Mahashweta Devi resigned as Chairperson of Bangla Academy

Veteran Bengali Author Mahashweta Devi on 23 May 2012, resigned as the chairperson of the Bangla Academy, an autonomous body set up to promote the Bengali literature. The body falls under the Information and Cultural Department of West Bengal, which is controlled by the state Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee.

The 86-year-old litterateur, who had also been awarded with the Raman Magsaysay and Gyanpith award, decided to quit as she was left annoyed with the manner in which the award committee selected the recipient for the prestigious Vidyasagar award.

The award committee had been set up by Mahasweta Devi herself after becoming chairperson of the academy. The award is named after 19th-century social reformer Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, who himself was a noted Bengali literary figure. The award committee had selected Shibaji Bandhopadyay as the recipient of the award for the year 2010.

The ricipient of several national and international awards, Mahashweta Devi was given the Sahitya Academy Award in 1979, while she was conferred the Gnanpeeth Award, India’s highest award in the field of literature, in 1996. In 1997, she was given the Raman Magsaysay Award for her contribution to the field of Journalism, Literature, and the Creative Communication Arts.