Which one of the following major honours was not received by the famous Indian writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi who passed away recently?

Introduction / Context:
Mahasweta Devi was a highly respected Indian Bengali writer and social activist known for her powerful work on the lives of tribal and marginalized communities. This question checks detailed awareness of the major awards and honours that she actually received during her lifetime. Many competitive exams ask such questions to test how carefully students remember award lists and to separate casual awareness from precise factual knowledge.

Given Data / Assumptions:
- The question lists five awards or honours connected to literature and public service. - Mahasweta Devi is known to have received several top Indian and international awards. - We are asked to identify the one honour that she did not receive. - The options cover literary honours and very high civilian awards. - We assume the standard official lists of her awards as the factual source.

Concept / Approach:
The simplest method is to recall or reconstruct the list of major honours that Mahasweta Devi really received. She is associated with the Sahitya Akademi Award for Bengali literature, the Jnanpith Award as India's highest literary honour, the Ramon Magsaysay Award for her combined literary and activist work, and high civilian recognition from the Government of India. After we know this list, we use elimination to find which award in the options does not belong to her profile. Awareness of the relative level of each award also helps, because only a limited number of people have received the very top civilian honour Bharat Ratna.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Step 1: Recall that Mahasweta Devi received the Sahitya Akademi Award for her novel Aranyer Adhikar, so option A is a genuine honour she received. Step 2: Remember that she later received the Jnanpith Award, which is India's highest literary recognition, so option B is also correct for her career. Step 3: She was honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award for journalism, literature, and creative communication in recognition of her work for tribal rights, so option C is again a genuine award she received. Step 4: Mahasweta Devi was conferred high civilian honours from the Government of India, including the Padma Shri and later the Padma Vibhushan, so option E matches her real list of awards. Step 5: Bharat Ratna is India's highest civilian award, but Mahasweta Devi was never a recipient of Bharat Ratna, so option D is the only award in the list that she did not receive.

Verification / Alternative check:
We can mentally verify using two parallel checks. First, cross check the literary honours: Sahitya Akademi Award and Jnanpith Award are strongly and repeatedly associated with her name in standard reference material. Second, confirm the combination of Ramon Magsaysay Award and Padma Vibhushan, because these often appear together in exam notes summarising her achievements. Bharat Ratna is reserved for a very small group of national figures such as C V Raman, Mother Teresa or Lata Mangeshkar, and Mahasweta Devi is not on that list. Since four of the options clearly match well known honours conferred on her, the leftover option Bharat Ratna must be the one she did not receive.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Option A (Sahitya Akademi Award) is wrong as the answer because she actually received this award for her literary work in Bengali. Option B (Jnanpith Award) is wrong as the answer because she was a Jnanpith laureate, recognised for her outstanding contribution to Indian literature. Option C (Ramon Magsaysay Award) is wrong as the answer because she was honoured with this Asian level award for her blend of writing and activism. Option E (Padma Vibhushan) is wrong as the answer because she was conferred this high civilian award by the Government of India.

Common Pitfalls:
A frequent mistake is to assume that Padma Vibhushan is too high an honour and that she must have received a lower Padma award instead, which leads some learners to wrongly pick Padma Vibhushan. Another error is confusing Mahasweta Devi with other famous literary or social figures who have been discussed in the context of Bharat Ratna, and then guessing Bharat Ratna as if it were one more award in a long list. Learners also sometimes mix up similar sounding award names or rely on vague memory of news headlines rather than carefully memorising the confirmed list of honours. To avoid these issues, it is better to revise major personalities along with a compact but accurate list of their key awards.

Final Answer:
The only honour in the list that Mahasweta Devi did not receive is Bharat Ratna.