Kolkata: Famous writer and social activists Mahasweta Devi breathed her last in Kolkata on July 28. Born on January 14,  1926, Mahasweta was schooled at Gurudev’s Santiniketan. Married to Bijon Bhattachrya, an avowed Communist, she knew the entire range of IPTA and understood what Communism meant. In her more mature years, she had been involved in various movements in Bihar, Jharkhand, Bengal, Rajasthan and Manipur.

With more than a hundred novels and 20 short-stories under her name, she made a space for herself in literature. Her most famous works are ‘Master Saab’ (The School Teacher), ‘Hazar Churasir Maan’ (The Mother of 1084), ‘Aranyer Audhikar’ (The Right to the Forest), and ‘Chotti Munda Aar Taar Teer’ (Chotti Munda and his Arrow).

In her last years, she vehemently opposed the former Left Front government’s controversial land acquisition policies in Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal. She also supported Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) party in the election that would topple the Left rule in Bengal after three decades. However, she later became disillusioned with the TMC as well and distanced herself from it.

She was awarded Jnanpith in 1995 (India’s highest literary award), the Ramon Magsaysay award in 1996 (considered the Asian Nobel), the Sahitya Akademi Award for the novel ‘Aranyer Adhikar’ in 1979, Padma Vibhushan (2006) and Padma Shri (1986).