Gita (Patnaik) Mehta (1943 - 2023)

Born 1943 in Delhi, India

Died 16 Sep 2023 at about age 80 in New Delhi, India

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Biography

1943 Birth and Parents

Gita Patnaik was born 1943 in Delhi, British India, the daughteer of Biju and Gyan Patnaik. ^[1]

She was born in 1943 to Biju and Gyan Patnaik in Delhi.^[2]

Her father Biju Patnaik was an Indian independence activist and a chief minister in post-independence Odisha, then known as Orissa. ^[1]

Gita's father, Biju Patnaik, was a freedom fighter, ace pilot, industrialist and politician.^[3]

Gita's mother was also a freedom fighter in the 1940's.^[3]

Her father was the prominent politician Biju Patnaik.^[2]

Siblings

1. Prem Patnaik^[1]
2. Naveen Patnaik^[1]

She was the elder sister of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik^[2]

Education

• Convent, Kashmir ^[3]
• Woodstock School, Class 59^[3]
• Tara Hall, Simla^[3]
• Sophia College, Bombay ^[3]
• Girton College, Cambridge^[1][3]
• Film School, London^[3]

She went to a boarding school at the age of three, when her father was arrested as a part of the Indian independence movement.^[1]

Her father missed the natural pleasures of seeing his only daughter grow up due to his lengthy stays in British jails. ^[3]

Her education began with a convent school in Kashmir at the age of three, then Woodstock, Tara Hall in Simla, Sophia College in Bombay, Girton in Cambridge, and finally Film School in London. ^[3]

Gita studied in India before moving to the University of Cambridge in the UK.^[2]

She completed her education in India and at Girton College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom.^[1]

Marriage

In 1965 she married Sonny Mehta. He died in 2019.^[1]

Mehta married Sonny Mehta, former head of the Alfred A. Knopf publishing house, in 1965.[13] The couple had met while studying in Cambridge.[7] The couple went on to have a son, Aditya Singh Mehta.[14] Her husband predeceased her in 2019. Mehta divided her time between New York City, London and New Delhi.[2][15]^[1]

She met her future husband Sonny Mehta at Cambridge. He later went on to become president of the renowned publishing house Alfred A. Knopf.^[2]

Her husband the renowned American publisher Sonny Mehta. He died in Manhattan in December 2019 at age 77. ^[2]

Film and Television

As a journalist and documentary filmmaker she focused on covering war and conflict including covering the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. As an author she published five books which were translated into over 21 languages. Her works focused on India and were intended to interpret the country for a largely western audience.^[1]

From 1970 to 1971 she was a television war correspondent for the US television network NBC. Her film compilation of the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971, Dateline Bangladesh, was shown in cinemas both in India and abroad.^[1]

Books

Her books have been translated into 21 languages. They have been on the bestseller lists in Europe, the US, and India.^[1]

During the years 1970–1971, she was a television war correspondent for the US television network NBC and produced four documentaries. ^[2]

Dateline Bangladesh, a film compilation of the Bangladesh revolution, was shown in cinemas both in India and abroad. ^[2]

Gita also made films on elections in the former Indian princely states.^[2]

Karma Cola

Karma Cola (1979) was her first book, focusing on a western audience that "believed they could obtain instant spiritual enlightenment by going to India and finding a guru."

In 1979, Gita wrote her first book ‘Karma Cola’, a collection of essays on Indian spirituality and the perception of the Western world about it.^[2]

She told the interviewer a story of her first book: "Well, I tell the story, I mean it's such a great story. To me the lunacy of the whole thing. ... I am not a writer. I happen to be at a cocktail party and a guy grabs hold of my sari, pulls me in and says, Now here's the girl who's going to tell us what Karma is all about". So I say "Karma isn't what it's cracked up to be." And he says, "Gee, that's good, write it," and I thought he was mad, except he happened to be President of Bantam Books....I think I got the space precisely because I lack what they consider politeness. You do have the choice, when people drop in to see you of coming up with every cliche they want to hear, and the fact that you don't may intrigue some interviewers into giving you more copy."^[3]

Raj

Raj (1989), a fictional work, focused on the story of a princess of two Indian princely states.

In 1989, she wrote her first novel ‘Raj’ where she discussed India’s colourful history and culture against the backdrop of the Indian colonial past. ^[2]

Snakes and Ladders

‘Snakes And Ladder’ is among the most seminal work.^[2]

A River Sutra

A River Sutra (1993), her second fictional work, interpreted Indian life for a western audience combining stories from Indian mythology to life in then present-day India, connected by the Indian river Narmada.

• Snakes and Ladders (1997) collected essays about India and life in the country, written on the fiftieth anniversary of the country's independence.^[1]

Focus

Her fiction and non-fiction works focus largely on India's culture and history, notably their Western interpretation. In a Publishers Weekly interviewed she stated, "I wanted to make modern India accessible to Westerners and to a whole generation of Indians who have no idea what happened 25 years before they were born."^[1]

Awards

In 2019, she was awarded the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri. She declined it stating "the timing of the award might be misconstrued" referring to the then upcoming general elections.[11][12]^[1]

In January 2019, the government of India awarded her Padma Shri in the field of literature and education, which she declined saying it may be misconstrued due to the timing of the award as it had come just before the general election.^[2]

Observations

At the time of a 1980 interview for India Today, Gita Mehta, age 37, already had eleven short films and a highly successfrul book under her belt. Her interviewer reported, "Her wit is swift and cutting. Her energy is electric and intense. She is, what can only be described in Andy Warhol's language, as "star material". It's all there. ^[3]

Gita's father said of her, "She has a habit of looking under the carpet. She has the restlessness of a restless soul. She takes nothing at face value and is just short of being a cynic."^[3]

"Sometimes called "Young Bess" when she was young for her wilful temperament, it is clear Gita has put such qualities in gear to achieve her goals. A steely analyst who refuses to be type cast in order to be taken seriously, her language remains that of a generation which grew up after the British left."^[3]

Her interviewer, author journalist Sasthi Brata, wrote, "Words gush out of her lips with the precision and ferocity of automatic super bullets. She toys with ideas as if they were sensuous objects. She is feminine without being coy or cloying, she is bright sans chintzy, and she is an intellectual devoid of the brittle angularities of the academic" ^[3]

Some criticized her work. She told interviewer Brata, "I am just astonished by the kind of imperialism towards language. They are challenging my right to use English. They are not saying, 'Look lady, you can't write in epigrams, don't do it.' They are attacking me because I've done it....If you cannot produce your credentials to satisfy them, then you may not use a pun, you may not use an epigram, you may not make a joke, you may not show a familiarity with language, rather than a fear of it. To me English is just another Indian language, that's all it is. And that is why we speak one kind of English to the Englishman, and a wholly different kind between ourselves.^[3]

"An epigram can be like a Molotov cocktail. It's got six words, which you read and which amuse you. And then it explodes."^[3]

Describing her writing, she stated, "I am not being flippant. I am, as gently as possible, showing you an immensely cruel and savage civilisation, that is not going to take the responsibility for your fantasy, no matter how you try.^[3]

Asked if she was fighting a crusade, she responded, "Yes, my crusade is this. That the nature of fascism is to get you to collaborate with the fantasies of your adversary as soon as possible. And in order to collaborate, you have to accept the fundamental debauchery of language."^[3]

2023 Death

She died 16 September 2023 at her house in New Delhi.^[1]

She had been ailing for some time before her death.^[2]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15} Wikipedia:Gita Mehta Accessed 17 September 2023.
2. ↑ ^{2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13} Debabrata Mohanty. Gita Mehta, eminent author, journalist and Odisha CM’s elder sister, dies at 80 Hindustan Times, September 17, 2023. Accessed 17 September, 2023 jhd
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18} Madhu P. Trehan.To me English is just another Indian language India Today, April 15, 1980, updated November 18, 2014 Accessed 17 September 2023 jhd