Four Angry Women

About the Author

Kabita Singha (1931–1999) a Bengali poet, novelist and feminist thinker was born into a literary family. She worked for some years as a schoolteacher before joining the West Bengal government as an editor. In 1965 she joined AIR. In 1981, she was invited to the Iowa International Writer’s Workshop. Although Kabita Singha is primarily known for her poetry, she authored a number of important novels in Bengali. Some of her novels are Charjan Ragi Jubati (1956), Ekti Kharap Meyer Galpo (1958), Nayika Pratinayika (1960) and Pourush (1984). Kabita Singha steps out of the age old concept of masculinity and asserts that Pourush is not an attribute of a particular gender but any individual irrespective of his or her sex, religion, education and social position does have the scope of achieving and proving this quality.

About the Translator

Shamita Das Dasgupta born February 1949, is an Indian-born American scholar and activist. A social activist since early 1970s, she co-founded Manavi in 1985. It is the first organization of its kind that focuses on violence against South Asian women in the United States. A part-time teacher and full-time community worker, she has written extensively in the areas of ethnicity, gender, immigration, and violence against women. Her books include: A Patchwork Shawl: Chronicles of South Asian Women in America, Body Evidence: Intimate Violence Against South Asian Women in America, Globalization and Transnational Surrogacy in India: Outsourcing Life and Mothers for Sale: Women in Kolkata’s Sex Trade. She has been translating feminist stories from Bengali extensively for the past few years.