This article is Part One of a series on the revolutionary poems of Bengali poet-prodigy Sukanta Bhattacharya, and some musical renditions by the famed composer Salil Chowdhury in the late 1960s andd early 1970s.

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The Revolutionary and Proletariat Poems of Poet-Prodigy Sukanta Bhattacharya and Some Musical Renditions by Salil Chowdhury

Part I

Monish R Chatterjee

Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926-1947) was born in the cusp of the peak period of the Indian freedom movement against British colonial occupation in Kolkata, the crucible of modern Indian and Bengali cultural renaissance. By the time Sukanta reached his teen years, India had already seen the likes of Lokmanya Balgangadhar Tilak, Surendranath Banerjee, Chittaranjan Das, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, and even the relatively young Subhas Chandra Bose at the helm of the nationwide ferment towards freeing the Indian people from the oppression of imperial tyranny.

As was characteristic of many parallel movements that occurred around the same time alongside the mainstream campaigns of the Indian National Congress under the (sometimes authoritarian) leadership of Gandhi, Bengal produced its own pockets of overt and covert forms of political resistance. Militant, idealistic groups such as the Bengal Volunteers, Anushilan, Jugantar and several others became active and operational alongside communist and socialist political movements which identified with working classes and the socially oppressed. Master-da Surya Sen, Biplabi Jatin Das and Bagha Jatin (Jatindranath Mukherjee) had already become national (and even international) legends in their own rights.

During these very potent decades, Bengali thinkers and intellectuals from the left were already blazing their own paths and making inspirational marks on a global scale outside India's political mainstream. Chief among them would be the names of M.N. Roy (one of the founders of the Mexican Communist Party and later of the philosophy of Radical Humanism), Virendranath Chattopadhyay (brother of Sarojini Naidu), Bhupendranath Datta (brother of Swami Vivekananda), Abani Mukherjee and others. One could even cite unexpected names such as Sukumar Ray, father of the illustrious film-maker, Satyajit Ray, whose writings satirically exposed government tyranny.

Into this environment, especially one that followed on the heels of several centuries of colonial occupation and oppression across the world (Africa, Asia, Latin America), and not long after the Bolshevik overthrow of Czarist Russia- Sukanta was born, and brought up in an atmosphere of intellectual ferment in Bengal. Even as a teenager, he witnessed and became familiar with, mass movements around the world in active, and in some cases, effective protests against imperial and colonial oppression and tyranny, and within what turned out to be a tragically short life, was able to identify with the struggles against poverty, discrimination, injustice and genocide. His writings bear lasting testament to his perspectives upon the public uprisings and worldwide awakening resulting from the poor and the downtrodden rising up to shake off the shackles of slavery and servitude.

As it turns out, this sensitive and creative poet was given by fate only 21 years to live- a length of time in which the vast majority in our human world barely manage to come into their own (with a few exceptions). Yet, Sukanta had put together extraordinary works of revolutionary and protest poems, identifying with causes of the downtrodden in different corners and strata of life- many of which have taken their rightful place in the annals of Bengali literature.

In what follows, I will present several of Sukanta's key protest and proletariat poems, beginning with a few which were set to exceedingly effective and popular musical creations by the highly talented composer Salil Chowdhury (1923-1995) in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Salil Chowdhury was a versatile composer and also lyricist who left a legacy of lasting musical creations in Bengali, Hindi and other Indian languages, in films and in a variety of other venues. A number of his most moving and widely acclaimed numbers were rendered in the magical baritone voice of the legendary Hemanta Mukhopadhyay; these included compositions based on poems by Sukanta, Satyendranath Dutta and other leading poets of the early 20th century. Presented below are the poems Thikana and The Runner with some interpretive remarks. I am also attaching the corresponding YouTube links for the songs in Hemanta Mukhopadhyay's voice.

Thikana (My Address) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJUptd8XS2Q

Sukanta Bhattacharya (Translated by Monish R. Chatterjee)

You asked for my address, my friend

You were looking for my abode, you said.

That you have not found it yet-

Makes me sad, true, but I will not fret.

Finding my address is futile, my friend

For I dwell in the streets-

Sometimes my home is in the shades of trees

Sometimes you might find me in thatched shanties.

Truly, I am a wayfarer, akin to a rolling stone

I roam the places where the faceless homeless reside.

My friend, I struggle but find not my way home-

I dream of building a fortress with these wayward pebbles.

Friend, bleed not these wounds inflicted by your hands

Go look for my address there where a new dawn arises.

Go look towards Indonesia, Yugoslavia, Russia and China-

Know for sure my address has long been deposited in their care.

Have you looked for me everywhere in this blighted land-

And yet found me not? Alas- then you have roamed

All the wrong bylanes. On the pathways of life

The road to my abode has commenced with famines

But then meandered into the pathway to freedom.

My friend, I must warn you- this pathway to dawn

Is covered in thick fog; lose not your way navigating it

Alone. I know, my friend, the blood is agitated

This day, as are the rivers; stirring in the branches

Are the birds, even the seas roll in disquiet.

The time is here, my friend, and yet you know not my

Address! Why, my friend, why do you blunder so?

How long will you while away time blinking

Your eyes? Know that the path that began

In Jalianwallah Bagh is where you will find me.

Then follow the path to Jalalabad

And pass through Dharmatala- and you will see

The address you seek is on every doorway

Carved in letters of blood in this beleaguered Land.

Farewell, my friend! Farewell today-

Behold yonder there arises the impending storm-

The address you seek is now free for the taking

Meet me in the homeland of Freedom.

Comments: The poem is self-explanatory. It speaks of an idealist participating through local and global contexts in grassroots movements aimed at the struggles against and overthrow of imperial and feudal structures that oppress and marginalize vast numbers of people via economic and racial deprivation and discrimination. Specifically, Sukanta refers to notable grassroots leftist movements around the world, including those in Russia (the Bolshevik and October revolutions), China (establishment of the Republic of China prior to the Maoist revolution much later), Yugoslavia (establishment of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia) and Indonesia (the Indonesian National Revolution against Dutch colonialism). Sukanta also makes strong references to several revolutionary events in India, including the Jallianwallah Bagh (or Amritsar) massacre in 1919, and the Jalalabad armed resistance under Surya Sen in Chittagong in modern Bangladesh.

Raanaar (The Runner) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vApt4jMGec

Sukanta Bhattacharya (Translated by Monish R. Chatterjee)

[Preamble: (narrated by Hemanta Mukhopadhyay)- The Runner, he is the village mail carrier. Night after night, he carries upon his back sacksful of messages and mail from people near and far, and delivers them door to door. But- who cares ever for the message of his life?]

The Runner runs, hence you hear the tinkling

Of bells in the night. The Runner runs gripping

A sack of mail in his hand- he runs, he runs-

He runs in the dark of the night over roads and alleys

He runs like nothing can ever stop him.

From horizon to horizon he runs- for he has taken up

The task of bringing to one and all the freshest news.

The Runner carries upon his shoulders

The burden of the known and the unknown; he carries

With him a shipload of letters and news stories.

The Runner runs, alas- perhaps dawn is about to break

Out East- faster, O Runner, faster- you are unstoppable,

Unbeatable. Much like his life's dreams, the forests

Disappear behind him; yet he has farther, and farther still

To go- and there is the ever present fear

Lest the Eastern sky should turn red.

The stars of the night sky blink in amazement-

As they watch the Runner flit like a deer.

Hamlets and country roads recede to the background

The Runner is determined to reach the city by sunrise.

The lantern tinkles in his hand

Fireflies provide him light; fear not, O Runner!

The night is still dark.

Thus has he worn out many years of his life-

Hunger in his belly, the village Runners

Has delivered the burden of the world by mail.

His weary breath has touched the sky

The earth beneath his feet soaked in sweat; every

Precious night of his life he has bought for pittance.

Back home, alone in bed filled with agony and longing

His beloved has spent endless sleepless nights.

Runner, O Runner- when will these days of

Carrying the burden be over? When will the dismal

Night end and the sun shine upon your life?

When will these days be over?

Grinding poverty at home, hence the world feels like

Black smoke. Sacks of money you carry upon your

Shoulder- yet the money is beyond your reach.

The night is desolate, danger lurks around every bend

Yet the Runner keeps on running. There is fear of

Robbers, and greater still the fear of sunrise!

Letters come in such great variety- people write

Out of amour, happiness, memories, longings

Out of sadness and grief. No one will ever read

The letter expressing his sorrow; the dreams of his

Life only the reeds under his feet will know.

In the villages and cities, no will ever know

Of his heartbreaks; in the black envelope of the night

His words will lie sealed forever.

In sympathy, tears shimmer in the eyes of the stars

The morning sky will send him words of compassion-

Runner, O Runner- why carry this burden forever?

Why wear yourself out bit by little bit

Out of hunger and weariness? Runner, O Runner

Behold, dawn has broken, the sky yonder is red

When will your days of suffering be cleansed

By the antiseptic touch of daylight?

Runner, O village Runner- the time is here now

For you bring forth the tidings of a new Dawn.

Comments: Sukanta wrote several poems highlighting the worlds of working people and the poverty and neglect they face in a world filled with discrimination and injustice. Here he takes up the life and hardships in the life of a village mail carrier (the Runner) and describes the ironies of his life with expressions of empathy, compassion and lyrical mastery. The most graphic irony is perhaps described by the reality of the Runner being in desperate need for money- and yet rather often he carries stashes of money on his shoulders, which he delivers at the cost of back-breaking sweat and toil, and yet has no access to it. Note also the stipulation of delivering the mail before daybreak; hence the Runner tries hard to beat sunrise. Note also the symbolism behind the Red Dawn to which the author challenges the oppressed to help their world awaken to.

Authors Bio:

Monish R. Chatterjee received the B.Tech. (Hons) degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from I.I.T., Kharagpur, India, in 1979, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering, from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, in 1981 and 1985, respectively. Dr. Chatterjee was a faculty member in Electrical and Computer Engineering at SUNY Binghamton from 1986 through 2002. Dr. Chatterjee is currently with the ECE department at the University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio. Dr. Chatterjee, who specializes in applied optics, has contributed more than 100 papers to technical conferences, and has published more than 70 papers in archival journals and conference proceedings, in addition to numerous reference articles on science. Dr. Chatterjee's most recent literary essays appear in Rabindranath Tagore: Universality and Tradition, published by FDU Press (2004); Celebrating Tagore, published by Allied Publishers (2009); and Tagore: A Timeless Mind by ICCR and the London Tagore Society (2012). He is the author of four books of translation (Kamalakanta, Profiles in Faith, Balika Badhu and Seasons of Life) from his native Bengali. In 2000, Dr. Chatterjee received the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 2005, Dr. Chatterjee received a Humanities Fellows award from the University of Dayton to conduct research on scientific language. He is a Senior Member of IEEE, OSA, and SPIE and a member of ASEE and Sigma Xi.