Spivak support for Mamata’s secularism ‘in current context’
Times of India | 21 March 2025
Kolkata: Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, winner of the 2025 Holberg Prize — the closest equivalent to a ‘humanities Nobel' — wrote to Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday, expressing support for Banerjee's secularism "in the current context" and thanking her for her congratulatory message.
The renowned scholar, literary theorist and feminist critic said that as someone from India and Bengal, she cared deeply about the future of India and Bengal.
"I hold an Indian passport and care deeply about the future of India and Bengal. In the current context, I support your secularism," Spivak, who holds the position of University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, said in her letter.
Spivak, a Presidency College alumna known for, among others, her essay ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?', mentioned that she was "particularly touched" by the CM's reference to her activities in rural Bengal and appreciated Banerjee's efforts to alleviate poverty.
Banerjee, speaking to the press about the letter on Thursday, said: "I am very humbled. We are proud of her and her work. I also loved the reference to the fact she appreciates our work for the poor and underprivileged. This is something very close to me."
Previously, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen (who is, like Spivak, also a Presidency College alumnus) had batted for secularism, especially in Bengal's context. "(The) major issue in Bengal today is to stand up for secularism, which needs strong defence, that sometimes it does not get, despite the long secular tradition of this region", and "Bengal needs a politics that is independent of religious sectarianism and it would be a mistake to let the force of religion-neutral politics be lost", Sen, who holds the chair of Thomas W Lamont University Professor at Harvard University, had said.
In an interview to TOI in July, Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen had said: "The fabric of the country has been quite badly disturbed in the earlier period. India has turned out to be a kind of Hindu rashtra in the making as opposed to the secular country that the Constitution of India wanted and also something that Indian people, including Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore and others, always wanted. That will change."
Spivak's letter to the CM speaks of her (Spivak's) obsession with her commitment to democratic education of the very poor in various backward districts of Bengal for the last 40 years. "I spend a good deal of time with them and try to learn how to interact with cognitive damage of long-standing. I should tell you that they too are absolutely delighted by my prize. I hope you will keep a kind eye on our efforts to expand the horizons of intellectual labour in our beloved Bengal."
Banerjee, in an X post on Monday, had said Spivak's "endeavours to get translated the all-time classics of Bengali literature into English constitute a project that inspires us." The scholar, in the letter, said she was glad that Banerjee mentioned their project of a "bilingual edition of 1,000 years of Bengali writings." "Some of the best writers of the world are translating the Bengali classics for the global audience of these texts. We have received funds from South Asian artists, from a fund-raising dinner and from various public-spirited donors. Your approval will undoubtedly be of great help to us in our fund-raising", she wrote.