Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was a Bengali novelist and short story writer of the early 20th century. He generally wrote about the lives of Bengali family and society in cities and villages. However, his keen powers of observation, great sympathy for fellow human beings, a deep understanding of human psychology, an easy and natural writing style, and freedom from political biases and social prejudices enable his writing to transcend barriers and appeal to all Indians. He remains the most popular, translated, and adapted Indian author of all time.
Early life
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was born on 15 September 1876, in a Bengali Brahmin family in Debanandapur, a small village in Hooghly, West Bengal, about 50 kilometres from Kolkata. He was his father Matilal and mother Bhubanmohini's oldest son and second child.Debanandapur was the hometown of Baikuntha Chattopadhyay, the grandfather of Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Sarat Chandra's grandmother relocated back to Debanandapur with Matilal after Baikuntha was murdered by his zamindar. Motilal was given a piece of land by his mother's brothers. Some time later, he married Bhubanmohini, the daughter of Kedarnath Gangopadhyay, who took him to his ancestral house in Bhagalpur, Bihar. Matilal passed his education from Bhagalpur, attending classes with the two sons of Kedarnath. During and after this time he was offered many jobs and hobbies by Kedarnath's brothers, which he was unsuccessful to continue with any. Motilal was not able to continue with any of the career options he picked.
Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay starting working from an early age, his father not having any source of income. His education was not properly completed because of the lack of money. Chattopadhyay took an interest in literature from Motilal. Much of Chattopadhyay's early life is disputed. According to Narasingha Prosad Sil, Chattopadhyay was taken to Bhagalpur from Debanandapur when he was two or three years old. He enrolled there in school and stayed till fifth or sixth year. Chattopadhyay came back to Debanandapur, where he studied in a pathashala for two years. In the rural areas, he often went fishing or rafting in water bodies and exploring places.
In 1886, Chattopadhyay went to travel in Dehri-on-Sone. After this travel, Matilal sent him to Durgacharan Middle English School in Bhagalpur for a getting a scholarship. For meeting the eligibility, he took tutoring lessons from his classmate Manindranath's tutor. They passed their exams and got scholarship. The next year, Chattopadhyay enrolled in the Bhagalpur District School where he studied till 1889, and dropped out at fifth grade, getting a double class promotion before.
In 1889, Matilal lost his job. Chattopadhyay and his whole family shifted into Debanandapur, where he enrolled into the Hooghly District School. His father arranged a room for Sarat Chandra to stay, at the house of landlord Bholanath Mukhopadhyay. He stayed in the residence for a few years and returned to Debanandapur. Matilal was unable to further pay for Chattopadhyay's education. They traveled to Bhagalpur in 1893 and Chattopadhyay got enrolled in Tejnarayan Jubilee Collegiate School. Panchkadi Mukhopadhyay, a teacher in the school helped Chattopadhyay to complete his homework. Kedarnath died in 1892. His death caused turmoil in the family. His son Thakurdas Gangopadhyay spent money on lawyers for a financial lawsuit. To pay for Chattopadhyay's education, Kedarnath's son Bipradas borrowed money. Chattopadhyay completed his entrance exams in 1893. He Sarat Chandra being unable to pay for college education was approached by the mother of his classmate's tutor, Kusumkamini, who offered to pay Chattopadhyay's college fees for tutoring her two sons. During his college years, Chattopadhyay began writing books; he took his inspiration from the novels of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and from his enduring interest in narrating stories and the theaters.
In 1895, Chattopadhyay's mother Bhubanmohini died. Matilal sold his paternal house on November 9, 1896 to Kedarnath's brother Aghornath for 255. After November 1896, Matilal rented a house owned by Chandrashekhar Sarkar, in the slums of Bhagalpur callad Khanjarpalli, distancing himself from the Gangopadhyay house. Chattopadhyay studied in college using borrowed books from his classmate he met in primary school. Chattopadhyay did not have enough money to pay for the final college exams, after studying there for two years, ending his formal education. In August 1919, he sent a letter documenting his education conditions to Lilarani Gangopadhyay.
Sarat Chandra wrote in the English translation of his monumental book Srikanta:
"My childhood and youth were passed in great poverty. I received almost no education for want of means. From my father I inherited nothing except, as I believe, his restless spirit and his keen interest in literature. The first made me a tramp and sent me out tramping the whole of India quite early, and the second made me a dreamer all my life. Father was a great scholar, and he had tried his hand at stories and novels, dramas and poems, in short, every branch of literature, but never could finish anything. I have not his work now—somehow it got lost; but I remember poring over those incomplete messes, over and over again in my childhood, and many a night I kept awake regretting their incompleteness and thinking what might have been their conclusion if finished. Probably this led to my writing short stories when I was barely seventeen."
Poverty forced the family to live for long periods in Bhuvanmohini's father's home in Bhagalpur, Bihar.
Sarat Chandra was a daring, adventure-loving boy. He attended schools in and around Debanandapur, one being Hooghly Branch Government School and in Bhagalpur. His strong performance in English and other subjects was rewarded with a "double promotion" that enabled him to skip a grade. However, in 1892, financial difficulties forced him to stay out of school for one year. He began writing stories at the time.
In 1894, Sarat Chandra passed his Entrance Examination and entered Tejnarayan Jubilee College. He developed an interest in English literature and read A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield by Charles Dickens and other novels. Looking at Western authors such as Marie Corelli and Ellen Prince, Chatterjee adopted the psuedonym St. C. Lara. He organized a children's literary society in Bhagalpur, which published a handwritten magazine. Two years later, his formal studies ended as he could not pay the twenty rupees examination fee.
On his wife's death in 1895, Matilal left the house of his in-laws and moved the family to a mud house in Bhagalpur. In 1896, he sold his ancestral house to repay debts. Sarat Chandra spent time interacting with friends, acting in plays, and playing sports and games. He seriously read literature and wrote several famous works including Bordidi, Chandranath, and Devdas. And then he stopped writing: "But I soon gave up the habit as useless, and almost forgot in the long years that followed that I could even write a sentence in my boyhood."
In 1900, Sarat Chandra associated with the Banali Estate in Bihar while simultaneously being an assistant to the settlement officer in the Santhal district settlement. He published his first novella Borodidi through the local publisher Bharati under his real name.
After holding sundry jobs, Sarat Chandra got upset with his father and left home. He wandered from place to place In the guise of a sannyasi. Little is known about what he did during this period. On getting the news of his father's death, Sarat Chandra came back and did his father's shraddha. His oldest sister was already married. He deposited his remaining siblings with a friend and relatives and went to Calcutta to try out his luck.
In Calcutta, Sarat Chandra worked for six months translating Hindi paper books into English for an advocate. In January 1903, he went to Burma.
Before leaving for Burma, at the insistence of an uncle, Sarat Chandra sent the story "Mandir" to the "Kuntaleen Story Competition." It won the first prize out of 150 submissions. Mandir was published under another uncle's name. The story was 27-year-old Sarat Chandra's first printed work.
Life in Burma
Sarat Chandra lived in Burma for thirteen years. He first held sundry jobs in Rangoon and Pegu. He eventually found work in Burma Public Works Accounts Office in Rangoon.Most of his stay in Rangoon was in the Botahtaung Pazundaung neighbourhood where "mistris" lived. He freely mixed with them. He wrote their job applications, mediated conflicts, gave them homeopathic medicine for free, even gave monetary help. The mistris had great respect for him.
During his stay in Rangoon, Sarat Chandra read widely. He borrowed books on various subjects, including sociology, politics, philosophy, physiology, psychology, history, scriptures, and other topics from the Bernard Free Library. Signs of heart problems slightly slowed down his intense study habits. He also began to paint.
In 1912, the wooden house where he lived on Lansdowne Road got burnt down. He lost his belongings including his paintings, and the manuscript of his novel Choritrohin, which he rewrote.
He resumed writing after a gap of about eighteen years: "Some of my old acquaintances started a little magazine, but no one of note would condescend to contribute to it, as it was so small and insignificant. When almost hopeless, some of them suddenly remembered me, and after much persuasion they succeeded in extracting from me a promise to write for it. This was in the year 1913. I agreed most unwillingly—perhaps only to put them off until I returned to Rangoon and could forget the matter entirely. But sheer volume and force of their letters and telegrams compelled me at last to think seriously about writing again. I sent them a short story, for their magazine Jamuna. This became at once extremely popular, and made me famous in one day. Since then I have been writing regularly. In Bengal perhaps I am the only fortunate writer who has not had to struggle."
In 1916, he resigned from his job due to ill health and moved to Calcutta.