Literary theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in a letter to Mamata Banerjee appreciated the chief minister’s efforts to “alleviate poverty” and supported her “secularism”.
In the letter, Chakravorty Spivak thanked Mamata for the congratulatory message she posted on X following the announcement that the scholar had won the 2025 Holberg Prize of Norway, often billed as the Nobel for humanities.
“I was particularly touched by your reference to my long-standing activities in rural West Bengal, because I am most appreciative of your own efforts to alleviate poverty,” Chakravorty Spivak wrote in the letter dated March 19.
She wrote: “I hold an Indian passport and care deeply about the future of India and Bengal. In the current context, I support your secularism.”
The Calcutta-born Chakravorty Spivak, considered one of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals, is University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.
Towards the end of a news conference at Nabanna on Thursday, Mamata was asked about the letter.
“I am very humbled. My humble regards to her. We are proud of her. I have seen her letter,” Mamata said.
“She mentioned that ‘you are working for the weaker sections’. I loved that. I really liked the line. We have to work for the underprivileged, the weaker sections,” the chief minister said.
The Holberg citation for Chakravorty Spivak said: “The Laureate has challenged and expanded the boundaries of contemporary thought both as a scholar, a public intellectual and an activist. In addition to her work at university, she has been teaching for the past 40 years in self-subsidised elementary schools among the so-called ‘untouchables’ and the tribals in the poorest parts of India, as part of here efforts to combat the absence of democratic education in marginalized rural communities across several countries.”