Mallika Sengupta

Mallika Sengupta
Born Mallika Sengupta
(1960-03-27)27 March 1960
Nadia, India
Died 28 May 2011(2011-05-28) (aged 51)[1]
Lucknow, India
Nationality Indian
Known for Poet
Spouse(s) Subodh Sarkar

Mallika Sengupta (Bengali: মল্লিকা সেনগুপ্ত,1960–2011) was a Bengali poet, feminist, and reader of Sociology from Kolkata, known for her "unapologetically political poetry".[2]

Biography

Sengupta was the head of the Department of Sociology in Maharani Kasiswari College, an undergraduate college affiliated with the University of Calcutta in Kolkata,[3] Sengupta was much better known for her literary activity. The author of more than 20 books including 14 volumes of poetry and two novels, she was widely translated and was a frequent invitee at international literary festivals.

For twelve years in the 90s she was the poetry editor of Sananda, the largest circulated Bengali fortnightly (edited by Aparna Sen). Along with her husband, the noted poet Subodh Sarkar, she was the founder-editor of Bhashanagar, a culture magazine in Bengali.

English translations of her work have appeared in various Indian and American anthologies. In addition to teaching, editing and writing, she was actively involved with the cause of gender justice and other social issues.

A victim of breast cancer, she was under treatment since October 2005 and died on 28 May 2011.

Activism and literary themes

Sengupta was also active in a number of protest and gender activism groups. Her fiery, combative tone is noticeable in many poems, e.g. "While teaching my son history":

Man alone was both God and Goddess
Man was both father and mother
Both tune and flute
Both penis and vagina
As we have learnt from history.
 – from Mallika Sengupta, Kathamanabi, Bhashanagar, kolkata, 2005, (tr. poet)

often dealing with women's marginalised role in history:

after the battle said chenghis khan
the greatest pleasure of life,
is in front of the vanquished enemy
to sleep with his favourite wife.
  – JuddhasheShe nArI   – from Mallika Sengupta, Kathamanabi, Bhashanagar, kolkata, 2005, (tr. amitabha mukerjee[4])

Particularly evocative is her feminist rendition of the legend of khanA, a medieval female poet whose tongue was allegedly cut off by her jealous husband:

In Bengal in the Middle ages
Lived a woman Khanaa, I sing her life
The first Bengali woman poet
Her tongue they severed with a knife
Her speechless voice, "Khanaar Bachan"
Still resonates in the hills and skies
Only the poet by the name of Khanaa
Bleeding she dies.
  – khanA, tr. amitabha mukerjee [5]

Awards and honours

Works

Poetry

Poetry in English translation

Novels

Books on sociology of gender

Translation

Bengali poetry anthology

References

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