Daughter of Shantiniketan, the utopian school of Tagore, then a teacher, a journalist, a writer of tales, novels, drama pieces and essays, Mahasweta Devi has been fighting for over half a century to defend the oppressed, the exploited and the emarginated of her Bengal, the Adivasi, who are the original inhabitants, describing with extraordinary clearness their human condition, their struggle for surviving, plunged in violence and in the total indifference of the power, asking us questions nobody dares to ask and disclosing us truths we really would not like to face.

A real “didi” “elder sister” as she is called by those who love her.

The prize will be delivered by Ermanno Olmi