Sudhindranath Dutta

Sudhindranath Dutta
Born (1901-10-30)October 30, 1901
Varanasi, United Provinces, British India
Died June 25, 1960(1960-06-25) (aged 58)
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Occupation Poet, Journalist, Essayist, Literary Critic, Lecturer
Years active 1930-1960
Spouse(s) Chhabi Basu (1924-1960) (no legal divorce)
Rajeshwari Vasudev (1943-1960)

Sudhindranath Dutta (Bengali: সুধীন্দ্রনাথ দত্ত; 1901–1960) was a Bengali Indian post-modern poet, essayist, journalist and critic. Sudhindranath is one of the most notable poets after the Tagore-era in Bengali literature.[1][2]

Education

Sudhindranath Dutt went to the Theosophical High School in Varanasi between 1914 and 1917, and later attended the Oriental Seminary in Kolkata.[1] Later he graduated in English from the Scottish Church College.[3] He later studied law at the Law College (1922–1924), while also simultaneously preparing for his finals for an MA in English literature from the University of Calcutta. However, he never completed a degree (MA or a law degree) in either subject.[1]

Career

Born to renowned lawyer Hirendranath Dutta & Indumati Vasu Mallik (sister of Raja Subodh Chandra Vasu Mallik), he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But however he failed to complete his degrees, and decided to prepare for attorneyship under his father. He completed that neither. He married Chhabi Basu in 1924.
He started publishing Parichay, a literary magazine which heralded his philosophy, in 1931 and carried on with the job till 1943, when he left following ideological battle with his associates, but supplied funds nevertheless. He was also associated with Sabujpatra, another noted literary magazine of the era, which was edited by eminent story-writer of the era, Pramatha Chaudhury. He also worked as a journalist for The Statesman from 1945-1949. He was also associated with the daily The Forward, then edited by Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, as the organ of All India Forward Bloc. He had also worked for several companies such as Light of Asia Insurance Company from 1930–1933, ARP from 1942–1945, DVC from 1949–1954, and Institute of Public Opinion from 1954-1956. He worked as a part-time lecturer of Comparative Literature in Jadavpur University from 1956-1957. In 1957, he left for his final foreign trip and toured Japan and Europe before moving to United States of America to join University of Chicago to write his autobiography in English. However he left the lucrative job midway and returned home to rejoin Jadavpur University to resume his classes of Comparative Literature, which he continued till his death.

Trivia

Sudhindranath Dutta believed that hard work is what is needed for creating art, and the embattled nature of his poetry contrasted with that of the romantic poetry of Jibanananda Das.[4] When Jibanananda Das's poetry notebooks were printed, Dutt commented after seeing the great number of corrections and deletions in the notebooks "Oh, then the natural poets are also unnatural poets, like me!"

Perhaps his most famous line is the widely quoted one from his poem Utpakhi (The ostrich):

অন্ধ হলে কি প্রলয় বন্ধ থাকে?

Transliteration: (Andha halē ki pralaẏa bandha thākē?)
Translation: Does the tempest halt for the sake of your blindness?

Works

Collected poetry

Collected essays

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Sudhindranath: the Person I Knew
  2. ↑ Remains of the past
  3. ↑ Some Alumni of Scottish Church College in 175th Year Commemoration Volume. Scottish Church College, April 2008. page 591
  4. ↑ Twentieth century Bengali literature
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