Mamoni Raisom Goswami

Indira Goswami (14 November 1942 – 29 November 2011), known by her pen name Mamoni Raisom Goswami and popularly as Mamoni Baideo, was an Indian writer, poet, professor, scholar and editor.

She was the winner of the

She was also well known for her attempts to structure social change, both through her writings and through her role as mediator between the armed militant group United Liberation Front of Asom and the Government of India. Her involvement led to the formation of the People's Consultative Group, a peace committee. She referred to herself as an "observer" of the peace process rather than as a mediator or initiator.

Her work has been performed on stage and in film. The film Adajya is based on her novel and won international awards. Words from the Mist is a film made on her life directed by Jahnu Barua.

Early life and education

Indira Goswami was born in

Career

In 1962, she published her first collection of short stories, "Chinaki Morom", when she was a student.^[9][10]

Popularly known as Mamoni Baideo in Assam,^[11] she was encouraged by editor Kirti Nath Hazarika who published her first short stories — when she was still in Class VIII (thirteen years old) — in the literary journal he edited.^[12]

Depression

Goswami has suffered from depression since her childhood.^[13][14][15] In the opening pages of her autobiography, The Unfinished Autobiography,^[13] she mentions her inclination to jump into Crinoline Falls located near their house in Shillong.^[16] Repeated suicide attempts marred her youth. After the sudden death of her husband, Madhaven Raisom Ayengar of Karnataka, in a car accident in the Kashmir region of India, after only eighteen months of marriage, she became addicted to heavy doses of sleeping tablets.^[17][18] Once brought back to Assam, she joined the Sainik School, Goalpara as a teacher.

At this point she went back to writing. She claims that she wrote just to live and that otherwise it would not have been possible for her to go on living. Her experiences in Kashmir and

In Vrindavan she was involved in Ramayana studies. A massive volume of Tulsidas's Ramayana purchased during her stay there for just eleven rupees was a great source of inspiration in her research. This finds expression in her book Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra, an unparalleled comparative study of Tulsidas's Ramayana and the fourteenth-century Assamese Ramayana^[20] written by Madhava Kandali.^[21]

Life at the University of Delhi

Goswami relocated to Delhi, India, to become Professor of Assamese in the Modern Indian Languages & Literary Studies (MIL) Department at the University of Delhi under the guidance of her lifelong mentor Prof. Bhabananda Deka, who was subservient in the introduction of Assamese Language in MIL Department of Delhi University (DU).^[22] While at the university, she wrote most of her greatest works. Several short stories, including Hridoy, Nangoth Sohor, Borofor Rani, used Delhi as the background.

During later part of her life, after she became Head of the MIL Department in Delhi University, she, in collaboration with award-winning Assamese popular short-story writer and novelist Arnab Jan Deka made efforts and persuaded Delhi University to set up a Chair in the name of Middle Age Assamese saint-philosopher-littérateur-artist Srimanta Sankardev. They also convinced the Chief Minister of Assam to make a contribution of Rupees One Million to Delhi University to create the corpus for the proposed Chair. However, Dr Goswami could not see the fruits of her effort during her lifetime.^[23]

Her two classics – Pages Stained With Blood and The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker— were also written during this period. The other books completed while she lived in Delhi were Ahiron, The Rusted Sword, Uday Bhanu, Dasharathi's Steps and The Man from Chinnamasta.

In Pages Stained With Blood she writes about the plight of

In The Moth Eaten Howdah of a Tusker she writes about the plight of Assamese Brahmin widows in Satra, religious institutions of Assam. This novel was anthologised in The Masterpieces of Indian Literature and was made into a film, Adajya, which won several national and international film-festival awards. The novel was also made into two television mini-series; Nandita Das played the role of Giribala in one of the mini-series.

At the peak of her literary career she wrote the controversial novel The Man from Chinnamasta, a critique of the thousand-years-old tradition of

Mamoni Raisom Goswami died at the Gauhati Medical College Hospital on 29 November 2011.[27]

Literary works

Novels

Autobiography

• An Unfinished Autobiography (
  ISBN 9788120711730
• biography's new pages (Assamese: দস্তাবেজ নতুন পৃষ্ঠা)
• biography's new pages (Assamese: অপ্সৰা গৃহ )
• Adha Lekha Dastabej (
  ISBN 978-8124401682

• Pain and Flesh
  ISBN 978-8176465915
• Pakistan
• Ode To A Whore

• Ramayana from Ganga to Brahmaputra, Delhi 1996. (Research work on
  ISBN 978-8170188582

• "The Journey" (short story)

Awards

See also

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mamoni Raisom Goswami.

* The 'Peace-Mediator' rests in peace: Indira Goswami (1942–2011) Amitav Ghosh on Indira Goswami Obituary in The Hindu : A beloved daughter of Assam, writer, peacemaker Indira Goswami receiving Jnanpith Award from V S Naipaul Chronicles of Courage Why is Indira Goswami 'great'?[permanent dead link]

[1] Archived 7 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine An Interview with Puravee Kalita Mamoni Raisom Goswami – Profile & Biography

Library of Congress The South Asian literary Recording Project