Uma Vasudeva
{{short description|Indian writer and columnist}}
Uma Vasudeva (18 June 1931 – 27 March 2019) was an Indian writer and columnist.{{cite web |title=Uma Vasudev was a writer of rare immensity and sensitivity (Tribute) |url=https://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/uma-vasudev-was-a-writer-of-rare-immensity-and-sensitivity-tribute-119033000659_1.html |work=Indo-Asian News Service |publisher=Business Standard |date=30 March 2019}} She was one of the early editors of India Today.{{cite web |title=Uma Vasudev: Versatile writer, trusted friend and a sounding board for young artists |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/uma-vasudev-prayer-meet-delhi-versatile-writer-trusted-friend-and-a-sounding-board-for-young-artists-5650943/ |website=The Indian Express |date=31 March 2019}}
Works
Her book Indira Gandhi: Revolution in Restraint covers Indira Gandhi's life from 1917 to 1971.{{cite web |title=Book on Indira Gandhi back in print - Bhandare relaunches Uma Vasudev's biography on India's first woman Prime Minister |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/odisha/book-on-indira-gandhi-back-in-print-bhandare-relaunches-uma-vasudev-s-biography-on-india-s-first-woman-prime-minister/cid/464968 |website=The Telegraph}}
=Novels=
Her novels Song of Anusuya and Shreya of Sonagarh deal with the inner struggles of their woman protagonists. The main characters are portrayed as liberated women with their own surreptitious affairs.{{cite book |last1=Nitonde |first1=Rohidas |title=In Search of a Feminist Writer |date=2014 |publisher=Partridge Publishing |isbn=978-1-4828-3390-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cSqJBAAAQBAJ }} Song of Anusuya was noted to "probe deeply" into man–woman relationship.{{cite book |editor1-last=Ray |editor1-first=Mohit Kumar |title=Indian Writing in English |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist |isbn=978-81-269-0279-8 |page=170 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=creDjX6kzfUC |date=2003 }} However, it was criticised by India Today as an unsuccessful foray into an alternative literary field by a writer who had presumably lost credibility in political writing following her publication of The Two Faces of Indira Gandhi.{{cite web |last1=Bobb |first1=Dilip |title=Book review: The Song of Anasuya by Uma Vasudev |url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/society-the-arts/books/story/19781215-book-review-the-song-of-anasuya-by-uma-vasudev-823169-2014-03-10 |website=India Today |accessdate=10 October 2020 |date=March 10, 2014}} Shreya of Sonagarh, being of similar genre, invokes the theme of sex in relation to a woman's relationship with her husband and another lover.{{cite book |last1=Swain |first1=S. P. |editor1-last=Bhatnagar |editor1-first=Manmohan Krishna |title=Feminist English Literature |date=1999 |chapter=8 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist |isbn=978-81-7156-824-6 |page=75 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VhKAPUPK9n8C}} It describes the rise to political power of the protagonist, Shreya, a middle-class girl married into a princely family.{{cite book |last1=Kundu |first1=Rama |title=Studies in Women Writers in English |date=2005 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist |isbn=978-81-269-0435-8 |page=225 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ryn28K7m6ucC&dq=Shreya+of+Sonagarh&pg=PA225}} It also deals with the connection between feudal lords and politics.{{cite book |last1=Bhatnagar |first1=O. P. |title=Indian Political Novel in English |date=2007 |publisher=Sarup & Sons |isbn=978-81-7625-799-2 |page=138 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j1Abhv0NUaUC}}
Vasudeva's depiction of feminism has been described as being Western-biased, rather than rooted in Indian soil.{{cite book |last1=Patil |first1=Mallikarjun |editor1-last=Bhatnagar |editor1-first=Manmohan Krishna |title=Feminist English Literature |date=1999 |publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Dist |isbn=978-81-7156-824-6 |page=83 |chapter=9 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VhKAPUPK9n8C&dq=Song+of+Anusuya+uma+vasudeva&pg=PA83 }}
Bibliography
=Fiction=
- Song of Anusuya (1978)
- Shreya of Sonagarh (1993)
=Non-fiction=
- Indira Gandhi: Revolution in Restraint (1974)
- Two Faces of Indira Gandhi (1977)
- Courage Under Fire (2003)