Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (born 1983) is an Indian writer.
Ethnically, Shekhar is a Santhal, one of India's Adivasi groups; this background is reflected in his fiction. [1] His stories are rich in "fine details that add to the deep dimensions" and "open to us a world we have deliberately dismissed" [2] and contain "a surplus of understanding that comes from a kind insider-outsider." [3] Indeed, he characterised his first novel as "the first full-fledged Santhal novel written in English, and published by a mainstream publisher." [4] Born in Ranchi, [5] Shekhar grew up in Ghatshila and Chakulia and went to school in Musabani. [6] [7] [8] His parents used to work with Hindustan Copper in Ghatshila. [9] By profession, he is a medical doctor employed as a medical officer with the government of Jharkhand, [10] [11] and has worked in Pakur and Chandil. [12] [13]
Though Shekhar writes primarily in English, he also translates from Santhali to English, [14] [15] [16] Hindi to English, [17] [18] and English to Hindi. [19]
For his debut novel, The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey , Shekhar won the 2015 Yuva Puraskar, [28] [29] was shortlisted for the 2014 Hindu Literary Prize [30] and the 2014 Crossword Book Award, [31] longlisted for the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award, [32] and jointly won the 2015 Muse India Young Writer Award. [33] The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey was named by The Hindu in December 2019 as one of the ten best fiction books of the decade. [34]
For his second book, The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories , Shekhar was shortlisted for the 2016 Hindu Literary Prize. [35] The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories was included by Frontline (magazine) in August 2022 in a list of 25 books “that light up the path to understanding post-Independence Indian literature.” [36]
Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire: Adventures in Champakbagh is Shekhar's first book for children. [37] This book features illustrations by Krishna Bala Shenoi. [38] It was shortlisted for a 2019 Neev Book Award in the category Junior Readers [39] and a 2019 Crossword Book Award in the children's books category. [40]
His fourth book, a novel entitled My Father's Garden, has been called "rich and surprising" [41] and "[packing] more emotion, detail and narrative heft than...books four times its size." [42] My Father's Garden was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2019. [43] [44]
I Named My Sister Silence was shortlisted for the JCB Prize for Literature 2023. [45] [46] [47] The jury commented: “A novel of epic stature told with great beauty and brevity, it's[ sic ] power is felt viscerally in Hansda Sowvendra’s Shekhar’s translation. The writing offers rich imagery that does the storytelling using soundscapes and landscapes with equal felicity. Manoj Rupda plays on the theme that everything grand is eventually destroyed, be it a majestic elephant, a ship, or an entire tribal civilization eaten away by a corrupt society. The complex and emotionally wrenching relationship between the protagonist and his sister is at the heart of it, making this perhaps the most layered among many novels about sibling relationships.” [48]
I Named My Sister Silence was also shortlisted for the 2023 Atta Galatta Bangalore Literature Festival Book Prize in the Fiction category. [49]
On 11 August 2017, the government of Jharkhand banned The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories and summarily suspended Shekhar from his job, on the grounds that the book portrayed Adivasi women and Santhal culture in a bad light. [50] The key complainants appear to have been the ruling party in Jharkhand, the Bharatiya Janata Party; the opposition party, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha; and an academic at Jamia Millia Islamia. [51] The government's actions were widely criticised. [52] [53] [54] [55] The ban on The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories was removed in December 2017 [56] [57] and Shekhar's suspension was removed and he was reinstated into his job in 2018. [58] [59]
The Santal are an Austroasiatic-speaking Munda ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar, Assam and Tripura. They are the largest ethnic minority in northern Bangladesh's Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. They have a sizeable population in Nepal. The Santals speak Santali, the most widely spoken Munda languages of Austroasiatic language family.
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Siddhartha Sarma is an Indian novelist and journalist from Assam who writes in English.
The Hindu Literary Prize or The Hindu Best Fiction Award, established in 2010, is an Indian literary award sponsored by The Hindu Literary Review which is part of the newspaper The Hindu. It recognizes Indian works in English and English translation. The first year, 2010, the award was called The Hindu Best Fiction Award. Starting in 2018 a non-fiction category was included.
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The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories is a collection of short stories. The second book by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, it was nominated for The Hindu Literary Prize in 2016 and included by Frontline (magazine) in August 2022 in a list of 25 books “that light up the path to understanding post-Independence Indian literature.” As of April 2021, this book has been translated into Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, and Bengali, while the Malayalam and Austrian German translations are forthcoming.
JCB Prize for Literature is an Indian literary award established in 2018. It is awarded annually with ₹2,500,000 (US$30,000) prize to a distinguished work of fiction by an Indian writer working in English or translated fiction by an Indian writer. The winners will be announced each November with shortlists in October and longlists in September. It has been called "India's most valuable literature prize". Rana Dasgupta is the founding Literary Director of the JCB Prize. In 2020, Mita Kapur was appointed as the new Literary Director.
The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey is a novel by Indian author Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar. Published in the year 2014, this was his first book. For this novel, Shekhar won the 2015 Yuva Puraskar, was shortlisted for the 2014 Crossword Book Award and the 2014 Hindu Literary Prize, longlisted for the 2016 International Dublin Literary Award, and jointly won the 2015 Muse India Young Writer Award. As of December 2019, this book has been translated into Tamil and Bengali. The Mysterious Ailment of Rupi Baskey was named by The Hindu in December 2019 as one of the ten best fiction books of the decade.
Digamber Hansda was an Indian academic and tribal activist who worked for the social and economic advancement of the underprivileged communities in West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Odisha. He was a founding member of the Santhal Sahitya Akademi and was considered a pioneer of Santhali language literature.
Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire: Adventures in Champakbagh is Indian author Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s first book for children. It is a novel and its reading level is age 9 years and above. This book features illustrations by Krishna Bala Shenoi. It was shortlisted for a 2019 Neev Book Award in the category Junior Readers and a 2019 Crossword Book Award in the children’s books category. One positive review has called this book "a must-read for the young to ask questions and to observe the differences in childhoods across India." In the year 2021, this book was reissued with a new title, Jwala Kumar and the Gift of Fire: The Dragon who came to Champakbagh. ISBN 9789354470264
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Santali literature refers to the literary works written in the Santali language, primarily spoken by the Santal people of India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is written in the indigenous script called Ol Chiki script. Santali literature is composed in two broad styles- ᱠᱟᱹᱛᱷᱱᱤ (Kạthni-prose), ᱜᱟᱹᱛᱷᱱᱤ (Gạthni-poetry).In terms of historical development, it is broadly classified into two prominent forms (genres) based on historical passes. They are: