Indira Goswami (14 November 1942–29 November 2011), who wrote as Mamoni Raisom Goswami in Assamese, popularly known as Mamoni Baideo, was an award-winning author and an icon of feminist writing. She wrote about people rarely represented in Indian writing—women, the marginalized, the powerless, the unfortunate. Winner of India's highest literary award, the Jnanpith (2001), as well as the Sahitya Akademi Award (1983), and the Principal Prince Claus Laureate (2008), Goswami was also an editor, poet, professor, and scholar, best known for her novels such as The Moth Eaten Howdah of the Tusker, Pages Stained with Blood, and The Man from Chinnamasta. She was also known for her attempts to structure social change, both through her writings and through her role as a mediator between the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the Government of India, through the People's Consultative Group, a peace committee.
