Indira
Goswami (14 November 1942–29 November 2011), who wrote as Mamoni
Raisom Goswami in Assamese, popularly known as Mamoni Baideo, was an
award-winning author and an icon of feminist writing, who wrote about people
rarely represented in Indian writing—women, the maginalised, the powerless, the
unfortunate. Winner of India’s highest literary award, the Jnanpith (2001), as
well as the Sahitya Akademi Award (1983), and the Principal Prince Claus
Laureate (2008), Goswami was also an editor, poet, professor, and scholar, best
known for her novels such as The Moth
Eaten Howdah of the Tusker, Pages
Stained with Blood and The Man from
Chinnamasta. She was also known for her attempts to structure social
change, both through her writings and through her role as mediator between the
United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the Government of India, through the
People's Consultative Group, a peace committee.