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Gita Mehta

Gita Mehta (née Patnaik; 12 December 1943 – 16 September 2023) was an Indian-American[1] writer and documentary filmmaker. As a journalist and documentary filmmaker she frequently covered war and conflict including covering the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. As an author she published five books which were translated into 21 languages. Her works described aspects of life in India and were intended to interpret the country for a largely western audience.[2]

Gita Mehta
BornGita Patnaik
(1943-12-12)12 December 1943
Delhi, British India
Died16 September 2023(2023-09-16) (aged 79)
Delhi, India
Occupation
  • Author
  • documentary filmmaker
  • journalist
  • director
NationalityAmerican
Alma materGirton College, Cambridge, Woodstock School
Notable works
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1965; died 2019)​
Children1
ParentBiju Patnaik (father)
Relatives

Early life

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Mehta was born in Delhi on 12 December 1943[3] in a Karan family,[4] to Gyan and Biju Patnaik. Her father was an Indian independence activist and a chief minister in post-independence Odisha, then known as Orissa. Her younger brother, Naveen Patnaik, served as the chief minister of Odisha from 2000 until his loss in 2024. She went to a boarding school at age three, when her father was arrested as a part of the Indian independence movement.[5][6] She completed her education in India and at Girton College, Cambridge in the United Kingdom.[7][5]

Career

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Mehta produced and directed television documentaries for various British, European, and American networks.[8] 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.[5][9]

Mehta's first book, Karma Cola (1979), took a shot at the western audience that believed that they could obtain instant spiritual enlightenment by going to India and finding a guru. In Raj (1989), a fictional work, Mehta focused on the story of a princess of two Indian princely states. Her second fictional work, A River Sutra (1993), was a collection of short stories that interpreted Indian life for a western audience. The book connected stories from Indian mythology to life in then present-day India and were connected by the Indian river Narmada.[10] Her book Snakes and Ladders (1997) was a collection of essays about India and life in the country, written on the fiftieth anniversary of the country's independence.[6]

Mehta's books have been translated into 21 languages and have been on bestseller lists in Europe, the US, and India.[5][11] Her fiction and non-fiction works focus largely on India's culture and history, and their Western interpretation.[8][12] Speaking about her work in an interview with Publishers Weekly, she said: "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."[6]

In 2019, Mehta was named as a recipient of India's fourth highest civilian award, the Padma Shri, which she declined, stating "the timing of the award might be misconstrued" referring to the then-upcoming general elections.[13][14]

Personal life

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Mehta married Sonny Mehta, former head of the Alfred A. Knopf publishing house, in 1965.[15] The couple had met while studying in Cambridge.[10] The couple had a son, Aditya Singh Mehta.[15] Her husband predeceased her in 2019. Mehta divided her time between New York City, London and New Delhi.[5][16]

Mehta died at her house in Delhi on 16 September 2023, at the age of 79.[17][18]

Works

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  • Karma Cola. Simon & Schuster, 1979[19]
  • Raj, 1989[5] ISBN 978-0-671-43248-5
  • A River Sutra (short stories), 1993[5] ISBN 978-0-09-951594-4
  • Snakes and Ladders: Glimpses of Modern India, London: Secker & Warburg, 1997. ISBN 0-436-20417-7[20]
  • Eternal Ganesha: From Birth to Rebirth, Thames & Hudson, 2006[21]

References

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  1. ^ "Padma Awards 2019 announced". pib.gov.in. Press Information Bureau. 25 January 2019. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
  2. ^ "Gita Mehta, Whose Writing Shaped Perspectives of India, Dies at 80 (Published 2023)". 21 September 2023. Archived from the original on 8 December 2024. Retrieved 25 December 2024.
  3. ^ Roy, Nilanjana (23 September 2023). "Gita Mehta, writer and journalist, 1943-2023". Financial Times. Retrieved 25 December 2024.
  4. ^ "Gita Mehta, writer on India who made her name with Karma Cola, a hilarious account of spiritual questers – obituary". The Telegraph. 27 September 2023. Retrieved 28 September 2023.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Barik, Satyasundar (16 September 2023). "Gita Mehta, writer and 1971 war correspondent, passes away". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 17 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  6. ^ a b c "Bold Type: Interview with Gita Mehta". 4 August 2002. Archived from the original on 4 August 2002. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  7. ^ "Upfront daughter of the revolution: Gita Mehta". Vogue. April 1997. pp. 114, 120, 124. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  8. ^ a b "Gita Mehta, eminent author, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik's sister no more". The New Indian Express. 16 September 2023. Archived from the original on 17 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  9. ^ Livemint (17 September 2023). "Gita Mehta, Odisha CM's sister, dies at 80; PM Modi pays tribute". mint. Archived from the original on 17 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  10. ^ a b "Mehta, Gita 1943– | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  11. ^ "Gita Mehta". The Daily Beast. 13 August 2010. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  12. ^ "Gita Mehta Short Story Analysis – 752 Words | Internet Public Library". www.ipl.org. Archived from the original on 17 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  13. ^ The Hindu Net Desk (26 January 2019). "Writer Gita Mehta, sister of Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, declines Padma Award". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  14. ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Padma Awards, Government of India. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  15. ^ a b McFadden, Robert D. (31 December 2019). "Sonny Mehta, Venerable Knopf Publisher, Is Dead at 77". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 7 January 2020. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  16. ^ "Sonny Mehta, head of publisher Knopf, dies aged 77". The Guardian. Associated Press. 31 December 2019. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 29 June 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  17. ^ "Author Gita Mehta, Naveen Patnaik's Sister, Dies At 80". NDTV.com. Archived from the original on 17 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  18. ^ "Gita Mehta, renowned author and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik's sister, dies at 80". The Economic Times. 17 September 2023. Retrieved 17 September 2023.
  19. ^ Mehta, Gita (1979). Karma Kola, Marketing the Mystic East. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 201. ISBN 0-671-25083-3.
  20. ^ Smith, Wendy, "Gita Mehta: Making India Accessible" Archived 30 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine. Publishers Weekly, 12 May 1997, pp.53–54.
  21. ^ Mehta, Gita (2006). Eternal Ganesha: From Birth to Rebirth. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-51331-6. Archived from the original on 17 September 2023. Retrieved 30 January 2018.
  • Sharma, Bhasha Shukla. "Mapping culture through 'A river Sutra': Tribal myths, dialogism, and meta-narratives in postcolonial fiction", Universal Journal of Education and General Studies 1 (2), 17–27, 2012
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