Yogmaya (योगमाया)

Neelam Karki Niharika's 2018 Madan Puraskar-winning Yogmaya is a compelling historical fiction on women's rights and freedom of expression. Centred on the figure of pioneer poet and religious leader Yogmaya Neupane, born in 1867 in Bhojpur of eastern Nepal, the novel charts her fight against the autocratic Rana rule of the time. Yogmaya was heavily monitored by the government for her activism and activities, her contributions were censored until the Ranas were overthrown in 1951, even his discontent with the government and the ritual mass suicide, jal samadhi, she and her disciples committed in 1941. Although a fictionalised narrative, Niharika's searing prose explores the themes of sati, child marriage, widowhood, caste- and sex-based discriminations, class struggle from ground-up, with sharp critique of the patriarchy and authoritarianism -- themes that remain pertinent in contemporary times.