Who wrote 'Hajar Churashir Maa' (Mother of 1084)?

"Hajar Churashir Maa" ("Mother of 1084") is a Bengali novel by Mahasweta Devi, published in 1974.

About the novel:

It is set in Calcutta in the early 1970s, during the Naxalite movement.

The main character is Sujata, an upper-middle-class mother, who receives a phone call informing her that her youngest son, Brati, has been killed. His body is identified only as "corpse number 1084" in the police morgue.

Brati had joined the Naxalite movement, and Sujata tries to understand who her son really was and why he joined it.

The novel criticises the hypocrisy of the middle class and the brutal state violence of that period.

It was made into a Hindi film, "Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa" (1998), directed by Govind Nihalani, with Jaya Bachchan as Sujata.

About Mahasweta Devi (1926-2016):

• She was born in Dhaka (now in Bangladesh) into a literary family.
• She was a writer and social activist who worked for the rights of tribal communities, such as the Lodhas and Sabars of West Bengal and Bihar, and of denotified tribes.
• Her other famous works include "Aranyer Adhikar" ("The Occupation of the Forest", about Birsa Munda's rebellion), which won the Sahitya Akademi Award (1979), "Jhansir Rani", "Rudali", "Draupadi" and "Agnigarbha".
• "Rudali" was made into a film (1993) starring Dimple Kapadia.
• She received the Jnanpith Award (1996), the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1997) and the Padma Vibhushan (2006).

Other Bengali women writers:

• Ashapurna Devi: "Pratham Pratishruti"; first woman to receive the Jnanpith Award (1976).
• Taslima Nasrin: "Lajja".
• Bani Basu: "Maitreya Jataka" and "Antarghaat".

Why not the other options?

• ✗Ashapurna Devi wrote "Pratham Pratishruti".
• ✗Taslima Nasrin wrote "Lajja".
• ✗Bani Basu wrote "Maitreya Jataka".