Rose Kerketta (1940-2025): Author Profile
Community: Kharia (खड़िया) Community
Rose Kerketta was born on 5 December, 1940 to Martha and Pyara Kerketta in Kaisara, a village in Jharkhand's Simdega district (formerly Ranchi district, Bihar). Pyara Kerketta was a pioneer in the revival of indigenous languages, particularly Kharia, and Rose Kerketta continued that work in her own lifetime. With a Ph.D. in Hindi, Kerketta began her career as a teacher at various schools and colleges before joining the Department of Tribal and Regional Languages at Ranchi University. There, she taught Kharia until she retired in 2000. Her Ph.D. research thesis was titled “A literary and cultural study of Kharia folk tales”.
Kerketta's writing forms a cornerstone of both Kharia literature and broader Adivasi literature. As a translator, she brought Premchand's stories to life in Kharia through a collection titled Premchandah Ludkoy. She also published original short story collections such as Biruwar Gamchha Tatha Anaya Kahaniyan (2020) and Pagha Jori-Jori Re Ghato (2024), as well as poems that dealt with themes of Adivasi life, women's rights, and social inequality.
Her first published poetry collection was Abasib Murdah (पहली बारिश, or "First Rain", 2010) which contains poems in their original Kharia with side-by-side translations into Hindi done by Kerketta herself. Some of the poems in this collection are: "Debuva Kolem" ("Daam Ginoge" or "What's the price") which deals with the impossibility of putting a price on hard physical labor, "Panna" ("Page") which complicates the idea of a static history written by oppressors, and "Abasib Murdah" which uses fish as a metaphor for both the environment and Adivasi people who are exploited for profit.
We also recommend her short story, "Fixed Deposit," which deals with the consequences of the displacement of Adivasi communities due to big dam projects. The translation we have prepared, with the help of generative AI, is the first time this story has appeared in English.
She has also written several texts on Kharia life and culture, including Sembho Ro Dakaye (2011) and Lodaro Somadhi (anthologies of Kharia folk tales), Kharia Vishwaas Ke Mantra ("Mantras of Kharia beliefs"), and Jujhair Daand (play anthology).
Beyond the literary field, Rose Kerketta was intimately involved with social movements and activism, particularly during the Jharkhand movement of the 1980s. This movement was led by Adivasi communities that were fighting for the formation of a separate state from the Adivasi-dominated regions of what was then southern Bihar. Kerketta represented the movement and its political demands for Adivasi rights and autonomy while negotiating with the central government.
Rose Kerketta passed away on April 17, 2025. She is survived by her children, Vandana Tete and Sonal Prabhajan Tete.
Articles on Rose Kerketta
Activist-writer Rose Kerketta, who spent her life fighting for Jharkhand’s ‘Jal, Jungle, Zameen’, passes away at 84 (by Shubham Tigga, Indian Express, 2025)
"When Jharkhand-based Adivasi writer and educationist Rose Kerketta joined the Jharkhand movement in its peak in the late 1980s, the movement had begun to feel a major leadership vacuum and needed intellectuals. 'The movement needed individuals with both intellectual and political depth,' Sanjay Basu Mallick, 74, whose NGO Jangal Bachao Andolan played a pivotal role in getting the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, told The Indian Express. 'She, along with other leaders like Ram Dayal Munda and B.P. Kesri, joined during the final phase of the Jharkhand Movement and in the late 1980s, she represented the Jharkhand Coordination Committee during a dialogue convened by the central government in Delhi to discuss and negotiate the demands of the movement'."
We need thousands of Rose Kerkettas (by Nitisha Xalxo, FORWARD Press, 2025)
"Dr Keketta was no drawing-room intellectual. She worked as much on the ground as on the desk. Her writing encapsulated a movement. She was a prolific writer. Her writings are a testimony to the rich linguistic and literary tradition of Kharia language and will stand the test of time."