Sunita Jain

Sunita Jain (1940–2017) was an Indian scholar, novelist, short-story writer and poet of English and Hindi literature.[1][2] She was a former professor and the Head of the department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.[3] She published over 60 books, in English and Hindi, besides translating many Jain writings into English.[1] She is featured in the Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English and was a recipient of The Vreeland Award (1969) and the Marie Sandoz Prairie Schooner Fiction Award (1970 and 1971).[4] The Government of India awarded her the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2004.[5] In 2015 she was awarded the Vyas Samman by the K.K. Birla foundation for outstanding literary work in Hindi. In 2015 she was awarded an honorary D.Litt. from the University of Burdhwan, West Bengal.

Sunita Jain
Born13 July 1940
Ambala district, Haryana, India
Died11 December 2017
New Delhi
EducationBA, MA, PhD
Alma materIndraprastha College for Women (BA);
Stony Brook University (MA);
University of Nebraska-Lincoln (PhD)
OccupationPoet, writer, novelist, scholar
Years activeSince 1962
Spouse(s)Adishwar Lal Jain
ChildrenAnu K. Mittal, Ravi K. Jain, Shashi K. Jain
AwardsPadma Shri
The Vreeland Award (1969)
Marie Sandoz Prairie Schooner Fiction Award
Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan Award
Delhi Hindi Academy Award
Nirala Namit Award
Sahityakar Samman
Mahadevi Varma Samman
Prabha Khetan Award
Brahmi Sundari Award
Sulochini Writer Award
UP Sahitya Bhushan Award
The Vyas Samman Award (2015)
D.Litt. University of Burdhwan, 2015

Biography

Early life

Born into a Jain family on 13 July 1940 in the Ambala district of the Indian state of Haryana, Sunita's family moved to Delhi when she was a teenager. She completed her B.A. from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi at the age of 18.

She married in Delhi soon after she graduated and left for Cleveland, Ohio, with her husband, after which spend short stints in Zurich, Switzerland and New Delhi, India, before settling in Stony Brook, Long Island, in 1965. Jain did her post-graduate studies at the State University of New York in American English Literature. In 1968 she moved to Lincoln, Nrbraska where she secured a doctoral degree (PhD) from the University of Nebraska.[6]

Career as an Educator

Returning to India in 1972, after a short teaching stints at Indraprastha College and Aurobindo College, she joined the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and became the Head of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, from where she superannuated in 2002 as the Professor of English.

While at IIT, Delhi, she encouraged the expansion of the Humanities department and was instrumental in broadening the degree programs to include a Masters and PhD program.

Writing

She started writing at the age of 22 and has published short-stories, novels and poems in Hindi and English.[7] Her works in English include A Girl of Her Age, a novel published in 2000[8] and two short-story anthologies, A Woman is Dead[9] and Eunuch of Time and Other Stories,[10] published in 1980 and 1982 respectively. She published seven poetry anthologies and some of those poems have been reprinted under the titles, Sensum: Collected Poems 1965-2000[11] and American Desi and Other Poems.[12] Besides, she has also written a book for children under the name, The Mango Tree (2002)[13] and literary criticism, John Steinbeck's Concept of Man : a Critical Study of his Novels.[14] Her short-stories have been included in two multi-writer short-story collections, Short Short Stories Universal (1993)[15] and Concert of Voices: An Anthology of World Voices in English (1994).[16]

Jain's autobiography has been written in Hindi as also five novels, five short-story poem anthologies and several volumes of poetry collections. Her book, Inner Light (1999), is a five-volume book on religious thoughts and she has published a translated work, Premchand: A Life and Letters (1993).[4] Her other translated works include Confluence of Seasons (2010),[17] poems of Kalidasa and Mukti (2006), poems of Kshamasagar, a Jain holy person.[18]

Awards

She received The Vreeland Award of the University of Nebraska in 1969 and Marie Sandoz Prairie Schooner Fiction Award twice, in 1970 and 1971.[6][19] She was awarded Uttar Pradesh Hindi Sansthan Award in 1979 and 1980, followed by Delhi Hindi Academy Award in 1996.[6] The Government of India awarded her the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 2004. She is a recipient of other honours such as Nirala Namit Award (1980), Sahityakar Samman (1996), Mahadevi Varma Samman (1997),[7] Prabha Khetan Award, Brahmi Sundari Award, Sulochini Writer Award and UP Sahitya Bhushan Award.[1] In 2015 she was awarded the Vyas Samman by the K.K. Birla foundation for outstanding literary work in Hindi.

Death

Jain died in New Delhi on 11 December 2017 after a short battle with a rare blood disorder.[1]

Archives

Sunita Jain's collection of writings, awards, private papers, etc., are part of the permanent collection in the archives of Jamia Millia Islamia University at the Premchand Archives & Literary Centre: http://jmi.ac.in/jpalc/collections[1]

Sunita Jain receiving the Padmashree from Indian President Abdul Kalam, 2004

Selected English bibliography
  • Sunita Jain (1979). John Steinbeck's Concept of Man : a Critical Study of his Novels. New Statesman Pub. Co. p. 101. OCLC 5945681.
  • Sunita Jain (1980). A Woman is Dead. Writers Workshop, Calcutta. p. 73. OCLC 612785046.
  • Sunita Jain (1982). Eunuch of Time and Other Stories. Vikas Publishers. p. 83. ISBN 9780706918816.
  • Sunita Jain (1986). Till I find Myself. New Delhi Sterling Publishers. OCLC 568753716.
  • Sunita Jain (2000). A Girl of Her Age. Atma Ram & Sons. p. 106. ASIN B0061SI354.
  • Sunita Jain (2000). Sensum: Collected Poems 1965–2000. Myword! Press. p. 158. OCLC 156892219.
  • Sunita Jain (2002). The Mango Tree. Orient Blackswan. p. 25. ISBN 9788125022695.
  • Sunita Jain (2007). American Desi and Other Poems. Read Books. p. 72. ISBN 9788190475310.
  • Kalidasa, Sunita Jain (translator) (2010). Confluence of Seasons. Kitābaghara Prakāśana. p. 180. ISBN 9789380146683.

Selected Hindi bibliography
  • Sunita Jain (1979). Kaun sa Aakasha. Parag Prakāśana. p. 60. OCLC 6864318.
  • Sunita Jain (1983). Eka Aur Din. Abhivyañjanā Mukhya vitaraka Hindī Buka Saiṇṭara. p. 64. OCLC 17984763.
  • Sunita Jain (1994). Kahan Milogi Kavita. Prakashan Sansthan. ISBN 8185830207.
  • Sunita Jain (1995). Suno Madhu Kiśvara. Ayana Prakāśana. p. 91. ISBN 9788174080424.
  • Sunita Jain (1996). Jane Laraki Pagli. Samānāntara Prakāśana. p. 159. OCLC 610139227.
  • Sunita Jain editor Krishnadev Sharma (2003). Ab Tak : Complete works (8 volume set). Sārthaka Prakāśana. ISBN 8181600002.
  • Sunita Jain (2006). Prem mein stri. Remadhav Pub. p. 105. ISBN 9788189850081.
  • Muni Kshamasagara, Sunita Jain (2006). Mukti. Remādhava Pablikeśansa. p. 128. OCLC 608132502.
  • Sunita Jain (2007). Barish Mein Dilli. Medha Books. p. 96. ISBN 978-8181662095.
  • Sunita Jain (2008). Kshama. Remadhav Publications. p. 80. ISBN 9788189914684.
  • Sunita Jain (2012). Hui Sanjh Ki Beir. Remadhav Publications. p. 96. ISBN 9789381297032.

See also

References
  1. "Dr. Sunita Jain". Jain Samaj. 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  2. Kanwar Dinesh Singh (2008). Contemporary Indian English Poetry: Comparing Male and Female Voices. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 208. ISBN 9788126908899.
  3. "Certificate" (PDF). Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. 28 December 2001. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  4. Eugene Benson, L. W. Conolly (2004). Encyclopedia of Post-Colonial Literatures in English. Routledge. p. 1946. ISBN 9781134468485.
  5. "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
  6. Divya Mathura (Ed.) (2003). Aashaa: Hope/faith/trust : Short Stories by Indian Women Writers. Star Publications. p. 287. ISBN 9788176500753.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  7. Rashmi Gaur (2003). Women's Writing. Sarup & Sons. p. 152. ISBN 9788176253963.
  8. Sunita Jain (2000). A Girl of Her Age. Atma Ram & Sons. p. 106. ASIN B0061SI354.
  9. Sunita Jain (1980). A Woman is Dead. Writers Workshop, Calcutta. p. 73. OCLC 612785046.
  10. Sunita Jain (2000). Sensum: Collected Poems 1965–2000. Myword! Press. p. 158. OCLC 156892219.
  11. Sunita Jain (2007). American Desi and Other Poems. Read Books. p. 72. ISBN 9788190475310. OCLC 177858266.
  12. Sunita Jain (2002). The Mango Tree. Orient Blackswan. p. 25. ISBN 9788125022695.
  13. Sunita Jain (1979). John Steinbeck's Concept of Man : a Critical Study of his Novels. New Statesman Pub. Co. p. 101. OCLC 5945681.
  14. Reingard M. Nischik (1993). Short Short Stories Universal. Reclam, Ditzingen. ISBN 978-3150092972.
  15. Victor J. Ramraj (1994). Concert of Voices: An Anthology of World Voices in English. Broadview Press. p. 528. ISBN 9781551110257.
  16. Kalidasa, Sunita Jain (translator) (2010). Confluence of Seasons. Kitābaghara Prakāśana. p. 180. ISBN 9789380146683. OCLC 665050402.
  17. "Mukti: poems, ed. and tr. by Sunita Jain". Bibliaimpex. 2015. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
  18. CONTEMPORARY INDIAN SHORT STORIES IN ENGLISH. Sahitya Akademi. 2010. ISBN 9788172010591. Retrieved 22 November 2015.
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