Nirupama Borgohain

Nirupama Borgohain (née Tamuli; born 17 March 1932) is an Indian Journalist and novelist in the Assamese language. She is a Sahitya Akademi award winner, best known for her novel Abhiyatri. In the year 2015, she decided to return her Sahitya Akademi award in protest against the rising intolerance in the society. She was a recipient of the Assam Valley Literary Award.

Biography Nirupama Tamuli was born in Guwahati, Assam on 17 March 1932, to Jadab Tamuli, a clerk in the Income Tax office, and Kashiswari Tamuli. She attended Cotton College, Guwahati and Calcutta University, from where she received post-graduate degrees in English literature and Assamese.

In 1958, Tamuli married the writer and journalist Homen Borgohain. They had two sons. In 1977, they separated.

Career

Journalism Borgohain worked as a lecturer of English at various colleges, as well as editor of Saptahik Sanchipat and Chitrangada.

Between 1968 and 1980, Borgohain worked at the weekly magazine Saptahik Neelachal, which she was responsible for developing into one of the most influential in Assam. From 1979–85, there was a socio-political movement in Assam against the influx of alleged illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and several camps were attacked by the activists. Borgohain's investigation into these attacks resulted in essays that led to her controversial sacking from the magazine.

Literary Borgohain began publishing short stories under the pseudonym Neelima Devi in the journal Ramdhenu. Some of her works are Anek Akas (Many Skies, 1961), Jalachabi (Movie, 1966), Sunyatar Kavya (Poems of Emptiness, 1969).

Borgohain's first novel Sei Nadi Niravadhi (The River Keeps Flowing) was published in 1963. This intertwined the story of a woman with the fate of a river, while Ejan Budha Manuh (An Old Man, 1966) centred on the relationship between a father and son, laying bare the tensions fraying it owing to an inter-caste marriage.

Her feminist novels Dinor Pisot Dinor (1968), Anya Jivan (1986) and Champavati were noted for their sympathetic portrayals of women facing up to oppressive social mores and the patriarchy. Meanwhile, the degradation faced by the indigent, owing to rural migration as well as the breakdown of the old established social orders, was acutely described in her Dinor Pisot Dinor as well as Bhabhishat Rongat Surya (1980). Iparor Ghor Siparor Ghor (Houses of This Side and That, 1979) again depicted the migration of rural folks to urban areas in search of a better life; the tale was told in a naturalistic form, realistic but suffused with pessimism.

Borgohain's Abhiyatri (1995) was a biographical novel of the life of an Assamese freedom fighter, feminist and social activist, Chandraprava Saikiani. This won her the Sahitya Akademi literary award the following year, and is considered one of her finest novels.

Selected works

Novels Aei Nodi Niravadhi (1963) Dinor Pisot Din (1968) Antah Shrota (1969) Hridoy Eta Nirjon Dweep (1970) Samanya Asamanya (1971) Cactus Phul (1976) Iparor Ghor Siparor Ghor (1979) Bhabishyot Ronga Surjya (1980) Anya Jibon (1986) Champabati (1990)

Barasun (2011)

Short stories

Autobiography Vishwas Aru Sanshayar Majedi

Awards and recognition Borgohain has received numerous accolades for her literary achievements. Asam Sahitya Sabha's Hem Baruah Award, 1983 Asam Sahitya Sabha's Basanti Devi Award, 1988 Sahitya Akademi Award, 1996 Assam Valley Literary Award, 2004 Asam Sahitya Sabha's Prajnaratna, 2012