Bitter Soil

Mahasweta Devi

Translated by Ipsita Chanda

Out of Print

 

5.5 x 8.5 inches, x + 150pp. 2002

ISBN : 9788170461470

Rs  275.00 (PB)
$13.99 (PB)
£10.99 (PB)

Bitter Soil contains four of her most powerful stories—‘Salt’, ‘Seed’, ‘the Witch’ and ‘Little Ones’—all set in Palamau, the tribal-intensive region, she has traveled extensively. As she says in her introduction, ‘My Palamau is a mirror of India.’ These harsh, hard hitting pieces are, in her own words, amongst the most important of her prolific writing career. Written in the eighties, they resonate with anger against the exploitation she witnessed firsthand, and this complacent hypocrisy of the upper castes and classes. 

Mahasweta Devi is one of India's foremost writers. Her powerful fiction has won her recognition in the form of the Sahitya Akademi (1979), Jnanpith (1996) and Ramon Magsaysay (1996) awards, amongst several other literary honours. She was also awarded the Padmasree in 1986, for her activist work amongst dispossessed tribal communities. 

 

Ipsita Chanda (b. 1959) has translated works by Sukumar Ray, Satinath Bhaduri and Mahasweta Devi and her books include Packaging Freedom: Feminism and Popular Culture, Reception of the Received: European Romanticism, Tracing the Charit as Genre: An Exploration in Comparative Methodology. Chanda is Professor of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Calcutta.

Selected Works Of Mahasweta Devi
Gender Studies
Fiction