Saratchandra Chattopadhyay – An Extraordinary Talent

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay excelled as a novelist and short story writer in 20th century Bengali

literature. In his 62 years of life (from 15-09-1876 to 16.01.1938), he described the sorrows, sufferings

and happiness of Bengali Hindus in beautiful languages, which is still unforgettable. The poverty, misery,

injustice of people in social life has emerged in his writings. Not only the poverty or illiteracy of the

social life of Bengal, but also the rivers and the environment are vividly described in his writings. Also,

his contribution to Bengal's Renaissance (বাাংলার নবজাগরণ) is indescribable. His childhood was spent in

extreme poverty. He passed the Entrance Examination in 1894 from the Jubilee Collegiate School of

Bhagalpur in 2nd Division. He had been engaged various kinds of profession to come out of poverty.

Later in January 1903, Sarat Chandra moved to Rangoon to the house of lawyer Aghuthnath

Chattopadhyay. There he was engaged in sundry jobs. After many attempts, he got a job as a clerk in

Public Works Accounts Office in Burma in April 1906, with the help of Manindranath Mitra, a senior

officer of this office. During his stay in Rangoon, Sarat Chandra read widely on various subjects,

including sociology, literature, philosophy, physiology, psychology, history, scriptures and other topics,

borrowing from Bermard Free Library. However, signs of heart problems slightly slowed down his

intense study habits. He also began to paint.

He had also devoted his mind in writing literatures. The story Ramersumati was published in the

country's newspaper 'Yamuna'. But owing to differences of thought with authorities, he left that job in

1916 and returned to Howrah, then a town near Calcutta and concentrated on literary practice. The

story 'Mahesh' written by him is a timeless fiction. The story 'Mahesh' was written in the context of

Kashipur village, showed the rural economic situation of that time. The conversation between Goffur

Miah, owner of Mahesh (domestic bull) and Pandit Tarkaratna showed how endangered people were

during natural calamities, beside the tyranny of the landlord. When Tarkaratna (Pandit Brahmin) called

Goffur to come out of his house, his ten-year-old daughter, Amina, came and said that her father was

suffering from high fever, so he would not be able to come. Tarkaratna shouted with anger and left

abusing Goffur. This small talk showed how was the tragic condition of the exploited people at that

period, and also the sycophancy of cunning people towards landlord to gain self-interest at the cost of

poorest of poor of the society.

In that year, the province of Bengal was devastated with drought. The main characters of the story were

Muslim farmer Gafur Miah, his daughter Amina and their only bull 'Mahesh'. At the beginning of the

story we see Gafur and Amina were trying to save Mahesh in the midst of severe drought and

starvation. This story of Saratchandra emerged his belongingness to common people who were the

most sufferers of poverty, illness and natural calamities, but were desperate to save the nature,

domestic animals and good relations under all odd circumstances.

Literature and improvement of social life of people were the main objective or insight of his life. But in

British India his political association was deep-rooted. He was Congress minded, also his contacts with

revolutionaries were reflected in his writings. Then the situation was such that he was thought to enter

in direct politics. He joined the Congress in 1921 when the Non-Cooperation Movement started at the

call of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. Before that, in 1919, Saratchandra had joined the protest march in

Kolkata against the British government's 'Rowlatt Act' as a volunteer. As he was living in Howrah at that

time, he was elected President of Howrah District Congress at the initiative of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan

Das. He was the President of Howrah District Congress for 15 years from 1921 to 1936.

Saratchandra's novel 'Pather Dabi' was banned by the then British government. The thrilling story of

Sabyasachi, a revolutionary against the British colonial rule, undoubtedly one of the most daring novels

of his time, the novel was published serially in the magazine 'Bangabani' under Umaprasad's patronage .

The office of this newspaper was in the house of Sir Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay.

Saratchandra was always in touch with the armed revolutionaries of the Indian liberation movement. In

addition to the famous revolutionary Hemendra Ghosh, revolutionary Sachin Sanyal, the commander-inchief

of the Bengal Volunteers party; he also had a lot of sympathy with revolutionaries like Robin

Ghosh, Upen Bandyopadhyay and Bipin Ganguly. There was rumour that Saratchandra helped many

revolutionaries with arms and money. It was from this experience that he succeeded in presenting the

character of Sabyasachi, the central character of ‘Pather Dabi’. Charles Tegart, the British Police

Commissioner of Calcutta, feared these revolutionaries of Bengal. He also respected the revolutionaries

for their patriotism. Charles Augustus Tegart once told his colleagues: “If Bagha Jatin had been an

Englishman, the English would have erected a statue of him next to Nelson in Trafalgar Square.”

It was Tegart who recommended the government to ban his novel ‘Pather dabi'. After much debate, on

11 December 1926, Advocate General Brajendranath Mitra ruled that the novel was seditious and to be

confiscated . In the gazette notification of January 1927, ‘Pather Dabi’ was banned. Subhash Chandra

Bose and Harendranath Chowdhury raised the issue in the legislature, opposing the ban. At that time

Saratchandra decided to file a case against this prohibition. But the famous lawyer Nirmal Chandra Sen

prevented him from suing the case. As a result - Saratchandra changed his decision and did not proceed

further.

Many people feel that persons involved in politics and writing together have a vested interest. That

would not apply at all to Saratchandra. Bacause, Saratchandra did not want anything from the British

rulers, but opposed their tyrannical oppression to Indians. In that sense, there was a coincidence

between his political position and his writing of novels, which had a profound impact on the social and

political standing of the people in Bengal.