Mahasweta wants a tribal academy

The 80-year-old winner of the Jnanpith award wants to set up a Himalayan study centre.

Noted Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi wants to set up a Himalayan study centre for tribal areas in Himachal Pradesh's Kinnaur valley.

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"If I am able to procure land in Kinnaur on behalf of the Tribal Academy in Gujarat, we could open a branch somewhere in Kinnaur," said Mahasweta Devi, a trustee of the Vadodara based National Tribal Academy.

The renowned author had arrived here with other trustees of the academy for a meeting over the weekend when she suffered a heart attack.

The 80-year-old winner of the Jnanpith award and the Ramon Magsaysay award for literature said from her hospital bed late Sunday that the plan for a tribal centre in Kinnaur, 175 km from here, was mooted about four years ago.