The impact and influence of the Bengali language, the literary traditions and forms of expression cannot be emphasized enough. Be it literature, art, music, theatre or cinema – to name a few – Bengal’s contributions are immense not only when it comes to South Asia but the rest of the world.
One of the major languages of South Asia, Bengali storytelling in different forms has played a catalyzing role when it comes to social change, political narratives to cultural identity. From the second non-European Nobel Laureate (after Theodore Roosevelt), the first Indian and South Asian, Rabindranath Tagore awarded for his collection of poetry Gitanjali in 1913, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay to Mahesweta Devi known for immense, prolific and groundbreaking work focusing fiction from an ecofeminist and socioeconomic perspective, Bengali has and continues to influence modern South Asian culture.
Part of the special, one of its kind series on languages that aims to initiate a conversation about decolonizing the perception of South Asian languages, Ananke proudly celebrates Bengali, it’s heritage, legacy and impact on societies even beyond South Asia. The special session will celebrate and delve deep into how thinkers like Tagore, Satyajit Ray, Soumitra Chatterjee, Ritwik Ghatak, Mahasweta Devi and so many more have given the world alternate perspectives, subversive narratives; challenging traditional, often hegemonic and colonial-influenced forms of expression, highlighting social injustices and often marginalized viewpoints in mainstream artistic endeavors.
Chaired by award-winning author, educationist and translator, Sutapa Basu, guest speakers include Madhurima Vidyarthi, Priyankar Gupta and Sanghamitra Chakraborty.
Sutapa Basu is a best-selling, award-winning author as well as an educationist, poet, storyteller, and a translator. Her historical novel, THE CURSE OF NADER SHAH won the Best Fiction Award by AutHer Awards, 2020 instituted by JK Papers and The Times of India. She is the 2016 First Prize winner of The Times of India’s Write India Campaign for Amish Tripathi while her debut, a psychological thriller, DANGLE was nominated for the Anupam Kher Award for Best Debut English Novel in 2017. In March 2021, she received an award for Excellence in Publishing by the Public Diplomacy Forum.
She is well-known for her best-selling historical fiction, PADMAVATI, The Queen Tells Her Own Story (2017, pub Readomania). Her second historical fiction initiated the Invader Series with THE LEGEND OF GENGHIS KHAN (2018, pub Readomania) and continued with THE CURSE OF NADER SHAH (2019, pub Readomania). Recently, her two anthologies, OUT OF THE BLUE, Stories with a Twist and THE ANATOMY OF AFFECTION, Tales That Touch You (2020, pub Readomania) have been released. A cozy-mystery adventure, THE CURSED INHERITANCE(2021, pub Readomania) was released in February. Stepping into the genre of children’s literature, her English translation of the iconic Thakurmar Jhuli titled PRINCESSES, MONSTERS AND MAGICAL CREATURES (2021, pub, Readomania) has been launched in August this year.
Sutapa’s short stories have appeared in anthologies, Crossed & Knotted, Defiant Dreams, When They Spoke and Write India Stories. Her poems have been published in Muse India, Kaafiyana, The Dawn Beyond Waste and Remnants Of Loss.
Authored by Sutapa Basu, THE ENGLISH ROUTE Primer to Book 8, THE ENGLISH GARDEN Books 1-5, and EMERALD Term Books 1-5 are the educational series being prescribed in schools in India and abroad. Children’s fiction and poetry written by her have been selected for several textbooks at the K-12 levels.
An author, poet and educationist, Sutapa is the Director, Publishing at Eupheus Learning.
Daughter to an army officer and wife of another, Sutapa has been travelling before she could walk. She has studied in Santiniketan and holds a post graduate degree in English Literature as well as a Bachelors degree in Education. Her professional life of 32 years includes work as an educational faculty and creative writing trainer. As a publishing professional that spans a career from Oxford University Press, India to Encyclopedia Britannica, South Asia to Eupheus Learning, she has designed and supervised publishing of more than 400 titles.
Sutapa runs a live chat show called BISTRO BUZZ, Conversations with Sutapa Basu. Read her works on sutapabasu.com and readomania.com.
In her day job, Madhurima Vidyarthi is an endocrinologist; trained in Kolkata and London and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (UK). She has always been a passionately committed writer. Over the years she has written in many formats – articles for The Statesman (Kolkata), scripts for educational documentaries (EMMRC, St Xavier’s College, Kolkata) and for a CD-ROM created by Price Waterhouse Coopers on Satyajit Ray (narrated by Sir Richard Attenborough). But her enduring love has always been fiction. She writes across a range of genres and age groups.
‘Munni Monster’ Duckbill (Penguin Random House India) is her second book for young readers. Her first book, ‘My Grandmother’s Masterpiece’, was published by the same imprint in February 2022. She is also part of the Italian Consulate initiative ‘Bridge of Stories’ – an anthology of short fiction by Indian and Italian writers. She has written for The Woman Inc. and Saaranga Magazine, among others.
More about her and more of her writing can be found at www.madhurimavidyarthi.com
Priyankar Gupta is a pre-visualizer and a creative consultant in the field of media, advertising and broadcast design. He has worked with various publishing companies across the globe as an Illustrator for Children’s Books and Books for young adults since 2006. He has been a mentor in various design schools across the country teaching various forms of visual narratives. Currently he is a Faculty in the Digital and Media Arts in Srishti Manipal Institute.
Sanghamitra Chakraborty is a journalist and editor. In a career spanning thirty years, she has been the editor of India Today Group magazines Reader’s Digest, Prevention and Women’s Health, and worked at several other leading publications at the start of her career, including the Times of India, Outlook, the Statesman and Sunday, writing on cinema, gender, health and environment, apart from news reporting. She lives and works in New Delhi.
With this year’s festival theme: Speaking Truth to Power, the three-day, digital event will commence on April 29th, 2025 and streamed on Ananke’s YouTube page; with links shared on its Facebook page as well. These sessions will be conducted bilingually on May 1st, 2025 – Day 3 set specifically for the language series.
