Manoj Das

Manoj Das (27 February 1934 – 27 April 2021) was an Indian author who wrote in Odia and English. In 2000, Manoj Das was awarded the Saraswati Samman. He was awarded Padma Shri in 2001, the fourth-highest Civilian Award in India, and Padma Bhusan in 2020, the third-highest Civilian Award in India for his contribution to the field of Literature & Education.

Kendra Sahitya Akademi has bestowed its highest award (also India's highest literary award) i.e Sahitya Akademi Award Fellowship.

In 1971, through extensive research conducted in the archives of London and Edinburgh, he uncovered lesser-known aspects of India's freedom struggle during the early 1900s, led by Sri Aurobindo. This significant contribution earned him the inaugural Sri Aurobindo Puraskar in Kolkata.

His pursuit of deeper understanding eventually led him to mysticism, becoming a resident of [Sri Aurobindo Ashram] in Puducherry in 1963. During his time there, he imparted knowledge in English Literature and the Philosophy of [Sri Aurobindo] at the Sri Aurobindo International University.

Early life

Das was born in the small coastal village, Balasore of odisha. His father, Madhusudan Das, worked under British Government. He had started writing early. His first work a book of poetry in Odia, Satavdira Artanada was published in 1949 when he was in high school. He launched a literary magazine, Diganta in 1950. He graduated high school in 1951. His first collection of short stories Samudrara Kshyudha (Hunger of Sea) was in that year.

He was active in student politics while studying BA at Cuttack College. He was a youth leader with radical views in his college days and spent a year in jail for his revolutionary activities. In 1959 he was a delegate to the Afro-Asian students' conference at Bandung, Indonesia. He did not complete his degree in Cuttack. He ultimately finished his graduation from Samanta Chandra Shekhar College, Puri in 1955. During his college years, he kept on writing and published a novel Jeebanara Swada, a collection of short stories Vishakanyar Kahani and a collection of poems Padadhawani. After graduating with a degree in English literature, he got a post-graduate degree in English literature from Ravenshaw College. After a short stint as a lecturer at Christ College (Cuttack), he joined Sri Aurobindo Ashram at Puducherry. Since 1963, he has been professor of English Literature at Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education, Puducherry.

He cited Fakir Mohan Senapati, Vyasa, and Valmiki as early influences.

As editor and columnist

Das edited a cultural magazine, The Heritage, published from Chennai in 1985-1989. The magazine is no longer in circulation.

He wrote columns on quest for finding eternal truth in common lives in India’s national dailies like The Times of India, The Hindustan Times, The Hindu and The Statesman.

Creative writing and story-telling

Das was a bilingual Odia writer, writing both English and Odia short stories and novels. Das has been compared to Vishnu Sharma, in modern Odia literature for his style Over the years many research scholars have done their doctoral thesis on the works of Manoj Das, P. Raja being the first scholar to do so.

National and international positions

Among the other important positions that Das held were, Member, General Council, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi 1998–2002, and Author-consultant, Ministry of Education, Government of Singapore, 1983–85. He was the leader of the Indian delegation of writers to China (1999).

Awards

Odisha Sahitya Academy Award, 1965 and 1987

Kendra Sahitya Academy Award, 1972

Sarala Award, 1981

Vishuba Award, 1986

Sahitya Bharati Award, 1995

Saraswati Samman, 2000;

Orissa State Film Award for Best Story 2001

Padma Shri, 2001

Padma Bhushan. 2020

Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, 2006

Atibadi Jagannath Das award, 2007

NTR Literary Award, 2013

Amrita Keerti Puraskar, 2013

Veda Vyas Samman

Mystic Kalinga Literary Award (2020)

Commentary

Graham Greene once said, "I have read the stories of Manoj Das with great pleasure. He will certainly take a place on my shelves besides the stories of Narayan. I imagine Odisha is far from Malgudi, but there is the same quality in his stories with perhaps an added mystery."