Subhash Mukhopadhyay (poet)

Indian poet and translator

Not to be confused with Subhash Mukhopadhyay (physician).

Subhash Mukhopadhyay

Subhash Mukhopadhyay

Born| (1919-02-12)12 February 1919
Krishnanagar, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died| 8 July 2003 (aged 84)
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Occupation| Poet
Nationality| Indian
Genre| novels, poetry, libretto

Subhash Mukhopadhyay (Shubhash Mukhopaddhaeⓘ; 12 February 1919 – 8 July 2003) was one of the foremost Indian Bengali poets of the 20th century. He is also known as the "podatik kobi" ("foot-soldier poet") in the field of Bengali literature. A book of thirty of Subhash's best known poems in English translation, titled ' As Day is Breaking', was published in 2014 by Anjan Basu, a Bangalore-based writer/critic. The book includes a rather detailed introduction to the poet's work as well.[1][2] He was honoured with Jnanpith Award in 1991.[3]

## Early life

[edit]

Mukhopadhyay was born in 1919 in Krishnanagar, a town in Nadia district in the province of West Bengal.[4][5] An excellent student, he studied philosophy at the Scottish Church College in Calcutta, graduating with honours in 1941.[6]

## Career

[edit]

Like his contemporary Sukanta Bhattacharya, Mukhopadhyay developed strong political beliefs at an early age. He was deeply committed to the cause of social justice, and was active in left-wing student politics through his college years. Following graduation, he formally joined the Communist Party of India. He thus became one of a handful of literary practitioners with first-hand experience as a party worker and activist.

In 1940, while still a student, he published his first volume of poetry Padatik (Pedestrian).[5] Many critics regard this book as a milestone in the development of modern Bengali poetry. It represented a clear departure from the earlier Kallol generation of poets; and Subhash's distinctive, direct voice, allied with his technical skill and radical world-view, gained him great popularity. In his poetry, Subhash grappled with the massive upheavals of that era which ruptured Bengali society from top to bottom. The 1940s were marked by world war, famine, partition, communal riots and mass emigration in Bengal. Subhash's writings broke away from the traditional moorings of the establishment poets, and instead addressed the despair and disillusion felt by the common people. He remained throughout his life an advocate of the indivisibility of the Bengali people and Bengali culture. His radical activism continued unabated. He was one of the leaders of the "Anti-Fascist Writers' and Artists' Association", formed in March 1942 in reaction to the murder of Somen Chanda, a fellow-writer and Marxist activist. Subhash remained attached with the Communist Party until 1982, and spent time in jail as a political prisoner briefly in the late 1960s. From the late 1950s onwards, Subhash's poetry evolved into something more personal and introspective. The lyricism of Phul phutuk na phutuk, aaj Boshonto, one of his most famous poems, was a result of this period.

Later in the 1970s, Subhash's poetry took a turn toward the narrative and the allegorical. But he never lost his technical facility nor his unique voice. Besides verse, Subhash also wrote works of prose including novels, essays and travelogues. He was active in journalism too, having served on the editorial staff of daily and weekly newspapers. He was an editor of the leading Bengali literary journal Parichay. He was also an accomplished and popular writer for children. He edited the Bengali children's periodical Sandesh jointly with Satyajit Ray for a few years in the early sixties.[7]

Besides the above, Subhash's work as a translator is notable. He is credited with having translated many of Nazim Hizmet's works into Bengali (from Turkish).

## Personal life

[edit]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

|

Mukhopadhyay married Gita Bandyopadhyay, also a well-known writer, in 1951. They adopted three daughters and a son.

According to those close to him, Mukhopadhyay had become disillusioned with politics in his final years. He suffered from severe heart and kidney ailments, and died in Kolkata in July 2003. He was 84.

## Awards

[edit]

Mukhopadhyay received numerous awards and honours in his lifetime, including the two highest literary prizes in India: the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 (for Joto Dureii Jai), and the Jnanpith Award in 1991. The Government of India awarded the civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan in 2003.[8]

## Bibliography

[edit]

### Sample work

[edit]

* Excerpt from Phul phutuk na phutuk, aaj Boshonto

> Phul phutuk na phutuk, aaj Boshonto

> Shaan-badhano footpath-ey
>  Pathorey paa dubiye
>  Ek katth-khotta gachh
>  Kochi kochi patae

> Paanjor phatiye hashchhey.

Translation to English:

> Whether flowers bloom or not, it's Spring today

> Standing on the concrete pavement
>  Dipping his toes into the rock
>  A curmudgeonly tree
>  Decked out in new leaves

> Laughs his heart out.

* English translation of the poem Jol Saite [9]

> When you see, may you not feel hurt,
>  May your sight be soothed and you feel good,
>  For that
>  I have stuck flowers in all the thorns pricked in my breast,
>  Do smile.
>  May you not feel sad when you hear,
>  May your ears be soothed with sweet sound and you feel good,
>  For that
>  I have wrapped my weeping heart in melodious tunes

> Do smile, all ye, do enjoy...

## Notable works

[edit]

* Padatik (The Foot Soldier)
* Chirkut (The Parchment)
* Agnikone
* Phul Phutuk (Let the Flowers Bloom)
* Joto Dureii Jai (How Distant I may be)
* E Bhai (Hey, Brother)
* Kaal Modhumash (Tomorrow is Spring)
* Cheley Gechhey Boney (The Son has gone to Exile)
* Bangalir Itihaash (History of Bengalis)
* Desh Bidesher Rupkotha (Fairy Tales from Home and Abroad)

## Recognition

[edit]

* Sahitya Akademi Award, 1964
* Afro-Asian Lotus Prize, 1977
* Kumaran Asan Award, 1982
* Mirzo Tursunzoda Prize (USSR), 1982
* Ananda Puraskar, 1991
* Soviet Land Nehru Award
* Jnanpith Award, 1991.

He was a fellow of the Sahitya Akademi, and was the Deputy Secretary of the Progressive Writers' Union. He was conferred Deshikottama (Honorary D.Litt.) by the Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan. He was the Organizer-General of the Afro-Asian Writers' Association in 1983. He was also a member of the Executive Board of the Sahitya Akademi since 1987.

The U.S. Library of Congress has a collection of forty titles by him including translations.

## Legacy

[edit]

* In 2010 a metro railways station in Kolkata Kavi Subhash Metro Station has been named after poet.[10]
* In 2009 Sealdah-NJP Express was named "Padatik Express" after this book in memory of the poet.[11]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Biography of Subhash Mukhopadhyay from The South Asian Literary Recordings Project Archived 13 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine loc.gov.
2. ^ "Everyman's poet bids final farewell" Obituary of Subhash Mukhopadhyay The Telegraph. Calcutta, 9 July 2003.
3. ^ "Everyman's poet bids final farewell: Obituary [Subhas Mukhopadhyay]". The Telegraph (Calcutta). 9 July 2003. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
4. ^ "End of revolution for everyman's poet". Telegraph Calcutta. 9 July 2003. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
5. ^ a b Subhash Mukherjee; Surabhi Bandyopādhyāẏa (1 January 1996). The Cape. Orient Blackswan. pp. 3–. ISBN 978-81-250-0936-8. Retrieved 24 June 2012.
6. ^ Some Alumni of Scottish Church College in 175th Year Commemoration Volume. Scottish Church College, April 2008, p. 591
7. ^ ""Sandesh: Reborn on May, 1931" article from http://www.satyajitray.com". Archived from the original on 7 May 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2008. `{{cite web}}`: External link in ``|title=`` (help)
8. ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 October 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2015.
9. ^ "Ode to a poet" The Telegraph Calcutta, 6 August 2003
10. ^ "Kolkata metro reaches New Garia". Railway Gazette. 7 October 2012. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
11. ^ "Tracks & trains for 'backward' region". Telegraph Calcutta. 5 October 2009. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 October 2012.

## External links

[edit]

This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

* The poet recites from his own poems for the Library of Congress Literary Recordings Project
* BBC obituary dated 8 July 2003
* Subhash Mukhopadhyay (1919–2003)

* v
* t
* e

Padma Bhushan award recipients (2000–2009)

2000|

* V. K. Aatre
* Anil Agarwal
* Ram Narain Agarwal
* Sharan Rani Backliwal
* Swami Kalyandev
* Veerendra Heggade
* Pavaguda V. Indiresan
* Wahiduddin Khan
* B. B. Lal
* Raghunath Anant Mashelkar
* H. Y. Sharada Prasad
* Rajinikanth
* Begum Aizaz Rasul
* Radha Reddy
* Raja Reddy
* Pakkiriswamy Chandra Sekharan
* Karamshi Jethabhai Somaiya
* S. Srinivasan
* Ratan Tata
* Harbans Singh Wasir

2001|

* Dev Anand
* Viswanathan Anand
* Amitabh Bachchan
* Rahul Bajaj
* B. R. Barwale
* Balasaheb Bharde
* Boyi Bhimanna
* Swadesh Chatterjee
* B. R. Chopra
* Ashok Desai
* K. M. George
* Bhupen Hazarika
* Lalgudi Jayaraman
* Yamini Krishnamurthy
* Shiv K. Kumar
* Raghunath Mohapatra
* Arun Netravali
* Mohan Singh Oberoi
* Rajendra K. Pachauri
* Abdul Karim Parekh
* Amrita Patel
* Pran
* Aroon Purie
* B. V. Raju
* P. Bhanumathi
* Sundaram Ramakrishnan
* Chitranjan Singh Ranawat
* Palle Rama Rao
* Raj Reddy
* Uma Sharma
* L. Subramaniam
* Naresh Trehan

2002|

* Gary Ackerman
* H. P. S. Ahluwalia
* Prabha Atre
* Sushantha Kumar Bhattacharyya
* Chandu Borde
* Eugene Chelyshev
* Pravinchandra Varjivan Gandhi
* Shobha Gurtu
* Henning Holck-Larsen
* Zakir Hussain
* B. K. S. Iyengar
* F. C. Kohli
* V. C. Kulandaiswamy
* Gury Marchuk
* Jagat Singh Mehta
* Ismail Merchant
* Mario Miranda
* Frank Pallone
* Ramanujam Varatharaja Perumal
* Natesan Rangabashyam
* Maharaja Krishna Rasgotra
* Habib Tanvir
* K. K. Venugopal
* Nirmal Verma
* K. J. Yesudas

2003|

* Teejan Bai
* Ammannur Madhava Chakyar
* Prabhu Chawla
* Herbert Fischer
* Jamshyd Godrej
* Coluthur Gopalan
* K. Parasaran
* B. Rajam Iyer
* Shri Krishna Joshi
* Madurai Narayanan Krishnan
* Rajinder Kumar
* Ramesh Kumar
* Purshotam Lal
* Sitakant Mahapatra
* Bagicha Singh Minhas
* Subhash Mukhopadhyay
* P. S. Narayanaswamy
* Arcot Ramachandran
* Trichur V. Ramachandran
* Kantilal Hastimal Sancheti
* T. V. Sankaranarayanan
* Naseeruddin Shah
* T. V. R. Shenoy
* Jagjit Singh
* Ram Badan Singh
* Hari Shankar Singhania
* Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman
* Narayanan Srinivasan
* Padma Subrahmanyam
* Swapna Sundari
* O. V. Vijayan
* Herbert Alexandrovich Yefremov

2004|

* Thoppil Varghese Antony
* Soumitra Chatterjee
* Chandrashekhar Shankar Dharmadhikari
* Gulzar
* Sardara Singh Johl
* M. V. Kamath
* Komal Kothari
* Yoshirō Mori
* Gopi Chand Narang
* Govindarajan Padmanaban
* Poornima Arvind Pakvasa
* Vishnu Prabhakar
* N. Rajam
* C. H. Hanumantha Rao
* Thiruvengadam Lakshman Sankar
* T. N. Seshagopalan
* Bijoy Nandan Shahi
* Krishna Srinivas
* Alarmel Valli

2005|

* Sardar Anjum
* André Beteille
* Chandi Prasad Bhatt
* Tumkur Ramaiya Satishchandran
* Mrinal Datta Chaudhuri
* Yash Chopra
* Manna Dey
* Irfan Habib
* Yusuf Hamied
* Qurratulain Hyder
* Tarlochan Singh Kler
* Anil Kohli
* Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
* Mrinal Miri
* Hari Mohan
* Brijmohan Lall Munjal
* M. T. Vasudevan Nair
* Azim Premji
* Balraj Puri
* Syed Mir Qasim
* A. Ramachandran
* G. V. Iyer Ramakrishna
* V. S. Ramamurthy
* K. I. Varaprasad Reddy
* K. Srinath Reddy
* Girish Chandra Saxena
* Narasimaiah Seshagiri
* Mark Tully

2006|

* Jaiveer Agarwal
* P. S. Appu
* Shashi Bhushan
* Ganga Prasad Birla
* Grigory Bongard-Levin
* Lokesh Chandra
* Chiranjeevi
* Dinesh Nandini Dalmia
* Tarun Das
* Madhav Gadgil
* A. K. Hangal
* Devaki Jain
* Kamleshwar
* Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan
* Sabri Khan
* Ghulam Mustafa Khan
* Shanno Khurana
* Gunter Kruger
* P. Leela
* K. P. P. Nambiar
* Nandan Nilekani
* Sai Paranjpye
* Deepak Parekh
* M. V. Pylee
* Subramaniam Ramadorai
* N. S. Ramaswamy
* Pavani Parameswara Rao
* Ramakanta Rath
* V. Shanta
* Hira Lall Sibal
* Billy Arjan Singh
* Jasjit Singh
* Vijaypat Singhania
* K. G. Subramanyan
* K. K. Talwar
* Vijay Shankar Vyas
* Dušan Zbavitel

2007|

* Javed Akhtar
* Gabriel Chiramel
* Ela Gandhi
* Saroj Ghose
* V. Mohini Giri
* Somnath Hore
* Jamshed Jiji Irani
* Gurcharan Singh Kalkat
* N. Mahalingam
* Prithipal Singh Maini
* Tyeb Mehta
* Rajan and Sajan Mishra
* Rajan and Sajan Mishra
* Sunil Mittal
* Ramankutty Nair
* Gopaldas Neeraj
* Indra Nooyi
* Kavalam Narayana Panicker
* Bhikhu Parekh
* Syed Mohammad Sharfuddin Quadri
* V. S. Ramachandran
* Tapan Raychaudhuri
* S. H. Raza
* Jeffrey Sachs
* Chandra Prasad Saikia
* L. Z. Sailo
* Shiv Kumar Sarin
* Shriram Sharma
* Manju Sharma
* T. N. Srinivasan
* Osamu Suzuki
* K. T. Thomas

2008|

* Mian Bashir Ahmed
* Kaushik Basu
* Shayama Chona
* Jagjit Singh Chopra
* Rahim Fahimuddin Dagar
* Chandrashekhar Dasgupta
* Asis Datta
* Meghnad Desai
* Padma Desai
* Sukh Dev
* Nirmal Kumar Ganguly
* B. N. Goswamy
* Vasant Gowarikar
* Baba Kalyani
* K. V. Kamath
* Inderjit Kaur Barthakur
* Ravindra Kelekar
* Asad Ali Khan
* Dominique Lapierre
* D. R. Mehta
* Shiv Nadar
* Suresh Kumar Neotia
* T. K. Oommen
* K. Padmanabhaiah
* Vikram Pandit
* V. Ramachandran
* Sushil Kumar Saxena
* Amarnath Sehgal
* Jasdev Singh
* Shrilal Shukla
* P. Susheela
* S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan
* Yuli Vorontsov
* Sunita Williams
* Ji Xianlin

2009|

* Isher Judge Ahluwalia
* Inderjit Kaur Barthakur
* Shamshad Begum
* Abhinav Bindra
* Shanta Dhananjayan
* V. P. Dhananjayan
* Ramachandra Guha
* Shekhar Gupta
* Khalid Hameed
* Minoru Hara
* Jayakanthan
* Thomas Kailath
* Sarvagya Singh Katiyar
* G. Krishna
* R. C. Mehta
* A. Sreedhara Menon
* S. K. Misra
* A. M. Naik
* Satish Nambiar
* Kunwar Narayan
* Nagnath Naikwadi
* Kirit Parikh
* Sam Pitroda
* C. K. Prahalad
* Gurdip Singh Randhawa
* Brijendra Kumar Rao
* Bhakta B. Rath
* C. S. Seshadri
* V. Ganapati Sthapati
* Devendra Triguna
* Sarojini Varadappan

# Posthumous conferral

* 1954–1959
* 1960–1969
* 1970–1979
* 1980–1989
* 1990–1999
* 2000–2009
* 2010–2019
* 2020–2029

* v
* t
* e

Jnanpith Award recipients

1965–1985|

* G. Sankara Kurup (1965)
* Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay (1966)
* Kuvempu and Umashankar Joshi (1967)
* Sumitranandan Pant (1968)
* Firaq Gorakhpuri (1969)
* Viswanatha Satyanarayana (1970)
* Bishnu Dey (1971)
* Ramdhari Singh Dinkar (1972)
* D. R. Bendre and Gopinath Mohanty (1973)
* Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar (1974)
* Akilan (1975)
* Ashapurna Devi (1976)
* Shivaram Karanth (1977)
* Sachchidananda Vatsyayan (1978)
* Birendra Kumar Bhattacharya (1979)
* S. K. Pottekkatt (1980)
* Amrita Pritam (1981)
* Mahadevi Varma (1982)
* Masti Venkatesha Iyengar (1983)
* Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (1984)
* Pannalal Patel (1985)

1986–2000|

* Sachidananda Routray (1986)
* Kusumagraj (1987)
* C. Narayana Reddy (1988)
* Qurratulain Hyder (1989)
* Vinayaka Krishna Gokak (1990)
* Subhas Mukhopadhyay (1991)
* Naresh Mehta (1992)
* Sitakant Mahapatra (1993)
* U. R. Ananthamurthy (1994)
* M. T. Vasudevan Nair (1995)
* Mahasweta Devi (1996)
* Ali Sardar Jafri (1997)
* Girish Karnad (1998)
* Gurdial Singh and Nirmal Verma (1999)
* Mamoni Raisom Goswami (2000)

2001–present|

* Rajendra Shah (2001)
* Jayakanthan (2002)
* Vinda Karandikar (2003)
* Rehman Rahi (2004)
* Kunwar Narayan (2005)
* Ravindra Kelekar and Satya Vrat Shastri (2006)
* O. N. V. Kurup (2007)
* Akhlaq Mohammed Khan (2008)
* Amarkant and Shrilal Shukla (2009)
* Chandrashekhara Kambara (2010)
* Pratibha Ray (2011)
* Ravuri Bharadhwaja (2012)
* Kedarnath Singh (2013)
* Bhalchandra Nemade (2014)
* Raghuveer Chaudhari (2015)
* Shankha Ghosh (2016)
* Krishna Sobti (2017)
* Amitav Ghosh (2018)
* Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri (2019)
* Nilmani Phookan (2021)
* Damodar Mauzo (2022)
* Rambhadracharya and Gulzar (2023)

* v
* t
* e

Sahitya Akademi Fellowship

1968–1980|

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1968)
D. R. Bendre, Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay, Sumitranandan Pant, C. Rajagopalachari (1969)
Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, Firaq Gorakhpuri, Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar, Viswanatha Satyanarayana (1970)
Kaka Kalelkar, Gopinath Kaviraj, Gurbaksh Singh, Kalindi Charan Panigrahi (1971)
Masti Venkatesha Iyengar, Mangharam Udharam Malkani, Nilmoni Phukan, Vasudev Vishnu Mirashi, Sukumar Sen, V. R. Trivedi (1973)
T. P. Meenakshisundaram (1975)
Atmaram Ravaji Deshpande, Jainendra Kumar, Kuppali Venkatappa Puttappa 'Kuvempu', V. Raghavan, Mahadevi Varma (1979)

1981–2000|

Umashankar Joshi, K. R. Srinivasa Iyengar, K. Shivaram Karanth (1985)
Mulk Raj Anand, Vinayaka Krishna Gokak, Laxmanshastri Balaji Joshi, Amritlal Nagar, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai, Annada Shankar Ray (1989)
Nagarjun, Balamani Amma, Ashapurna Devi, Qurratulain Hyder, Vishnu Bhikaji Kolte, Kanhu Charan Mohanty, P. T. Narasimhachar, R. K. Narayan, Harbhajan Singh (1994)
Jayakanthan, Vinda Karandikar, Vidya Niwas Mishra, Subhash Mukhopadhyay, Raja Rao, Sachidananda Routray, Krishna Sobti (1996)
Syed Abdul Malik, K. S. Narasimhaswamy, Gunturu Seshendra Sarma, Rajendra Shah, Ram Vilas Sharma, N. Khelchandra Singh (1999)
Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar, Rehman Rahi (2000)

2001–present|

Ram Nath Shastri (2001)
Kaifi Azmi, Govind Chandra Pande, Nilamani Phookan, Bhisham Sahni (2002)
Kovilan, U. R. Ananthamurthy, Vijaydan Detha, Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Amrita Pritam, Shankha Ghosh, Nirmal Verma (2004)
Manoj Das, Vishnu Prabhakar (2006)
Anita Desai, Kartar Singh Duggal, Ravindra Kelekar (2007)
Gopi Chand Narang, Ramakanta Rath (2009)
Chandranath Mishra Amar, Kunwar Narayan, Bholabhai Patel, Kedarnath Singh, Khushwant Singh (2010)
Raghuveer Chaudhari, Arjan Hasid, Sitakant Mahapatra, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Asit Rai, Satya Vrat Shastri (2013)
Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa, C. Narayana Reddy (2014)
Nirendranath Chakravarty, Gurdial Singh (2016)

Honorary Fellows|

Léopold Sédar Senghor (1974)
Edward C. Dimock, Jr., Daniel H. H. Ingalls Sr., Kamil Zvelebil, Ji Xianlin (1996)
Vassilis Vitsaxis, Eugene Chelyshev (2002)
Ronald E. Asher (2007)
Abhimanyu Unnuth (2013)

Premchand Fellowship|

Intizar Hussain (2005), Kishwar Naheed (2016)

Ananda Coomaraswamy Fellowship|

Senake Bandaranayake, Chie Nakane, Azad N. Shamatov (1996)

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF
* 2
* FAST
* WorldCat

National|

* Germany
* United States
* Australia

Academics|

* CiNii

People|

* Trove

Other|

* IdRef
* 2

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template