Truth/Untruth

by Mahasweta Devi, Anjum Katyal (Translator)

A trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at Calcutta society.

Set in Calcutta in the mid-1980s, Truth/Untruth is a fast-paced thriller built around the death of the pregnant Jamuna—a maid in a newly affluent residential apartment complex—and Arjun, the upwardly mobile businessman who seduced her. Packed with a cast of colorful characters, this novel is a trenchant, darkly humorous, and unsentimental look at the different segments of Calcutta society: from the middle-class culture vultures to the unscrupulous “promoter” class and the domestic helpers and slum goons who form an intrinsic part of the city’s life. All are implicated in a complex web of guilt and bizarre twists and turns. Sex, lies, death—the great modernist themes—run like a thread through this book, exposing societal greed, lust, corruption, and moral hypocrisy with a sardonic tone that spares none. An unusual novel by an author who is otherwise known for her hard-hitting activist-feminist stories, Truth/Untruth underlines the exploitative vicious cycle that defines urban relations between the haves and have-nots.

Genres: Fiction, India

144 pages, Hardcover

Published June 21, 2023

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]

I had the good fortune of hearing Mahasweta Devi live at Jaipur Literature Festival in the year 2013. I remember very clearly that she said she dreams in her mother tongue, and that is what propels her to write. I had read her before but this led me to read more of her, and more became some more, and before I knew it, I was devouring everything by her in translation.

Mahasweta Devi's works are about people on the margins - either looking for a way out, or a way in, or just want to assert their agency, no matter what, even if they don't have any, especially if they don't have any. She saw them, despite not being one of them. She wrote about them (though some might say and think otherwise) but she wanted to tell stories about the Dalits, the sex workers, the people who had no future, of people who wanted more despite the injustices life had handed them, and more than anything she wrote with honesty.

Truth/Untruth is one such book (published posthumously in English), beautifully translated from the Bengali by Anjum Katyal about a maid Jamuna that is found dead in a high-rise building, which is situated next to a slum. Arjun Chakraborty (who changed his name) is a contractor who lives with his wife Kumkum in one of the flats. They are the nouveau riche - whose lives are laid out on a platter, and Jamuna works for them, and others like them, and her death is when it all unravels and unfolds - the gaps between the haves and the have-nots, the hypocrisies of the world we inhabit, the humour in all of this, and most importantly, the balance of the lives that mustn't be toppled.

Anjum Katyal's translation is spot-on. A mix of the Bengali, the Hindi, and finally most of it culminating into the English. Her interpretation of Devi's work is an extension of the writing that blends seamlessly into the translation - showing us Devi's world overwhelmed by reality and humour that is sometimes needed to deal with it.

[Bhavna]

Mahasweta Devi is such an under rated one I would say, but her skills are absolutely fire.Truth/Untruth was such a brilliant satire. It shows human apathy towards life when there is greed around and Devi never minces her words. She also had me in splits with her humor. This book is so good. Might be my favourite by Devi. She has such a knack of making those sly comments on all things wrong- Societally and Politically. There is so much depth in here and a hell lot of humor

[Archana]

Truth/Untruth is a book I picked up at random for the women in translation month and it truly surprised me! Though it has all the elements of a great murder-mystery-page-turner, the real beauty of the writing is the way it weaves in the class hierarchy of a typical Indian city.

The rich living in their uber posh apartments, literally and otherwise looking down on the poor while, and at the same time, needing to keep the slum nearby as a resource for their cheap labor needs of maid, cook, cleaner, security and what not. The interdependency of both sets of people while outwardly drawing their separation with wide strokes. The disadvantages of being a woman, even more so an Indian woman, and then even more so a woman from an under-privileged background, and how little such lives are valued. The bending backwards of a system in favor of the rich... All of it is very clearly dealt with in the book without mincing many words.

The amount of social injustice aspects that is thrown into this power-packed thriller and with what ease! And then to remember that it is a translation and a beautifully well-done one for the reading experience it provides!

[Joseph Schreiber]

Different in tone than much of Devi’s more political work, this fast-paced thriller is a biting social satire set in 1980s Kolkata in a high end apartment complex in a less than desirable neighbourhood. It looks at the dynamics between the established rich, the nouveau riche and the slum dwellers who provide necessary labour for the residents of these new buildings. The story revolves around the death of a pregnant maid and the self centred contractor responsible for her condition (although his own wife is 8 months pregnant). The vivid characters come alive and the story unfolds almost entirely in dialogue (including much internal dialogue). Devi assumes a knowledge of the city and culture of the time, songs and movies, which adds an extra layer (end notes explain as needed), but not having that background will in no way hinder one’s enjoyment of this dark and funny tale.
Longer review can be found here: https://roughghosts.com/2023/12/31/an...

[Sommer Schafer]

Translated from Bengali, this is a fast-paced novella full of biting class satire and whimsical farce, despite its dark subject matters of rape, murder, and poverty. At times the lightness can feel a bit off considering the themes; yet, on the other hand, I applaud and admire Devi's ability to work humor and slapstick into a story that under a less intelligent mind would have been sunk by sentimentality, dullness, and heavy-handedness. For non-Indian readers, many of the West Bengal cultural references and slang may be confusing, but regardless, this is a fresh, startling, and compelling read.

[Em]

Truth/Untruth does not mince its words when it comes to talking about class and caste hierarchies. Dark, melancholic, and political, the book delivers justice to the often wronged and forgotten members of our societies. It's a highly uncomfortable but important read as it'll force you to reflect on to your own vices and outlook on life!

[Navraj]

Enjoyed the story, and the sarcasm and humor of the exploration of class in modern India. I wish it were longer, as the characters were enjoyable.

[Moumita Laha]

This was an excellent thriller with razor sharp social commentary of mid-1980s Calcutta. This was simply too good!