Product Code Database
Chuni Kotal was an Adivasi social worker and the first woman graduate from the Lodha people, a Particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG) in India. Her death in 1992 drew national attention to allegations of systemic discrimination faced by tribal communities in educational institutions.
Kotal married Manmatha Savar in 1990 through a court marriage. They had known each other since 1981. Savar, a high school graduate, was employed at the railway workshop in Kharagpur.
In 1985, she graduated in anthropology from Vidyasagar University, becoming the first woman from the Lodha community to do so—a group that had been historically classified as a criminal tribe under British colonial rule. Economic and Political Weekly, she was the first lodha graduate women. Published by Sameeksha Trust., 1985. Page 1467 Dust on the Road: The Activist Writings of Mahasweta Devi, by Mahasveta Devi, Maitreya Ghatak. Published by Seagull Books, 1997. . The Story of Chuni Kotal - Page 136. Two years after graduation, she was appointed as a Hostel superintendent at 'Rani Shiromoni SC and ST Girls' Hostel' at Medinipur, here again she had to face the social stigma attached with her tribe.
During her Masters course (MSc) at the Vidyasagar University, she was allegedly discriminated by university administrators, who refused to give her the requisite pass grades, despite her having fulfilled the criteria. The institution authority opined that a low-born person coming from a "criminal tribe", a Denotified tribe of India, did not have the social privilege and pre-ordained destiny to study "higher discourse" like the social sciences. Introduction Contested Belonging: An Indigenous People's Struggle for Forest and Identity in Sub-Himalayan Bengal, by B. G. Karlsson, Published by Routledge, 2000. . Page 18-19. In 1991, after losing two years at the course, she complained, and a high level enquiry commission was set up by the state Education minister to no avail, once the fact that she belonged to a former criminal tribe came to light.
Her death became the focal point of immense political, human rights and social controversy in the media in West Bengal, and eastern India, Human Rights: Theory and Practice, by Debi Chatterjee, Sucheta Ghosh, Sumita Sen, Jadavpur University Dept. of International Relations. Published by South Asian Publishers, 2002. . Page 128. Environment and Women Development: Lessons from Third World, by G. K. Ghosh. Published by Ashish Publishing House, 1995. . Page 270. "Chuni Kotaler Attohota" (The Suicide of Chuni Kotal) Anandabazar Patrika, 20 August 1992."Debashish Bhottacharjo, "Amader Progotir Mukhosh Khule Dilen Chuni Kotal, Tanr Jibon Diye" (By Losing Her Life, Chuni Kotal Has Taken Away Our Progressive Mask)" where the discourse is traditionally Brahmin-Baniya dominated.
Upon her death, Bangla Dalit Sahitya Sanstha, Kolkata, organized a mass movement through different seminars and street corners, street play protesting against university teachers, on the street of Kolkata. Why Dalits in West Bengal are on Protest dalitmirror.
Her story was highlighted by noted writer-activist Mahasweta Devi in her book in Bengali, Byadhkhanda in (1994), ( The Book of the Hunter (2002)) The Hindu, 7 July 2002.
Har Na Mana Har (2021) is a Bengali novel has been written by Subhabrata Basu based on her tragic life
Education and career
Kotal got her first job as a Lodha Social worker after her junior college in 1983 at Jhargram ITDP office, surveying local villages.
Death
On 14 August 1992, frustrated by years casteist and racist harassment at Medinipur, she left Medinipur and went to meet her husband, Manmatha Savar, who had been working at Railway workshop at Kharagpur. Where she committed suicide on 16 August 1992, at the age of 27. The Changing Status of Women in West Bengal, 1970-2000: The Challenge Ahead, by Jasodhara Bagchi, Sarmistha Dutta Gupta. Published by SAGE, 2005. . Tribal Women - Page 141. Economic and Political Weekly, Published by Sameeksha Trust., 29 August 1992. Page 1836.
Legacy
Since 1993, it organizes the Annual Chuni Kotal Memorial Lecture in Kolkata every year. 13th Chuni Kotal Memorial Lecture Later a motivational video film has been produced on her life story by Department of Education, Govt. of India Media and Communication Supports Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India .
External links
Categories: People From Paschim Medinipur District, 20th-century Indian Anthropologists, Indian Anti-caste Leaders, Victims Of Human Rights Abuses, Suicides In India, 1965 Births, 1992 Deaths, Discrimination In India, Vidyasagar University Alumni, Indian Women Activists, Indian Women Anthropologists, Dalit Women, Indian Women Social Scientists, Scientists From West Bengal, Dalit Activists, 20th-century Indian Educators, 20th-century Indian Women Educators, 20th-century Indian Women Scientists, Women Scientists From West Bengal, Activists From West Bengal, Adivasi Activists, Adivasi Women, Educators From West Bengal, Women Educators From West Bengal
|
|
