- Nilima Ibrahim
-
Nilima Ibrahim (Bengali: নীলিমা ইব্রাহীম) (1921–2002) was an Indian, East Pakistani, and later Bangladeshi educationist, littérateur and social worker. She is well known for her outstanding scholarship on Bangla literature but even more so for her depiction of raped and tortured women in the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War in her book Ami Virangona Bolchhi (I, the heroine, speaks).[1]
Contents
Biography
Early life
She was born on 11 January 1921 in Bagerhat subdivision, Khulna to zamindar Prafulla Roychowdhury and Kusumkumari Devi.[2]
Education
She passed her school leaving examination and entrance level examinations from the Khulna Coronation Girl's School (1937) and from the Victoria Institution (1939) in Calcutta.[1] Later she earned bachelors' degrees in arts and teaching from the Scottish Church College, which was followed by an MA in Bengali literature from the University of Calcutta in 1943.[1] She would also earn a doctorate in Bengali from the University of Dhaka in 1959.[2][1]
Career
She was a career academic. She taught in respectively the Khulna Coronation Girl's School, Loreto House, the Victoria Institution, and finally at the University of Dhaka, where she was appointed as a lecturer in 1956, and as a professor of Bengali in 1972.[2]
She also served as the chairperson of the Bangla Academy, and as the Vice Chairperson of the World Women's Federation's South Asian Zone.[2][1]
Works
Non-fiction
- Sharat-Pratibha (The Creative Faculty of Sharatchanda), 1960,
- Banglar Kavi Madhusudan (Madhushudan, the Poet of Bengal), 1961,
- Unabingsha Shatabdir Bangali Samaj o Bangla Natak (Bengali Society and Bangla Drama in the Nineteenth Century), 1964,
- Bangla Natak: Utsa o Dhara (Bangla Drama: Origin and Development), 1972,
- Begum Rokeya, 1974,
- Bangalimanas o Bangla Sahitya (Bengali Mentality and Bangla Literature), 1987,
- Sahitya-Sangskrtir Nana Prasanga (Various Aspects of Literature and Culture), 1991
Fiction
- Bish Shataker Meye (Girl of the Twentieth Century), 1958,
- Ek Path Dui Bank (The Forked Road), 1958,
- Keyabana Sancharini (Traveller of Keya Forest), 1958,
- Bahni Balya (The Bangle of Fire), 1985
Plays
- Due Due Char (Two and Two Make Four), 1964,
- Je Aranye Alo Nei (The Dark Forest), 1974,
- Rodjwala Bikel (The Sunburnt Afternoon), 1974,
- Suryaster Par (After Sunset), 1974
Short stories
- Ramna Parke (At Ramna Park), 1964
Translations
- Eleanor Roosevelt, 1955,
- Kathashilpi James Fenimor Cooper (Storyteller James Fenimore Cooper), 1968,
- Bostoner Pathe Pathe (On the Streets of Boston), 1969
Travelogue
- Shahi Elakar Pathe Pathe (Along the Royal Streets), 1963
Autobiography
- Bindu-Visarga (Dot and Ghost), 1991
Narratives/Ethnography (of women raped in the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war)
- Ami Virangana Bolchhi (I, the Heroine, Speaks), 1996
Selected awards
- Bangla Academy Award (1969)
- Michael Madhusudan Award (1987)
- Lekhika Sangha Award (1989)
- Ananya Literary Award (1996)
- Begum Rokeya Medal (1996)
- Bangabandhu Award (1997)
- Ekushey Padak (2000)
References
External links
Categories: 1921 births | 2002 deaths | Bangladeshi writers | Bangladeshi women writers | Bengali writers | Bengali-language writers | Bangladesh Liberation War | Women in war in Bangladesh | Women in 20th-century warfare | Scottish Church College, Calcutta alumni | University of Calcutta alumni | University of Dhaka alumni | University of Calcutta faculty | University of Dhaka faculty
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