Indira Goswami

Indira Goswami

Author: Namrata Pathak

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-06-23

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1000600297

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This book engages with the life and works of Indira Goswami, the first Assamese woman writer to win the highest national literary award, the Jnanpith Award, in 2001. From sociological treatises to a springboard of a socio-political milieu, Goswami’s texts are intersections of the local and the global, the popular and the canonical. The writer’s penchant for transcending boundaries gives a new contour and shape to the social and cultural domains in her texts. That every character is a representative of the society, that the context comes alive in every evocation of class struggle, power play, caste discrimination and gendered narratives add an interesting semantic load to her texts. While tracing the trajectories discussed above, this book foregrounds Goswami’s act of going beyond the margins of varied kinds, both abstract and concrete, in search of egalitarian and democratic spaces of life. The book looks at Indira Goswami’s works with a special emphasis on the author situated within the Assamese literary canon. It not only discusses the themes and issues within her writing, but also focuses on the distinct language and style she uses. The volume includes non-fictional prose, excerpts from her short stories and novels, viewpoints of critics, letters and entries from diaries, as well as interviews with Goswami about her writing and personal life. It engages with her works in the context of her multifaceted, almost mythical life, especially her avowed ‘activism’ against animal sacrifice and militancy in her latter career. Part of the Writer in Context series, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of Indian literature, Assamese literature, English literature, postcolonial studies, cultural studies, global south studies, gender studies and translation studies.


Pages Stained with Blood

Pages Stained with Blood

Author: Māmaṇi Raẏachama Goswāmī

Publisher: Katha

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9788187649113

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Pages Stained with Blood is a thought-provoking and candid history of the 1984 riots. Indira Goswami reacts to the bloodshed and the savagery that followed Prime Minister Indira Gandhi s assassination and weaves a powerful tale of human frailties and mindless violence.


The Blue-necked God

The Blue-necked God

Author: Indira Goswami

Publisher: Zubaan

Published: 2014-03-11

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13: 938307423X

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The Blue-necked God (Nilakantha Braja), published in 1976, is one of Indira Goswami’s early novels and the first time that a writer highlighted the exploitation and poverty of widows, dumped in a ‘sacred’ city to eke out their days in prayer by uncaring, callous families under the guise of religious sanction and tradition. It was a book that raised many eyebrows when it was first published for this amazing narrative combined fact and fiction, autobiography and reflection in a fascinating mix as she tried to depict the confusion and the mental agony she herself experienced after the death of her husband through her character Saudamini. The physical, emotional, financial deprivation faced by the young widow has been woven into a perceptive text that drew on the author’s own research and experiences as she roamed the streets of Vrindavan and exposed, for the first time, the uglier side of the city and its traditions. ‘Indira Goswami is one of the pre-eminent literary figures in India and a woman of remarkable courage and conviction... She has also been an important voice in championing women’s causes, and has done much to highlight the plight of widows. [She] is one of those rare figures whose achievements as a writer are closely paralleled by their accomplishments as a social and political activist.’ - Amitav Ghosh Published by Zubaan.


An Unfinished Autobiography

An Unfinished Autobiography

Author: Māmaṇi Raẏachama Goswāmī

Publisher: Sterling Publishers Pvt. Ltd

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9788120724280

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Autobiography of a woman Assamese author.


The Shadow of Kamakhya

The Shadow of Kamakhya

Author: Māmaṇi Raẏachama Goswāmī

Publisher:

Published: 2001

Total Pages: 212

ISBN-13:

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The shadow of Kamakhya is a collection of stories set in Assam. Handpicked by the author, the stories are invested with a wealth of detail which evoke a feel of the region. The themes explored, however, are wide-ranging--the pain of thwarted passion, blighted hopes, the struggle for exsistence--and they transcend the ambience with ease.


The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar

The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar

Author: Indira Goswami

Publisher: Zubaan

Published: 2014-03-11

Total Pages: 97

ISBN-13: 9383074248

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Indira Goswami’s last work of fiction, The Bronze Sword of Thengphakhri Tehsildar is the heroic tale of a Bodo freedom fighter who was, arguably, the first woman revenue collector, a tehsildar, in British India. Set in late 19th-century Assam, the novel generated a great deal of interest when it was published. Thengphakhri is a fascinating character that the author recreated from folklore and songs and stories that she’d heard in her childhood. The image of the protagonist, galloping across the plains of Bijni kingdom in lower Assam to collect taxes for the British, is a compelling one and one that inspires awe and admiration. At a time when educated Indians, social reformers and the British government were trying to fight misogynist practices such as sati, child marriage and the purdah system, here was a woman working with the British officers, shoulder to shoulder, as a tax collector who rode a horse, wore a hat and had knee-length black hair. Indira Goswami has woven a complex tale wherein the foundations of the colonial rulers were shaken by insurgents seeking freedom across Assam just before the rise of the Indian National Congress. Published by Zubaan.


Indira Goswami

Indira Goswami

Author: Manjeet Baruah

Publisher:

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13:

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On the life and works of Māmanị Raẏachama Goswāmī, b. 1942, an Assame women author.