He created the identity of the author of Kalajai through the novels 'Basaiin', 'Atrupta' and 'Brahmaputra Ko Cheuchchau'.
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Leel Bahadur Chhetri, the creator of the age-old novel 'Basai', has 'migrated' from this earth at the age of 92. Novelist Chhetri, who had been ill for a long time due to piles and asthma, died at his residence in Morakhli near Guwahati, Assam, India on Thursday at 10:30 pm.
The novels 'Basain', 'Atrupta' and 'Brahmaputra's Chheuchhau' have given him the recognition of a timeless author among Nepali literature and Indian Nepali speakers. In these works, he has very powerfully addressed the issues of forced displacement, the pain of Nepali immigration and identity.
The novel 'Basai' is a story of a Nepali who left the village and came to Northeast India to live in the mountain villages of Eastern Nepal due to hunger, poverty and oppression. He has recounted the story of the struggle faced by thousands of Nepalis who were displaced and reached the areas around the Brahmaputra river including Assam and Manipur in India in 'Near Brahmaputra'. 'Atrupta' is his psychological novel.
His works like 'Never Blowing Knots', 'Leel Bahadur Chhetri Katha', 'Three Decades and Twenty Expressions' are also popular. Born in Guwahati in 1989, Chhetri had to be displaced with his parents during his childhood. His father was working in the Sillong Police in the state of Meghalaya.
During World War II, the family returned to Nepal after the bombing started in various parts of India including Assam. The family with the child Leel Bahadur had reached the ancestral village of Tehrathum. The events that he directly experienced during that one-year stay later gave birth to the novel 'Basai'. "Basaiin Terhathum is the story of that village," he said in an interview with Kantipur.
Chhetri, who taught for a long time, retired about three decades ago. The rest of his life he devoted to writing and literary service. He was active for the rights of Indian Nepali speakers by being associated with social organizations including the Assam Gorkha Conference. "I have to read and write continuously, the day I can't read and write will be the end of me," he told Kantipur last October. Nav Sapkota, creator of
Guwahati, says, "He was a precious jewel of Nepali language literature, his death has caused an irreparable loss to the entire Nepali literature." In the decade of 1987, he received this award for his third novel 'Brahmaputra Ko Chheuchhau'.
In 2016, he was also awarded by prestigious Jagdambashree of Nepal. He was awarded India's fourth highest Padma Shri award in 2020 for his services to literature and education.
Chhetri, who holds an MA in Economics from Guwahati University, was also active in the media like Akashvani Radio Guwahati. He hoped for a strong future for Nepali literature in Northeast India, but also worried about fragmentation. "Nepali literature in Northeast India is not at the level it should be," he always expressed concern. He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter. Chhetri was cremated in Guwahati on Friday.
