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Basanti is a misfit in conservative, pre-independence rural Odisha. Not only does she read and write, all her choices-from marrying for love to dispensing medicines to the poor and running a girls’ school-are unconventional. Her emancipatory aspirations evoke strong reactions from her surroundings, even surprisingly from her husband, who is supposedly passionate about women’s freedom. In this collaborative novel, nine young authors narrate the journey of a liberated woman who questions the socially ordained roles of women and argues for change, especially through education.

The authors, six men and three women, belonged to the ‘Sabuja Age’ in Odia literature, a short-lived, creative period of ten to fifteen years. Serialized in Utkala Sahitya between May 1924 and November 1926 and published as a book in 1931, with a revised version appearing in 1968, Basanti is the first fictional declaration of the independence of the Odia woman.