Arun Sarma

Arun Sarma Biography

Arun Sharma, also known as Arun Sarma is one of the prominent contemporary playwrights of Assamese literature. He is known for his unconventional plays with some elements of drama. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2010 for his contributions to Assamese literature and Sangeet Natak Akademi award in 2003 for his contributions to drama. He received Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998 for the novel Ashirbadar Rong. He received Assam Valley Literary Award in 2005 and Sankaracharyya Avatar Award Literature in 2010. He has won the Asam Sahitya Sabha’s Best Playwright Award for two consecutive years. He has also received many awards as a radio broadcaster. He has published 6 novels detailing the Assamese way of life and 17 playwrights.

Arun Sarma was born in Dibrugarh in the year 1931. His father Tilak Chandra Sarma was the Editor of The Times of Assam. In 1935, the family migrated to Halemguri village. Young Sarma was influenced by Gandhi ideologies. Thus he joined social work as well as did farming. He studied at Tezpur High School and completed his matriculation in 1948. He completed graduation in 1954 from Cotton College, Guwahati. It was during this time when Sarma started his literal career. He joined The Assam Tribune as an editorial staff in 1954. The following year he moved to his village in Halem to join as an Assistant Headmaster in the MCD High School.

In 1960, he returned to Guwahati and joined AIR where he worked till 1986. He joined as producer, later became senior producer and later headed the Educational Broadcasting Section. He attended 6 month training program at Radio Programme Production in BBC, London, in 1969. Once returned, for the next two decades he played a significant role in improving and shaping the Drama section of the Guwahati Station. After retirement he served as editor of weekly Assamese newspaper ‘Purbachal’.

Published: N/A

Updated: March 04, 2014