Himani Bannerji – Asian Heritage in Canada

Himani Bannerji was born in Bangladesh in 1942 when it was still part of India. She was educated (B.A., M.A.) and taught in Calcutta prior to immigrating to Canada in 1969. Her thesis (Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1988) is entitled: The Politics of Representation: A Study of Class and Class Struggle in the Political Theatre of West Bengal. Bannerji was an associate professor in the Dept. of Sociology at York University in Toronto.
Himani Bannerji is perhaps best known for her non-fiction writing in areas such as feminism, racism and multiculturalism.

Fiction (Novella, Juvenile)

Coloured Pictures

Illustrated by S. Sasso.
Toronto: Sister Vision, 1991.
PS8553 .A59 C6 1991

Publisher’s Synopsis

Coloured Pictures is an entertaining story for young people that confronts the issue of racism. Through the adventures of Sujata, a South Asian girl, and her friends, the reader witnesses the capacity of youth to face life with courage and also with humour. It is thirteen year old Sujata who bravely initiates the discussion about racism in her classroom and stands up to the local bullies who attack her and her friends.

Poetry

Doing Time: Poems

Toronto: Sister Vision, 1986.
PS8553 .A59 D6 1986

Publisher’s Synopsis

In Doing Time Bannerji speaks of prisons constructed at different levels where cramped, silenced and angry people struggle to gain their faces, voices and power. The time in prison is not only a time of despair but a time of learning solidarity, strategies and gaining strength, until the bars are broken and the walls torn down.

Poetry

A Separate Sky

Toronto: Domestic Bliss, 1982.
Includes English translation of Bengali poems by Subhas Mukhapadhyay, Manbendra Bandyopadhyay and Shamshur Rahman.

Fiction (Juvenile, Folklore)

The Two Sisters

Illustrated by Khaletun Majumdar.
Toronto: Kids Can Press, 1978.
Series: The Folktale Library
Text in English and Bengali.
PZ90 .B4 B36 1978

Synopsis from Catalogue Record

Two sisters, one poor and kind and the other rich and greedy, are rewarded as they deserve by the Mother of the Moon.

Selected Criticism and Interpretation

Chakraborty, Chandrima. “Himani Bannerji.” In Asian American Poets: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, ed. Guiyou Huang, [37]-44. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2002.
PS153 .A84 A826 2002

Chilana, Rajwant Singh. “Himani Bannerji.” In South Asian Writers in Canada: A Bio-Bibliographical Study. Surrey, BC: Asian Publications, 2017, 202.
Z1376 .S68 C45 2017

Kain, Geofffrey. “Himani Bannerji.” In Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, ed. Emmanuel S. Nelson, [8]-12. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2000.
PS153 .A84 A825 2000

Kandiuk, Mary. “Himani Bannerji.” In Caribbean and South Asian Writers in Canada: A Bibliography of Their Works and of English-language Criticism. Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2007, 9-11.
PS8089.5 .C37 K36 2007