Mallika Sengupta

Mallika Sengupta was the head of the Department of Sociology in Maharani Kasiswari College, an undergraduate college affiliated with the University of Calcutta in Kolkata.^[3] She was much better known for her literary activity. The author of more than 20 books including 14 volumes of poetry and two novels, she was widely translated and was a frequent invitee at international literary festivals.

For twelve years in the 90s she was the poetry editor of Sananda, the largest circulated Bengali fortnightly (edited by Aparna Sen). Along with her husband, the noted poet Subodh Sarkar, she was the founder-editor of Bhashanagar, a culture magazine in Bengali.

English translations of her work have appeared in various Indian and American anthologies. In addition to teaching, editing and writing, she was actively involved with the cause of gender justice and other social issues.

She had begun breast cancer treatment in 2005 and died on the 28th of May 2011.^[4]

Sengupta was also active in a number of protest and gender activism groups. Her fiery, combative tone is noticeable in many poems, e.g. "While teaching my son history":

Man alone was both God and Goddess

Man was both father and mother

Both tune and flute

Both penis and vagina

As we have learnt from history.

 – from Mallika Sengupta, Kathamanabi, Bhashanagar, kolkata, 2005, (tr. poet)

often dealing with women's marginalised role in history:

after the battle said chenghis khan

the greatest pleasure of life,

is in front of the vanquished enemy

to sleep with his favourite wife.

  – Juddha Sheshe Nari   – from Mallika Sengupta, Kathamanabi, Bhashanagar, kolkata, 2005, (tr. amitabha mukerjee^[5])

Particularly evocative is her feminist rendition of the legend of Khana, a medieval female poet whose tongue was allegedly cut off by her jealous husband:

In Bengal in the Middle Ages

Lived a woman Khana, I sing her life

The first Bengali woman poet

Her tongue they severed with a knife

Her speechless voice, "Khanar Bachan"

Still resonates in the hills and skies

Only the poet by the name of Khana

Bleeding she dies.

  – Khana, tr. amitabha mukerjee ^[6]

• Junior Fellowship for Literature from the Dept. of Culture, Govt. of India (1997–99) ^[7]
• Sukanto Puroskar from the Govt. of West Bengal (1998) ^[7]
• Bangla Academy award from the Govt. of West Bengal (2004)
• Has been invited to poetry readings, conferences and seminars in Sweden (1987), Australia (1994), USA (2002 & 2006), Czech Republic (2009) and Bangladesh (1998 & 2002) as part of Indian writer's delegation.