Nabaneeta Dev Sen
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Nabaneeta Dev Sen (Nôbonita Deb Sen; 13 January 1938 – 7 November 2019) was an Indian writer and academic. After studying arts and comparative literature, she moved to the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
where she studied further. She returned to India and taught at several universities and institutes as well as serving in various positions in literary institutes. She published more than 80 books in Bengali: poetry, novels, short stories, plays, literary criticism, personal essays, travelogues, humour writing, translations and children's literature. She was awarded the
Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...
in 2000 and the
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
in 1999.


Early life and education

Dev Sen was born in
Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...
(now Kolkata) into a Bengali family on 13 January 1938. She was the only child of the poet-couple Narendra Dev (Narendra Deb 1888–1971, son of Nagendra Chandra Deb) and Radharani Devi (1903–1989), who wrote under the pen name Aparajita Devi. She was given her name by
Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...
. Her childhood experiences included
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
air raids, seeing people starving in the
Bengal famine of 1943 The Bengal famine of 1943 was a famine in the Bengal province of British India (present-day Bangladesh, West Bengal and eastern India) during World War II. An estimated 800,000–3.8 million people died, in the Bengal region (present-day Ban ...
, and the impact of large numbers of refugees arriving in Calcutta after the
partition of India The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...
. She attended Gokhale Memorial Girls' School and Lady Brabourne College. She received her BA in English from
University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...
, and was a student of inaugural batch of the Department of Comparative Literature at
Jadavpur University Jadavpur University ( abbr. JU) is a public state funded research university with its main campus located at Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established on 25 July in 1906 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into ...
, from where she obtained her MA in 1958. She obtained another MA (with distinction) in comparative literature from
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
in 1961 and went on to receive a doctorate from
Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a state university system, system of Public university, public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. The system has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration o ...
in 1964. She then completed her post-doctoral research at the
University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...
and
Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...
.


Career


Academic

Dev Sen was a writer in residence at several international artists' colonies, including
Yaddo Yaddo is an artists' community located on a estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment.". On March  ...
and
MacDowell Colony MacDowell is an artist's residency program in Peterborough, New Hampshire. The program was founded in 1907 by composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, pianist and philanthropist Marian MacDowell. Prior to July 2020, it was known as the MacDo ...
in the United States; Bellaggio in Italy; and the Mishkenot Sha'ananim in Jerusalem. She held the Maytag Chair of Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at Colorado College, 1988–1989. She was a visiting professor and a visiting creative writer at several universities including Harvard, Cornell, Columbia, Chicago (USA), Humboldt (Germany), Universities of Toronto, British Columbia (Canada), Melbourne, New South Wales (Australia), and El Collegio de Mexico. She delivered the Radhakrishnan Memorial Lecture series (1996–1997) at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
on epic poetry. In 2002, Dev Sen retired as Professor of Comparative Literature at
Jadavpur University Jadavpur University ( abbr. JU) is a public state funded research university with its main campus located at Jadavpur, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. It was established on 25 July in 1906 as ''Bengal Technical Institute'' and was converted into ...
, Calcutta. She was a University Grants Commission Senior Fellow at
University of Delhi The Delhi University (DU, ISO 15919, ISO: ), also and officially known as the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate research university, research Central university (India), central university located in Delhi, India. It ...
. From 2003 to 2005, Dev Sen was the J. P. Naik Distinguished Fellow at the Centre of Women's Development Studies in New Delhi. She represented herself and India in many international conferences, both academic and literary, and at the Festival of India USA in 1986. Dev Sen was a member of the Social Network for Assistance to People (informally Association SNAP) that published a ground-breaking survey in 2014 that revealed the extent of poverty among the Muslim community of
West Bengal West Bengal (; Bengali language, Bengali: , , abbr. WB) is a States and union territories of India, state in the East India, eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabi ...
.


Associations

She held executive positions in the International Comparative Literature Association (1973–1979), and the International Association of Semiotic and Structural Studies (1989–1994). Dev Sen was the vice-president of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, an academy for Bengali literature. She was the founder and president of West Bengal Women Writers' Association. She was the founder secretary and later vice-president of the Indian National Comparative Literature Association. She was a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain. She was a member of the advisory board for Bengali, Sahitya Akademi from 1978 to 1982, as well as the Member and Convenor, Bharatiya
Jnanpith Award The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian ...
Language Advisory Committee from 1975 to 1990. She also served as Member of the Jury of important literary awards including the
Jnanpith Award The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian ...
, Saraswati Samman, Kabir Samman, and Rabindra Puraskar.


Literary career

Dev Sen published more than 80 books in Bengali: poetry, novels, short stories, plays, literary criticism, personal essays, travelogues, humour writing, translations and children's literature. She worked with the treatment of women in world epics; she wrote several short stories presenting
Sita Sita (; ), also known as Siya, Jānaki and Maithili, is a Hindu goddess and the female protagonist of the Hindu epic ''Ramayana''. Sita is the consort of Rama, the avatar of god Vishnu, and is regarded as an avatar of goddess Lakshmi. She is t ...
in a different way from how she appears in the
Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...
. Her first collection of poems ''Pratham Pratyay'' (First Confidence) was published in 1959. Her second poetry collection ''Swagato Debdoot'' was published 12 years later. Her first novel ''Ami Anupam'' (I, Anupam) was published in 1976 in the Puja Issue of the '' Ananda Bazar Patrika''. It is about urban middle class intellectuals who lead the youth in revolution and later contradict them during the
Naxalite Naxalism is the communist ideology of the Naxalites or Naxals, a grouping of political and insurgent groups from India. It is influenced by Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Inspired by Maoism, Charu Majumdar wrote the Historic Eight ...
movement. Dev Sen dealt with a wide variety of social, political, psychological problems like the role of the intellectuals in the
Naxalite Naxalism is the communist ideology of the Naxalites or Naxals, a grouping of political and insurgent groups from India. It is influenced by Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Inspired by Maoism, Charu Majumdar wrote the Historic Eight ...
movement (''Ami Anupam'', 1976), the identity crisis of Indian writing in English (1977), that of second generation
non-resident Indian Overseas Indians (ISO: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origin (PIOs) are people of Indian descent who reside or originate outside of India (Including those that were directly under the British Raj). According to t ...
s (1985), breakdown of the joint family, life in old age homes (1988), homosexuality (1995), facing AIDS (1999, 2002),
child abuse Child abuse (also called child endangerment or child maltreatment) is physical abuse, physical, child sexual abuse, sexual, emotional and/or psychological abuse, psychological maltreatment or Child neglect, neglect of a child, especially by a p ...
, obsession, and uprootedness. Her first short story collection was ''Monsieur Hulor Holiday'' (Monsieur Hulo's Holiday, 1980). Her essays, such as ''Nati Nabanita'' (Nabaneeta the Actress, 1983), are considered the best of her prose writing by critic Sanjukta Gupta. Her best-selling ''Karuna Tomar Kon Path Diye'' (The Path of Thy Grace, 1978) has an account of a solo woman on pilgrimage to
Kumbh Mela Kumbh Mela (, ; ) is an important Hinduism, Hindu pilgrimage, celebrated approximately every 6 or 12 years, correlated with the partial or full orbital period, revolution of Jupiter. It is the largest peaceful gathering of people in the w ...
. Her travelogue ''Truck Bahoney Mac Mahoney'' depicts her ride on a ration truck across
northeast India Northeast India, officially the North Eastern Region (NER), is the easternmost region of India representing both a geographic and political Administrative divisions of India, administrative division of the country. It comprises eight States and ...
and
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
in 1977. Her other notable works included ''Bama-bodhini'', ''Srestha kabita'', and ''Sita theke suru''. She was a well-known children's author in Bengali for her fairy tales and adventure stories, with girls as protagonist, having first written for children in 1979. She was the chief editor of Bengali in the Macmillan's ''Modern Indian Novels in English Translation'' series.


Recognition

Dev Sen received many national and international awards and honours, including: Gouridevi Memorial Award, Mahadevi Verma Award (1992), Celli Award from
Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The foundation was created by Standard Oil magnate John D. Rockefeller (" ...
(1993), Sarat Award from Bhagalpur University of Bihar (1994), Prasad Puraskar,
Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...
(1999). She has also received Rabindra Puraskar, Kabir Samman, Samskriti Award, Kamal Kumari National Award (2004), Mystic Kalinga Literary Award (2017), and the Big Little Book Award for children's literature in 2017, when the award focused on Bengali writing. She was awarded the
Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...
(2000), the fourth highest civilian award by the Government of India.


Personal life and death

In 1958, she married
Amartya Sen Amartya Kumar Sen (; born 3 November 1933) is an Indian economist and philosopher. Sen has taught and worked in England and the United States since 1972. In 1998, Sen received the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions ...
, an economist and academician and then a lecturer of economics at the Jadavpur University, who would be awarded the
Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...
four decades later. She moved to Britain with Sen and they became the parents of two daughters,
Antara Dev Sen Antara Dev Sen (born 1963) is a British-born Indian journalist based in Delhi. Early life and education Antara was born in Cambridge, England and did her schooling in Delhi and later in Kolkata and higher education in India (Kolkata) and United ...
and
Nandana Sen Nandana Dev Sen is an Indian-born American actress, screenwriter, children's author, and child-rights activist. Her first film role in Bollywood was Sanjay Leela Bhansali's ''Black'' (2005), starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee, in ...
. After her divorce in 1976, she returned to Calcutta with her daughters. She had one adopted daughter Srabasti Basu. Her hobbies included reading, records, and travelling. In addition to Bengali and English, she could read Hindi, Oriya, Assamese, French, German, Greek, Sanskrit, and Hebrew. She died on 7 November 2019 in Kolkata following cancer.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dev Sen, Nabaneeta 1938 births 2019 deaths Amartya Sen Presidency University, Kolkata alumni University of Calcutta alumni Bengali writers Indian women novelists Indian women poets Writers from Kolkata Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Bengali Jadavpur University alumni 20th-century Indian novelists Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century Indian poets 20th-century Indian women writers Women writers from West Bengal 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian poets Poets from West Bengal Novelists from West Bengal Indiana University alumni Indian children's writers Indian short story writers Indian travel writers Indian humorists Indian women humorists Indian essayists Indian women essayists Indian literary critics Indian women literary critics Indian dramatists and playwrights Indian women dramatists and playwrights Indian translators