Sarajubala Sen (Bengali: লেখক:সরযূবালা সেন) (1889 - 1949) was a Bengali writer and educator.

Biography

Sen was born in 1889, her father was

Brajendra Nath Seal Sir Brajendra Nath Seal ( bn, ব্রজেন্দ্রনাথ শীল; 3 September 1864 – 3 December 1938) was a Bengali Indian humanist philosopher. He served as the second vice chancellor of Mysore University. Life Brajendran ...

, the humanist philosopher, writer and poet. She grew up with three sisters and three brothers. Sen studied kindergarten education in England and returned home in 1915. Her nickname was Tuli. Sen married twice. Her first husband was Basantrajan Das, whose brother Chittaranjan Das was a poet. After Basantrajan's death, Sen married again, this time to Das' widowed brother-in-law Saratchandra Sen. He was a staunch nationalist.

Writing

Whilst Sen was in England, the country was undergoing political unrest prior to the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...

and this experience had an effect on her writing. Her first work ''The Passing Away of Spring'' was a self-reflective symbolic work and the introduction to it was written by Rabrindranath Tagore. ''Debottar Vishwanatya'' (The Superdivine Play of the Universe) was written in 1916 and is a metaphysical drama depicting the struggle of peasant workers. What is striking about this play is the feminist dimensions of it: the heroine rejects marriage and features comments about the struggle working women have over child-care. She features in ''The Complete History of

Bengali Literature Bengali literature ( bn, বাংলা সাহিত্য, Bangla Sahityô) denotes the body of writings in the Bengali language and which covers Old Bengali, Middle- Bengali and Modern Bengali with the changes through the passage of time ...

'' (1960). Critic Sukumar Sen states that the philosophical influence of her father is present in all her work.

Works

*''The Passing Away of Spring'' - বসন্তপ্রয়াণ (1914) *Triveni Sangam - ত্রিবেণী সঙ্গম (1915) *''Debottar Vishwanatya''- দেবোত্তর বিশ্বনাট্য (1916) *Annapurna - অন্নপূর্ণা *Viswanath - বিশ্বনাথ

Activism

Sen was also a political activist, along with many other Bengali women in the first half of the twentieth century. Hers and her husband's home was a political one, and was often raided by the police. Sarajubala was also actively involved in the nationalist cause on at least one occasion, singing a song by Tagore at a public meeting attended by

Bipin Chandra Pal Bipin Chandra Pal ( bn, বিপিন চন্দ্র পাল ; 7 November 1858 – 20 May 1932) was an Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement freedom fighter. He was one third of the “L ...

References

1889 births 1949 deaths Bengali writers {{Authority Control