Selina Hossain is a celebrated novelist in the realm of Bangla literature. In the creative embrace of her work, all manner of deprivations, class discrimination, oppression, struggles, and achievements from the colonial era to the modern times have found a space. The subject matter of Selina Hossain's writings are multidimensional. The Language Movement, Liberation War, middle class struggle, the history as well as stories of women achieving the unachievable have not only bloomed thoroughly through her work, but have also reached a different level. Throughout an illustrious life of 76 years, her numerous works have made Bangla literature richer. She is a beacon of honesty in the pursuit of literature. She has always been vocal against all sorts of oppression and exploitation in society. The middle class lifestyle has been the central focus of her work, as has contemporary thinking, and analytical self reflection. Selina Hossain has foraged from life and nature the human struggle of establishing oneself. The necessities of time have forced her to examine Partition, the Language Movement, the mass uprising, and the Liberation War. The cultural significance of contemporary Bengali politics, social policy, and mass movement has been expressed through her novels time and again.

Selina Hossain's Gayatri Sandhya is a novel in three parts. It is a political novel about the period between 1947 and 1971. The novel was written about the history of dreams dreamt and dreams broken for a people who were vocally aware of their political rights. In 1994-95, she was awarded a scholarship from the Ford Foundation for Gayatri Sandhya, as well as the "Rabindra Memorial" award from the Indian Institute of Planning and Management. On September 27, 2019, she spoke about her perceptive feelings of Gayatri Sandhya in an event organised by Ekushey Academy Australia Inc., and captivated the audience. She was given the "Ekushey Academy Australia Honours 2019" on that day.

In Gayatri Sandhya, Selina Hossain painted on a large canvas, in minute and descriptive detail, the history of the years between 1947 and 1971. The family of Ali Ahamad had to leave their residence after Partition and settle in the Rajshahi area of modern day Bangladesh. The hearts of every member of the family bled. Where was the ever familiar, beloved land of their birth, asks the author. Hossain sheds light on how bifurcated their spiritual existence was after being forced to make a new home in Rajshahi. In Gayatri Sandhya, the writer tracks the course of history, using different characters as her guide on the path to a final conclusion. Selina Hossain once said, "I have written Gayatri Sandhya based on the socio-economic and political background of this country. In three parts, the novel starts from 1947. It ends with the context for the murder of Bangabandhu in 1975. The basic idea of this novel is the identity crisis we faced in the new nation called Pakistan after 1947. The protagonist of my novel was chased away from his country during partition simply because he was a Musalman. But then, in 1971, he was killed for being a Bangalee. The larger canvas of this novel is this socio-economic and political background, and I think this novel has various materials that will help the reader to think a bit differently."

This is an excerpt. Find the full article on The Daily Star and Star Literature's websites. The article has been translated from Bangla by Azmin Azran. The original article appeared in Jugantor.

Dr Nasrin Jabin is an assistant professor of Bangla at North South University. She is the author of several novels and essays and has also been published in research journals and newspapers. She has recently won the Dineshchandra Sen Memorial Gold Award in India.