Manik Bandyopadhyay (birth name Prabodh Kumar Bandyopadhyay, 19 May 1908–3 December 1956) is a major figure of twentieth-century Bengali literature. He authored 38 novels and 306 stories. His best-known works include Padma Nadir Majhi (The Boatman on the River Padma, 1936), Putul Nacher Itikatha (The Puppet’s Tale, 1936), Shahartali (Suburbia, 1941), Chatushkone (The Quadrilateral, 1948), Swadhinatar Swad (Taste of Freedom, 1951) and Halud Nadi Sabuj Ban (Yellow River Green Forest, 1956). He was born in Dumka, Santal Parganas. His father was a government official who was transferred all over Bengal, giving young Manik a wide exposure to diverse places, cultures, dialects, and people. He became a member of the Progressive Writers’ Association in the early 1940s, and joined the Communist Party of India in 1944. In ill health and plagued by financial problems, he died at the early age of 48. His unfailing commitment to his creative objective gave him an iconic status as an ‘engaged’ author, a ‘pen-wielding proletarian’, according to the author’s own description.
Ranjana Dave is an independent dance practitioner and writer. She is Programmes Director at Gati Dance Forum and has also taught at Ambedkar University Delhi and Ashoka University.
Yael Ardiles is a member of the José Carlos Mariátegui School, which has an orientation towards the political education of people's movements. The school is located in Argentina.
Brahma Prakash teaches at the School of Arts and Aesthetics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He is the author of Cultural Labour: Conceptualizing the ‘Folk Performance’ in India (
Rimli Bhattacharya trained in Comparative Literature at Jadavpur and Brown Universities. She has published on gender and performance, primary education, children’s literature and expressive forms
