Eminent litterateur, Jnanpith laureate, peacemaker between the insurgent United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the Centre and India's first Principal Prince Claus Laureate Indira Goswami, popularly known as Mamoni Raisom Goswami, passed away at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital here on Tuesday after a prolonged illness. She was 69.
Dr. Goswami had been in hospital since February. Her husband, Madhaven Raisom Ayengar, died in an accident in 1965.
Dr. Goswami, author of several bestseller Assamese novels and short story collections, won the Sahitya Akademi Award for her powerful novel Mamare Dhara Tarowal Aru Dukhan Upanyasa in 1982 and the Jnanpith Award in 2000.
The Assam Government has declared a three-day mourning and a holiday on Wednesday. The last rites will be held with full State honours.
An irreparable loss
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi described the demise of Dr. Goswami as an irreparable loss to literature. He said it was because of the initiative taken by a person of Dr. Goswami's stature that both the Centre and the State were convinced about opening a dialogue with the ULFA. He visited the hospital and paid homage to the litterateur before the mortal remains were taken to her residence, where it will be kept for the night and taken to Nabagraha for cremation at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
Governor Janaki Ballav Patnaik visited Dr Goswami's residence and paid homage to the eminent writer.
As soon as the news spread a large crowd of her admirers, including eminent scholars, writers, leaders of political parties, student and youth organisations, representatives of the Asam Sahitya Sabha and the Bodo Sahitya Sabha gathered at the GMCH and her residence at Gandhibasti to pay homage.
Senior lawyer of the Gauhati High Court and member of the People's Consultative Group (PCG) Arup Borbora told The Hindu : “Apart from being a great litterateur, Mamoni Raisom Goswami crossed all barriers to care of the downtrodden. She always tried to know the hearts of revolutionaries, the poorer sections, leprosy patients, cancer patients and what not. For establishing peace in this troubled region she had been consistently trying for restoration of peace, and in fact she played a major role in bringing the ULFA and Centre to the discussion table to resolve their long standing struggle through a political dialogue and thereby she played a very important role as coordinator of People's Consultative Group (PCG), which held as many three rounds of discussions with the Prime Minister, the Union Home Minister and others. She never gave up the hope of seeing lasting peace in the northeast.”
Self-styled foreign secretary of the ULFA Sasha Choudhury, who went to Dr. Goswami's Gandhibasti residence here to pay tribute on behalf of the insurgent outfit, said she had achieved 100 per cent success in her initiative to bring both the ULFA and the Centre to the negotiation table. He said it was because of her initiative that both sides found the entire initiative trustworthy and felt the impulse to open the dialogue.
Describing Dr. Goswami as “one of the most eminent of contemporary Indian novelists” noted intellectual Hiren Gohain told The Hindu: “She was a very noble person in her own right. With tremendous energy she seems to have catered to the needs of thousands of people, including students, people with all kinds of grievances, people with sufferings... As a writer she combined great depth and intensity of emotions rendered with appropriate literary skill and she virtually created a world of her own where the oppressed, the humiliated, people that society has relegated to the background like the widows of Vrinadavon, the victims of Partition who have been forgotten but whose scars have not been healed got prominence.”
It was Dr. Goswami who mediated between the Centre and the ULFA and succeeded in convincing both the government and the ULFA to come forward for negotiations. Her initiative led to the formation of the Peoples' Consultative Group (PCG) by the ULFA to prepare the ground for peace talks. Although the discussions between the Centre and the PCG broke down, she continued to prevail upon both the sides to sit for talks and resolve the conflict through peace negotiations. She played a key role when the Sanmilta Jatiya Abhbartan, an umbrella body of civil society organisations of Assam, facilitated the resumption of dialogue between the ULFA and the Centre.
She was also a recipient of the Katha Award, the Karnataka Sangha Sammam, the Manas Chatuechati Samiti Samman, the Kamal Kumari Foundation National Awards, the Sauhardya award and the Bhart Nirman award.
