Nayantara Sahgal: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2014}}

| image      =Nayantara Sahagal,Indian origin english language writer,India.jpg

| parents    = [[Ranjit Sitaram Pandit]] (father)<br>[[Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit]] (mother)

| relatives  = [[Jawaharlal Nehru]] (uncle)<br>[[Indira Gandhi]] (cousin)

|alma_mater= [[Wellesley College]]

'''Nayantara Sahgal''' (born 10 May 1927) is an Indian writer who writes in [[English language|English]]. She is a member of the [[Nehru–Gandhi family]], the second of the three daughters born to [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]'s sister, [[Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit]].

Sahgal's mother, [[Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit]], was the daughter of [[Motilal Nehru]] and sister of India's first prime minister, [[Jawaharlal Nehru]]. Vijayalakshmi had been active in the [[Indian freedom struggle]], had been to jail for this cause and in 1946, was part of the first team representing newly formed [[India]] that went to the then newly formed [[United Nations]], along with [[M.C.Chagla]].<ref name="chagla">{{cite book|last1=Chagla|first1=M.C.|title=Roses in December - an autobiography|date=1 January 1974|publisher=[[Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan]]|location=Bombay|edition=1}}, Tenth Edition, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 2000, {{ISBN|81-7276-203-8}}</ref> After India achieved independence, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit served as a member of India's [[Constituent Assembly of India|Constituent Assembly]], the [[Governors of states of India|governor]] of several Indian states, and as India's ambassador to the [[Soviet Union]], the United States, [[Mexico]], the [[Court of St. James]], Ireland, and the [[United nations]]. {{Citation needed|date=February 2020}}

[[File:Frida Kahlo in Sari.png|thumb|right|Sahgal (right) with [[Frida Kahlo]] (centre) in Mexico City (1947)<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://scroll.in/article/837352/flashback-how-mexican-artist-frida-kahlo-came-to-photographed-in-a-sari|title=Flashback: How Mexican artist Frida Kahlo came to be photographed in a sari|last=Prashad|first=Vijay|work=Scroll.in|access-date=2017-11-24|language=en-US}}</ref>]]

Sahgal has been married twice, first to Gautam Sehgal and later to E.N. Mangat Rai, a Punjabi Christian who was an [[Indian Civil Service]] officer.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/books/literary-review/biography-of-nayantara-sahgal-by-ritu-menon/article6555161.ece|title=Snippets from a rich life|last=Choudhury|first=Sonya Dutta|date=2014-11-02|work=The Hindu|access-date=2019-05-25|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> Though part of the Nehru family, Sahgal developed a reputation for maintaining her independent critical sense.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jaipurliteraturefestival.org/archive/jlfspeakers/nayantara-sahgal-2/|title=Nayantara Sahgal {{!}} Jaipur Literature Festival|website=jaipurliteraturefestival.org|access-date=2019-05-25}}</ref> Her independent tone, and her mother's, led to both falling out with her cousin [[Indira Gandhi]] during the most [[The Emergency (India)|autocratic]] phases of the latter's time in office in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. Gandhi cancelled Sahgal's scheduled appointment as India's Ambassador to Italy within days of her return to power. Not one to be intimidated, Sahgal in 1982 wrote a scathing, insightful account of Gandhi's rise to power.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.loc.gov/acq/ovop/delhi/salrp/nayantarasahgal.html|title=Nayantara Sahgal -- English writer: The South Asian Literary Recordings Project |publisher=Library of Congress New Delhi Office|website=[[Library of Congress]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.postcolonialweb.org/india/literature/choubey2.html|title=Food Metaphor. A Champion's Cause: A Feminist Study of Nayantara Sahgal's Fiction with Special Reference to Her Last Three Novels|website=Postcolonial Web|first1=Asha |last1=Choubey}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php?Sahgal+Nayantara|title=Bookshelf: Nayantara Sahgal|publisher=South Asian Women's NETwork| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160406093305/http://www.sawnet.org/books/authors.php?Sahgal+Nayantara| archive-date= 6 April 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

On 6 October 2015, Sahgal returned her [[Sahitya Akademi Award]] to protest what she called "increasing intolerance and supporting right to dissent in the country", following the murders of rationalists [[Govind Pansare]], [[Narendra Dabholkar]] and [[M. M. Kalburgi]], and the [[2015 Dadri mob lynching|Dadri mob lynching]] incident;<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ramachandran|first1=Smriti Kak|last2=Raman|first2=Anuradha|title=Nayantara Sahgal protests Dadri lynching, returns Akademi award|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/nayantara-sahgal-to-return-her-sahitya-akademi-award/article7730676.ece|access-date=7 October 2015|work=The Hindu|date=6 October 2015}}</ref> for this she was praised in 2017 by Karima Bennoune, [[United Nations]] monitor for cultural rights.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/un-body-praises-author-nayantara-sahgal-for-returning-sahitya-akademi-award-afte/303482 | title=UN Body Praises Author Nayantara Sahgal For Returning Sahitya Akademi Award After Dadri Lynching | work=[[Outlook India]] | date=26 October 2017 | access-date=28 October 2017}}</ref> In September 2018 she was elected as a Vice President of [[PEN International]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pen-international.org/news/the-84th-pen-international-congress-closes-in-india-with-a-focus-on-free-expression-and-women-writers|title=The 84th PEN International Congress closes in India with a focus on free expression and women writers|website=peninternational.org|access-date=2019-09-04}}</ref>

*''Prison and Chocolate Cake'' (memoir; 1954)

* ''Relationship'' (collection of letters exchanged between Nayantara Sahgal and E.N.Mangat Rai;1994)<ref>{{cite web | url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/book-review-nayantara-sahgal-and-e-n-mangat-rai-relationship-extracts-from-a-correspondence/1/293578.html | title=Lost labour | work=[[India Today]] | date=30 June 1994 | access-date=4 March 2015 | author=Alok Rai}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Relationship | publisher=Harper Collins | author=Nayantara Sahgal, E.N.Mangat Rai | pages=336 | isbn=9788172236823}}</ref>