Today I will introduce you to Shukanta Bhattacharya, also affectionately referred to as Kobi Shukanta, one of my most favourite poets in Bangla literature. As an undergrad student, that is about eight year ago, I wrote a short essay on Shukanta for a teacher in Sri Lanka. I do not have much time to rewrite that essay but I will highlight some of the main points here and provide a link to that essay if you would like to know more about him. I also hope to provide some translations of his poems on this blog eventually.
1) Shukanta Bhattacharya, born in 1926 in Calcutta of then British India, was only twenty-one years old when he died of tuberculosis. I consider his death at such an young age, in spite of his tremendous talent as a poet, as one of the biggest tragedies in Bangla literature. His contemporaries, like Subhash Mukhopadhyay, lived long enough to develop their own distinct idioms and styles and were able to realize their full potentials. Sadly, we would never know what Shukanta could have accomplished, had life given him another chance.
2) The published volume of the collected writings of Shukanta, including his poems, plays, letters, and songs, is not more than 300 pages. This slim volume has deservedly earned Shukanta an honorable place in the gallery of the great Bengali poets. Shukanta was himself a school drop-out but many of his poems are included in the school and university curriculums. His poem ‘the age eighteen’ (āṭhāro bachar bayas) is one of the most famous Bengali poems of all time. This poem in a very unique style captures the complexity, confusions and indomitable spirit of the eighteen year olds. Recently, Pratham Alo, a prominent newspaper in Bangladesh took initiatives to inspire young people with this poem and putting it into music. One musical version of this poem can be found here.
3) Dušan Zbavitel, a renowned Czech scholar, in his history of Bengali literature, characterizes Shukanta Bhattacharya as a ‘poet of hunger and revolution’. In that sense, Shukanta represented the oppressed class in his poetry. It was a departure from the romantic and idealistic vision of literature. This is demonstrated in one of his most quoted poems, where Shukanta says “burning in hunger, the world is prosaic; the full-moon reminds of scorched roti“. Shukanta was an active member of a Marxist organization and worked as a relief worker, providing ration foods to the needy people before and during the years of World War II. His tuberculosis is supposed to have developed due to his overworking as a relief worker.
4) Shukanta lived during the later phase of Rabindranath Tagore’s life (Tagore died 1941). This was a time when major changes in the society and politics of India were taking place. Indian nationalist movements were aimed at complete independence from the British. Internationally, tensions that would lead up to the second world war were building. Consequently large scale injustices due to these international events and oppressions by wealthy land lords (zamindars) in the local areas of Bengal were also taking place. Shukanta, like many conscientious young people, was a witness to all of these events. Young poets experimented with new styles and language to capture the turmoil of this period. This necessitated to secede from the lyricism and romanticism of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry that dominated Bengali literature for several decades. Poets were looking for sharp and straightforward language to capture the pains and agonies of the oppressed. Shukanta was an active and foremost member in that experiment and he tried to express his concerns for justice through his poems in addition to being an active relief worker. In his poem dedicated to Tagore, Shukanta says even now, your presence in my heart, intoxicates my every solitary moment… In spite of this, Shukanta also acknowledges how the struggles of everyday life do not allow him to relish that intoxication fully. (Shukanta also wrote poems dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi, Langston Hugshes, and Lenin. )
5) In order to capture the suffering and struggles of the poor and working class people Shukanta used metaphors from everyday life, using imageries and a diction that would surprise Bengali literature in a powerful way. For instance, in his poem ‘staircase’ (সিঁড়ি), the staircase and the working people are not different. The upward progress of the upper class happens by literally treading on the staircase, the common people. Just like the staircase is covered with carpets, the injuries of the suffering body is not let to reveal. Characteristic of Shukanta’s poems is his unfailing optimism and promise. At the end of this poem he says, just like the empire of the great Mughal emperor Humayun did not last forever, the pride of the reckless rambler will also fall down. Shukanta entrusts faith in the capacity of the common people and his optimism rests on time.
In Bangla literature, Shukanta Bhattacharya is like a sudden flame, that explodes and vanishes with such vigour and rapidity that we keep longing for his warmth again and again.
vūpasamāya 