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The Hindu
29-04-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Tagore's own institution neglects printing his books; many popular titles out of circulation
Many of Rabindranath Tagore's books appear neglected by the publishing arm of his own institution, Visva-Bharati, with numerous titles under his authorship, including the flagship 18-volume Rabindra Rachanabali, being out of print for over a year now. With the aesthetically printed university-published titles missing from the market, private players are profiting from the neglect by selling their own versions. 'A book like Gora is not available. A book like Sanchayita is not available. This is unbelievable, totally unbelievable!' eminent educationist-writer Chinmoy Guha, professor emeritus of University of Calcutta and former Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati told The Hindu. 'It looks like Visva-Bharati officials are not even aware of their books not being in the market. Nobody is talking about it. Even books like Chokher Bali, Chhelebela, Char Adhyay, Jogajog are not to be found. These are all part of our heritage — such beautifully printed books. Nobody seems to be noticing they are missing,' Prof. Guha said. Visva-Bharati set up its publishing arm, Granthan Vibhaga, in 1923, mainly to print Tagore's major works and circulate his ideas and literature across the globe. The department is currently based in Kolkata and until recently had two outlets in the city: one on College Street and another on Bidhan Sarani, which closed down in 2022. 'Major works out of print include Sanchayita and Sishu. Important textbooks like the full set of Sahaj Path have not been published regularly, resulting in huge loss of revenue over the last one year. The full set of his biography Rabindra Jibani is out of print as are several volumes of Swara Bitan, something so essential for Rabindra Sangeet practitioners,' said a source in Visva-Bharati. 'All this has led to private publishers gradually taking over the profitable space that Granthan Vibhaga once occupied. There is also a clear lack of sales strategy. A few years earlier there had been an attempt to promote online sales but at present there seems to be not much effort in this matter. Of the two shops in Kolkata, the one that is still open seems to be in a state of decline,' the source said. Visva-Bharati has not responded so far as to why such iconic books have remained out of print for over a year. But insiders blame it mainly on lack of planning as far as sales is concerned. Another major issue, according to them, has been the absence of a permanent director and the apathy of the production section. 'Even a year after the previous Vice-Chancellor left, there has not been a single new publication by the Granthan Vibhaga. A proposal was mooted earlier to transfer the production section from Kolkata to Santiniketan so that concerned departments interact better to plan new volumes on Tagore, but this has not been followed up,' an employee said.
The Hindu
21-04-2025
- General
- The Hindu
Calcutta University scholars travel to Sundarbans village to save language
A group of scholars from the University of Calcutta recently visited a village in the Sundarbans in a bid to save a language that is on the verge of extinction. They went to a settlement called Kamarpara in Gosaba subdivision of South 24 Parganas to begin translation into the English of a novel written by a local in a tribal language called Sadri, and also to spend time with members of the Sadri community. The novel — titled Baman Burir Char ('Dwarf Old Lady's Char'), with char meaning emerging riverine islands — has been authored by Dayalhari Sardar, who is an Assistant Professor of Bengali at nearby Bhangor Mahavidyalaya. 'I would say it is the author who is actually saving the language. But language and literature are not just about the scripts and words — they carry with them culture, tradition, politics, society, struggles and much more. So, by translating it into English and opening it up to a global audience, we're essentially introducing the world to their world. It helps build an identity and also creates opportunities for pedagogy,' Shreya Datta, one of the four scholars who visited the village, said. According to her, the idea behind spending a day with the community earlier this month was to understand the 'geography of the literature' on which the Sadri novel is based. Ayan Ghosh, another member of the team, said there were 741,528 Sadri speakers in West Bengal as per the 2011 linguistic census, a majority of them being concentrated in the northern part of Bengal, primarily among tea plantation workers — descendants of labourers brought by the British during the colonial period. 'In contrast, only a small number of Sadri speakers were brought to the Sundarbans region, primarily from present-day Chhattisgarh, to clear the dense forest and prepare the land for cultivation. The descendants of those labourers are the present-day Sadri-speaking community that we visited,' he said. Sadri does not have a script; members of the community living in West Bengal write in the Bengali script and those belonging to Chhattisgarh use Devnagari. 'The novel is about the Sadri life of Sunderbans, especially char lands, river erosion, loss of land, vulnerability of people's life there. The author is happy that his novel is being translated into English. We have been engaged with this kind of work since the last few years. In 2022, I organised a workshop called 'Translating Sundarbans'. This translation is the result of that workshop,' Mrinmoy Pramanick, a University of Calcutta Professor who led the team, said. Team members said that reaching Kamarpara was quite a task. After taking a train to Canning, they boarded an autorickshaw to Kotrakhali, a journey of 40 minutes, and from there crossed the river by boat to reach the Gopalkata ferry ghat, where villagers came to pick them up on motorbikes. 'The village is surrounded by waterways that isolate it from essential services, particularly healthcare facilities. Communication with the outside world becomes virtually impossible after nightfall,' Sudeshna Ghose, a project fellow, said.
