Pabitra Sarkar

Pabitra Sarkar in an author and former Vice Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.

Rammohun Roy’s Grammar(s) of Bangla

Although Rammohun Roy was notably many things, he was not an unlikely person to write a grammar—or, in fact, two grammars: one in English and one in Bangla, the latter being a free translation of the former.

23 June 2024, 18:00 PM

Vangiya Sahitya Parishat, the first Bengal Academy of Literature

‘Academy’, as many of us know, is a word that comes from the French word ‘academie’, evolving from Latin ‘academia’—the ultimate ancestor of both being Greek ‘akademeia’.

11 February 2024, 18:00 PM

Haraprasad Shastri: An Unusual Pundit

Haraprasad Shastri (1853-1931, Bhattacharya was the original family name) was a Sanskrit scholar, commonly referred to as a ‘pundit.

3 December 2023, 18:00 PM

Language Controversies in 19th Century Bengal

The very fact that a language identifies and defines a specific human group often leads to controversies and conflicts.

26 February 2023, 18:00 PM

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75 years of Partition: A young boy's loss

I belong to a generation that was overtaken by the pestilence called Partition.

9 December 2022, 15:30 PM

137TH BIRTH ANNIVERSARY / Dr Muhammad Shahidullah: A tribute

Dr Shahidullah is one of the greatest linguists that the South Asian region has produced. This is a universally acknowledged fact and one can easily use it as the beginning statement of an article on him.

17 July 2022, 18:00 PM

Tagore’s idea of nationalism

If you look for a definition of the word ‘nationalism’ on Google, or in an encyclopedia, you will find quite a few. However, this word, like many such words, is ‘notorious’ in its own way, as no single definition seems to define it thoroughly.

8 May 2022, 18:00 PM

Language Worries Bangla in West Bengal

From the later decades of the last century, a new worry has descended on mankind — that about the endurance, decay and death of the language.

20 February 2022, 18:00 PM

A Squirrel’s Tale

All of you know about the squirrel from the Ramayana, who rolled himself on the sand at the Indian seashore and then dipped into the Indian Ocean, to shed the sand off its body on the presumption that he was helping to build the bridge across the sea that would enable Rama’s forces to reach Lanka.

13 December 2021, 18:00 PM