Sarojini Sahoo | |
|---|---|
 Sarojini Sahoo | |
| Born | 4 January 1956 Dhenkanal, Odisha, India |
| Occupation |
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| Nationality | Indian |
| Period | present |
Sarojini Sahoo (born 4 January 1956) is an Indian feminist writer, a columnist in The New Indian Express and an associate editor of Chennai-based English magazine Indian AGE. [1] [2] She has been enlisted among 25 Exceptional Women of India by Kindle Magazine of Kolkata. [3] and is an Odisha Sahitya Academy Award winner. [4]
Born in the small town of Dhenkanal in Odisha (India), Sahoo earned her MA and PhD degrees in Odia Literature and a Bachelor of Law from Utkal University. She now teaches at a degree college in Belpahar, Jharsuguda, Odisha.
She is the second daughter of Ishwar Chandra Sahoo and the late Nalini Devi and is married to Jagadish Mohanty, a veteran writer of Odisha. She has a son and a daughter. [5]
Her novel Gambhiri Ghara proved to be a bestseller in Odia literature. [6] Her novels have gained a reputation for their feminist outlook and sexual frankness [7] and have been translated into English and published from India under the title The Dark Abode (2008) ( ISBN 978-81-906956-2-6) and published from Bangladesh in Bengali as Mithya Gerosthali ( 2007 ) ( ISBN 984 404 287-9). Prameela K.P has translated this novel into Malayalam and has been published as "Irunda Koodaram" by Chintha Publishers, Thiruvananthapuram. Martina Fuchs for German and Dinesh Kumar Mali for Hindi. Another novel Pakhibas has been translated into Bengali and published from Bangladesh under the same title in 2009. This novel has been translated into Hindi by Dinesh Kumar Mali and has been published with same title by Yash Publication, Delhi ( ISBN 81-89537-45-8) in 2010. Also, Dinesh Kumar Mali translated two more novel in Hindi titled बंद कमरा and विशादेश्वरी published from Rajpal and Sons, New Delhi and Yash publication, New Delhi. The same translator had translated सरोजिनी साहू की दलित कहानियाँ and रेप तथा अन्य कहानियां published from Yash publication, New Delhi as well as Rajpal and Sons, New Delhi.
She has published a collection of essays titled 'Sensible Sensuality (2010), [8] where redefining femininity with Eastern perspective, the book explores why sexuality plays a major role in our understanding of Eastern feminism. The author thinks feminism should not act in opposition to men as individuals. To her, feminism is against oppressive and outdated social structures which forces both men and women into positions which are false and antagonistic. Thus, everyone has an important role to play in the feminist movement. It seems ironic that feminism has been characterized as anti-male, when in fact, it seeks to liberate men from the macho stereotypic roles men often have to endure such as the need to suppress feelings, act aggressively, and be deprived of contact with children. Sahoo thinks people should emphasize their femininity rather to impose the so-called stereotyped feministic attitude of the second wave. [9]
As an Indian feminist, many of Sarojini Sahoo's writings deal candidly with female sexuality, the emotional lives of women, and the intricate fabric of human relationships, depicting extensively about the interior experiences of women and how their burgeoning sexuality is seen as a threat to traditional patriarchal societies; this book is rare of its kind and has covered the topics that never be discussed so far in any Indian discourse. Her debatable concept on feminism, her denial of Simone De Beauvoir's 'the other theory', make her a prominent feminist personality of South Asia and for which KINDLE Magazine of India has placed her among 25 exceptional mindset women of India. [10]
Sarojini Sahoo is a key figure and trendsetter of feminism in contemporary Indian literature. For her, feminism is not a "gender problem" or confrontational attack on male hegemony and, as such, differs from the feminist views of Virginia Woolf or Judith Butler. [11] Sahoo accepts feminism as an integral part of femaleness separate from the masculine world. Writing with a heightened awareness of women's bodies, she has developed an appropriate style that exploits openness, fragmentation, and nonlinearity. [12] Sahoo, however contends that whilst the woman identity is certainly constitutionally different from that of man, men and women still share a basic human equality. Thus the harmful asymmetric sex /gender "Othering" arises accidentally and 'passively'from natural, unavoidable intersubjectivity. [13]
Treating female sexuality from puberty to menopause, her fiction always projects a feminine sensibility. Feminine feelings such as restrictions during adolescence or pregnancy, fear factors such as rape or being condemned by society, the concept of the "bad girl," and so on, are treated thematically and in-depth throughout her novels and short stories.
Her feminism is constantly linked to the sexual politics of a woman. She denies patriarchal limits of sexual expression for a woman and she identifies women's sexual liberation as the real motive behind the women's movement. [14] In South Asian Outlook, an e-magazine published from Canada, Menka Walia writes: "Sahoo typically evolves her stories around Indian women and sexuality, which is something not commonly written about, but is rather discouraged in a traditionalist society. As a feminist, she advocates women's rights and usually gives light to the injustices Eastern women face. In her interviews, she usually talks about the fact that women are second-class citizens in India, backing up these facts with examples of how love marriages are forbidden, the rejection of divorces, the unfairness of dowries, and the rejection of female politicians." [15] For her, orgasm is the body's natural call to feminist politics: if being a woman is this good, women must be worth something. Her novels like Upanibesh, Pratibandi and Gambhiri Ghara cover a myriad of areas from sexuality to philosophy; from the politics of the home to politics of the world. According to American journalist Linda Lowen, Sarojini Sahoo has written extensively as an Indian feminist about the interior lives of women and how their burgeoning sexuality is seen as a threat to traditional patriarchal societies. [16] Sarojini's novels and short stories treat women as sexual beings and probe culturally sensitive topics such as rape, abortion and menopause – from a female perspective. [17]
Sexuality is something that can be related to many other aspects of culture, tightly-linked with an individual life, or into the evolution of a culture. Anyone's class or ethnic or geographic identity could be closely associated to his/her sexuality, or anyone's sense of art or literature. Sexuality is not just an entity in itself. [14]
Still, either in West or in East, there is a reluctant outlook towards sexuality. Society has always tried to hide it from any open forum. But neither society, nor the legislature, or even the judiciary stand by the side of sexuality to support it.
In the West, James Joyce's Ulysses or even Radclyffe Hall's Loneliness in the Well or Virginia Woolf's Orlando are some examples which have to suffer a lot for describing sexuality in literature. Sexuality in literature grew with feminism.
Simone De Beauvoir, in her book The Second Sex , first elaborately described the gender role and problem away from biological differences. In Odia literature, Sarojini is considered a key figure to discuss sexuality in her fiction with a sincere effort to express her feminist ideas. [18]
Her novel Upanibesh was the first attempt in Odia literature to focus on sexuality as a part of social revolt by any woman. [19] Medha, the protagonist of her novel, was a bohemian . In her pre-marital stage, she was thinking that it was boring to live with a man lifelong. Perhaps she wanted a chain free life, where there would be only love, only sex and would not be any monotony. But she had to marry Bhaskar. Can Indian society imagine a lady with bohemianism?
In her novel Pratibandi, Sarojini has also described the thematic development of sexuality in a woman. Priyanka, the protagonist of the novel has to encounter the loneliness in the exile of Saragpali, a remote village of India. This loneliness develops into a sexual urge and soon, Priyanka finds herself sexually attached with a former Member of Parliament. Though there is an age gap between them, his intelligence impresses her and she discovers a hidden archaeologist in him.
In her novel Gambhiri Ghara , she describes an unusual relationship between two people: a Hindu housewife of India and a Muslim artist of Pakistan. It is a net-oriented novel. A woman meets a very sexually experienced man. One day he asks if she had any such experience. The woman, Kuki, scolds him and insults him by calling him a caterpillar. She said without love, lust is like hunger of a caterpillar. Gradually they become involved with love, lust, and spiritually. That man considers her as his daughter, lover, mother, and above all these, as a Goddess. They both madly love each other, through the internet and on the phone. They use obscene language and they kiss each other online. Kuki does not lead a happy conjugal life though she has a love marriage with Aniket. But the novel is not limited to only a love story.
It has a greater aspect. It deals with the relationship between State and individual. [20] Safique is not a Muslim by temperament, but as a historian, thinks the Pakistan of today has separated itself from its roots and looks towards Arabian legends for his history. He protests that the syllabus of history for the school would start from seventh century A.D., not from the Mahenjodaro and Harappa. Safique was once arrested after the bomb blast of London for allegation of being associated with the terrorist, but is it a fact? Later Kuki came to know that Safiques is trapped by a military junta. The ex-lover of Safique's wife had revenged on Safique by arresting him with an allegation of terrorism.
Here, the author deals with the question of terrorism. [21] There is often discussion about terrorism caused by an individual or by a group. Society rarely discusses terrorism caused by a state.
What is a state? Is it a group of people that resides within political and geographical boundaries? Are a state's identity, mood and wishes separate from its ruler? Is the wish of George W. Bush not considered as the wish of America? Has it reflected the mood and wish of the people of America? So, every time, the state's arranged anarchism or terrorism is merely a reflection of a terrorism caused by an individual. The great truth lies beneath Safique, as a terrorist, develops from the mind of a military man.
The author has successfully painted the difference of sensibility towards sexuality between male and female and has her own credibility for the frankness to deal with sensitive matters, be they matters of politics or matters of sexuality. She has gained a reputation and has her own place in the history of Odia fiction. [19]
She has published ten anthologies of short stories.
Her English anthologies of short stories are:
Her some of short stories have been anthologised in Hindi:
Some of her short stories have also been anthologized into Bengali:
Her other Odia anthologies of short stories are:
Odia is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Indian state of Odisha. It is the official language in Odisha, where native speakers make up 82% of the population, and it is also spoken in parts of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Odia is one of the many official languages of India; it is the official language of Odisha and the second official language of Jharkhand. The language is also spoken by a sizeable population of 700,000 people in Chhattisgarh.
Pratibha Ray is an Indian academic and writer of Odia-language novels and stories. For her contribution to the Indian literature, Ray received the Jnanpith Award in 2011. She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2022.
Manoj Das was an Indian author who wrote in Odia and English. In 2000, Manoj Das was awarded the Saraswati Samman. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2001, the fourth-highest Civilian Award in India, Padma Bhusan in 2020, and the third-highest Civilian Award in India for his contribution to the field of Literature & Education.
Jagadish Mohanty was a renowned Odia writer, considered as a trendsetter in modern Odia fiction, has received the prestigious Sarala Award in 2003, Odisha Sahitya Akademi Award in 1990 for his novel Kanishka Kanishka, Dharitri Award in 1985, Jhankar Award, Prajatantra Award. Born in Gorumahisani, an iron-ore mines in northern periphery in Mayurbhanj district of Odisha, he spent more than 30 years of his life working in the Mahanadi Coalfields Limited(MCL) in western periphery of Odisha. Though he kept himself away from the cultural capital of Odisha, but still his writings highlighted him in the mainstream of Odia literature and culture.
Odia literature is literature written in the Odia language, mostly from the Indian state of Odisha. The modern Odia language is mostly formed from Tadbhava words with significant Sanskrit (Tatsama) influences, along with loanwords from Desaja, English, Hindustani (Hindi/Urdu), Persian, and Arabic. Its earliest written texts date from around 1000 CE. The earliest Odia newspaper was Utkala Deepika, first published on August 4, 1866.
Rebati, is a short story by Fakir Mohan Senapati, published in 1898. It is considered first ever short story published in Odia language.
Sarala Devi was an Indian independence activist, feminist, social activist, politician and writer. She was the first Odia woman to join the Non-cooperation movement in 1921 and the first Odia woman delegate of the Indian National Congress. She became the first woman to be elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly on 1 April 1936.
Sarojini Sahoo Stories is an anthology of stories by Indian feminist writer Sarojini Sahoo, written originally in Odia. The anthology was published in 2006 by the publisher Grassroots Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, India.
Odisha is one of the 28 states of India, located in the eastern coast. It is surrounded by the states of West Bengal to the north-east, Jharkhand to the north, Chhattisgarh to the west and north-west, Andhra Pradesh to the south and south-west. Odia is the official and most widely spoken language, spoken by 33.2 million according to the 2001 Census. The modern state of Odisha was established on 1 April 1936, as a province in British India, and consisted predominantly of Odia-speaking regions. April 1 is celebrated as Odisha Day.
The Dark Abode is a collage presentation of South Asian feminist novelist Sarojini Sahoo's novel and American poet and painter Ed Baker's 23 sketches, which deal with terrorism that people often face from micro- to macrosphere.
Sensible and Sensuality is a collection of essay by Indian feminist writer Sarojini Sahoo. Published in 2010, the book contains the author's view on feminism. Sahoo is a key figure and trend-setter of feminism in contemporary Indian literature. She has been listed among 25 exceptional women of India by Kindle English magazine of Kolkata. For Sahoo, feminism is not a "gender problem" or confrontational attack on male hegemony and, as such, differs from the feminist views of Virginia Woolf or Judith Butler.
Kumudini Mohapatra (1930–2006) was an Odia-language Indian author and translator from the state of Odisha. Her travelogue Americara Ghara O Gharani and science fiction Chandra Abhimukhe Abhijaan are a few of her popular works. Mohapatra was married to Gokulananda Mahapatra. She was active in Science-writing during 1947–1948.
Kanhu Charan Mohanty was an Indian Odia language novelist who wrote fifty-six novels in a career spanning over six decades from 1930 to 1985. He is considered "one of the most popular and celebrated novelists of Odisa". Mohanty was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958 for his novel, Kaa, published in 1956, and was one of the fellows of the Sahitya Akademi. Mohanty died on 6 April 1994 at the age of 87.
Dr. Yashodhara Mishra is a Odia writer and poet. She is a professor of English who has published poems, several collections of short stories and novels. She was a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study.
Sitadevi Khadanga (1902–1983) was an Odia dramatist, novelist, poet and translator from Odisha, India. Her writings mostly set in rural Odisha which depicts social problems of the area in the 20th-century. Her contribution to Odia poetry is considered to be a landmark in Odia literature.
Basanta Kumari Patnaik was an Odia language novelist, short story writer, playwright, poet and essayist; considered to be one of the pioneers in Odia literature. She became famous for her three novels: Amada Bata, Chorabali and Alibha Chita, among which Amada Bata has been adapted into an Odia film by same name.
Binapani Mohanty was an Indian Odia language writer and academician. She was well known for her works such as Patadei and Kasturi Mriga. She was a professor in economics before retiring. She had been awarded Padmashree by the Government of India and Atibadi Jagannatha Das Sammana by Odisha Sahitya Akademi. She had earlier won the Sahitya Akademi Award and Sarala Award. She had served as chairperson of Odisha Lekhika Sansad.
Kuntala Kumari Sabat (1901–1938) was an Odia poet during colonial India. She was one of the women poets who came into prominence from Odisha during India's freedom struggle. She was multifaceted personality. She was a physician, writer, poet, editor, leader of nationalist movement and social worker. She was honored with Utkala Bharati in 1925.
Kishori Charan Das, also known by his short name K.C. Das, was an eminent Indian writer and translator of the Odia and English language. Known for his master interpretation of choices, disillusionment, and insecurities of the Odia middle class. His stories showcases realities of everyday life and do not delve into preaching morals or convey messages. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1976 for his short story collection Thakura Ghara. He was also awarded with the Sarala Puraskar in1985 and Bishuva Puraskar in 1992.
Sarojini Nadar is a South African theologian and biblical scholar who is the Desmond Tutu Research Chair in Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape.
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