Sarojini Sahoo

Well known for her frankness, Sarojini Sahoo, is a prime figure and trendsetter of feminism in contemporary Oriya literature. For her; feminism is not a gender problem or any confrontational attack on male hegemony. So, it is quite different from that of Virginia Woolf or Judith Butler. She accepts feminism as a total entity of female hood which is completely separate from the man’s world. She writes with a greater consciousness of women bodies, which would create a more honest and appropriate style of openness, fragmentation and non-linearity. Her fictions always project a feminine sensibility from puberty to menopause. The feminine feelings like restrictions in the adolescence, the pregnancy, the fear factors like being raped or being condemned by society and the concept of a bad girl etc always have the thematic exposure in her novels and short stories.

On December21, 2000 , The New Indian Express wrote “You may call her creativity controversial and term her unconventional frankness as feminist but you can never afford to ignore this woman and writer of courage and conviction. Sarojini Sahoo is a noted short story writer of India and known for her brilliant boldness.”

Born in a small town of Dhenkanal in Orissa (India), Sarojini has an MA and PhD degrees in Oriya Literature and a Bachelor of Law from Utkal University. She now teaches at a Degree college in Belpahar, Jharsuguda of Orissa. She is the second daughter of Mr.Ishwar Chandra Sahoo and Mrs.(Late) Nalini Devi and has married to Mr.Jagadish Mohanty , a veteran writer of Orissa.and has a son (Anubhav) and daughter(Sambedana).

On Sunday, October 26, 2008 , The Sunday Tribune of India wrote: “She is considered the Judith Butler and Virginia Woolf of contemporary Oriya literature. And yet for her, feminism is not just about battling male hegemony. For Dr Sarojini Sahoo, an award winning Oriya writer, feminism is linked with the sexual politics of women. She refutes the limits that patriarchy places on female sexual expression and identifies women’s sexual liberation as the real motive behind the women’s movement.”

She has had an illustrious literary career. Though she is a bilingual writer, she prefers to write her creative writings in Oriya and her critical appraisal in English . She has been widely translated and published in different Indian languages. Her stories have been included in anthologies published by Harper Collins, National Book Trust ,Gnanapith and Sahitya Akademi. She is the first Oriya writer to have a novel translated and published from Bangladesh. Gambhiri Ghara (The Dark Abode) was a bestseller in Bangladesh when it was published under the title Mithya Gerosthali. Her stories have been translated into Bengali, English and French. She is also perhaps the only Oriya woman writer to have dealt with lesbian sex in her story, ‘Behind the Scene’ (Nepathya).

Redefining femininity with Eastern perspective, her book Sensible Sensuality explores why sexuality plays a major role in understanding of Eastern feminism. This book is rare of its kind and has covered the topics that never be discussed so far in any Indian discourse. Her debatable concept on feminism, her denial of Simone De Beauvoir’s ‘the other theory’, make her prominent feminist personality of South Asia and for which KINDLE Magazine of India has placed her among 25 exceptional mindset women of India.

The New York Times web portal About.com once wrote in her favour that : as an Indian feminist, Dr. Sarojini Sahoo has written extensively about the interior lives of women and how their burgeoning sexuality is seen as a threat to traditional patriarchal societies. Her novels and short stories treat women as sexual beings and probe culturally sensitive topics such as rape, abortion and menopause from a female perspective.

Once she was also the editor of Oriya Literary Magazine the Pallaba and fiction oriented English timely journal the Breakthrough. Now she is associated with editorial staff of Indian AGE and Indian Journal of Post Colonial Literature. 

Delhi Doordarshan, the National Channel of India has featured her life style and creations in its special tele-serial “Literary Postcard .”