Sonal Shukla (1941–2021)

Sonal Shukla who dedicated half a century of her life in supporting innumerable social movements and feminist activism is no more. Her childhood experiences after her mother’s demise made her extremely sensitive about the plight of a girl child. As an adolescent, Shukla was earning and learning. While studying in Elphinstone College, she worked as a tourist guide and gave tuitions to support herself. From her mother, she had inherited her love for literature and a nuanced understanding of music from her father. Shukla attended programmes on Hindustani classical music, dance, theatre, poetry, literature, and textiles.

She was always a fighter against adverse circumstances and injustice in her personal and social life. She was upfront in expressing her positions and speaking her mind. Hers was a family of creative and artistically rooted career persons. Her father Ninu Majumdar, a renowned person who started Vividh Bharati for All India Radio (AIR), invited rare talents from the music and theatre world to perform. I was highly impressed to know that Shukla and her two sisters, Meena—a theatre artist, Rajul—a renowned singer, a kid brother, Uday—a music director, and his mother—Kaumudiben Munshi (who sang both classical and sugam sangeet) grew up watching this. All four siblings had great bonding and dedicated their efforts for a larger cause of reaching out to masses by transcending the cloistered existence of the elitist world of fine arts. They had great camaraderie with their cousins, Utkarsh Majumdar—a theatre artist and advocate and Mihir Desai—a renowned human rights lawyer.