! How true these words are! Oh, how I wish I had been a student at Santiniketan too!

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I’ve only read half a dozen of Mahasweta Devi’s short stories in different collections including Old Women: Statue; And, the Fairytale of Mohanpur but have loved them all and so was keen to read this memoir of her childhood at Santikinetan, the school and university founded by Rabindranath Tagore. Mahasweta wrote this in her seventies and as Radha Chakravarty writes in his introduction, her memories were fading, something she refers to throughout the text. There is a sense of pieces of experience, anecdotes rather than clear memories but that doesn’t take away from the sense that Santikinetan was a wonderful place to spend some of her childhood years. The system of support and security in the community, the art, music and writing taking place all around and the way in which the students were encouraged to play, create and explore sounds wonderful.

For someone unfamiliar with many of the names referred to in the text, sometimes these became overwhelming, there is a list at the back of the book explaining who everyone is but flicking back and forth can take away from the reading experience and so I preferred just to focus on this person’s meaning or and relationship to Mahasweta. The piecemeal nature of the chapters does affect the reading experience but the central theme, that this system of education that focused on independent thought, on nature study and equality was a special one is clear. Mahasweta looks at the way we are treating the world now and she laments, we can only compare it to how Tagore taught his children to be;

‘Rabindranath taught us to be thirsty. Hence, I have learnt to drink life to the full with such avid thirstiness, to love nature and to remain free of narrowness.’

[Natasha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perhaps my expectations were high, or the book itself was patchy, but I did not enjoy the book as much as I hoped I would. Yes, there were beautiful snippets of life in Shantiniketan, and the descriptions were vivid, but it could have been so much better, I thought. The parts I really loved where the descriptions of the nature classes, and of the buildings themselves. The parts I didn't like as much were those where her confusion shows- while it is understandable that you do not remember exact details, too much of uncertainity takes away from the flow

[Aruna Kumar Gadepalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir of the writer, well known in literary circles brings out her days spent in Santiniketan and the way the days impacted her later life.