Chitra Mudgal (born 10 December 1943) is an Indian Writer and one of the leading literary figures of modern

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

literature. She is the first Indian woman to receive the coveted

Vyas Samman The Vyas Samman is a literary award in India, first awarded in 1991. It is awarded annually by the K.K. Birla Foundation and includes a cash payout of Rs 4,00,000 (as of 2019). To be eligible for the award, the literary work must be in the Hi ...

for her novel ''Avaan''. In 2019 she was awarded India's highest literary award, the

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

, for her novel ''Post Box No. 203, Naalasopara''.

Personal life

Chitra Mudgal was born in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

on 10 December 1943. She received her M.A. in

Hindi Literature Hindi literature ( hi, हिन्दी साहित्य, translit=hindī sāhitya) includes literature in the various Hindi language which have writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃ� ...

from the

SNDT Women's University SNDT Women's University, also called by its full name Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University, is a women's university in the city of Mumbai, India. The university headquarters are at Churchgate in South Mumbai, while the ma ...

. She married Awadh Narain Mudgal, former Editor of "Sarika", against her father's wish.

Literary work

Her novel 'Aavaan', portrayed the lives and times of the trade union movement when nearly 300,000 workers spearheaded by

Datta Samant Dattatray Samant (21 November 1932 – 16 January 1997), also known as Datta Samant, and popularly referred to as ''Doctorsaheb'', was an Indian politician and trade union leader, who is most famous for leading 200–300 thousand textile mill ...

went on a year long strike of the Mumbai textile mills, which finally saw the collapse of the city's trademark industry. This work has been unanimously acknowledged by the critics as a masterpiece of literary work and stands as a classic novel in Hindi Literature. The plot of her novel ''Aavaan'' was conceived following the murder of a committed trade union leader,

Shankar Guha Niyogi Shankar Guha Niyogi (14 February 1943 – 28 September 1991) was an Indian labor leader who was the founder of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, a labor union run in the town of Dalli Rajhara Mines in Chhattisgarh, India. Niyogi was founder of ...

. His murder was in fact followed by the murder of another popular unionist of Bombay, Datta Samant. Subsequently, another labour leader of Madhya Pradesh, from Maihar, was killed. The murder of Datta Samant, who was her guide and philosopher, "shattered her" and became the bases of her novel ''Aavaan''.

Awards

* 2000 – Indu Sharma International Katha Samman for novel 'Aavaan' * 2003 – Vyas Sammaan by the Birla Foundation for her novel 'Aavaan' * 2018 –

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

for her novel "Postbox no.203 Nalasopara".

References

External links

Writer without a pause, pen for a cause

Streeshakti – The Parallel Force
1943 births 20th-century Indian women writers 20th-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian politicians Living people Hindi-language writers SNDT Women's University alumni Women writers from Tamil Nadu Writers from Chennai Indian women novelists 21st-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian politicians Indian women trade unionists Trade unionists from Tamil Nadu Novelists from Tamil Nadu Women in Tamil Nadu politics Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Hindi 21st-century Indian women politicians {{India-writer-stub