Sudhir Chakravarti

Baul Fakir Katha Ganer Lilar Sei Kinare Sudhir Chakravarti (19 September 1934 – 15 December 2020) was a Bengali educationist and essayist. He made a vast contribution in Bengal's folk culture development and research. Chakravarti had completely changed the style of colonial prose with his new narrative style. He successfully had replaced the prevailing idea of essay-based writing being something of heavy scholarly matter with his graceful and humorous prose language. Sudhir Chakravarti or Sudhir Prasad Chakravarti was born on 19 September 1934 at Shibpur. His father's name was Ramaprasad Chakravarti and his mother Beenapani Chakravarti. He was the youngest of the nine sons of Ramaprasad. Due to the fear of the Japanese bombardings in Kolkata, Chakravarti's father had shifted to Dignagar, Nadia, (where they had ancestral lands as Zamindars) from Shibpur, Howrah in his childhood. After that his family came to Krishnanagar, Nadia. Chakravarti completed his studies in Calcutta University. Chakravarti is known for his research works on Folk religion, Lalan Fakir and Cultural Anthropology in Bengal. He spent 30 years researching the folk culture by traveling to different villages all over the West Bengal. He was a professor of Bengali literature since 1958 to 1994, but even after retirement kept on teaching until 2011. Chakravarti worked in Krishnagar Government College, guest lecturer of Jadavpur University and was also associated with the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata. He wrote and edited more than 85 books on various subjects like music, art, folk-religion, cultural anthropology. He was the editor of Bengali literary Magazine Dhrubapada. He died on 15 December 2020 in Kolkata.