Dr. Pabitra Sarkar

Indian Academician and Writer

Pabitra Sarkar, am a person with various interests and identities: those of a linguist, literary critic, actor and theatre person, writer for children, man associated with various aspects of performed culture, grammarian, and also, in a very humble way, a singer of Rabindra Sangeet (I have three CDs out so far). Born in a village of Dhaka in 1937, an adopted son in a family that crossed the partitioned border in 1947, a family that could not give any direction about what I was supposed to be in the future, I ended up as a student of Bangla literature. Because of unexpectedly good results (First in the University of Calcutta) in my B.A. Honours Examination, I knew I was fated to be a teacher of Bangla literature, and, hopefully, a writer of sorts. The results were even better in my M.A. and consequently, I became a teacher of Bangla, first at my own Bangabasi College, and then at Jadavpur University., where I served in two stretches, 1963-1974, and 1976-1990, going through the usual promotion route from a lecturer to a reader and then to a professor. In 1990, I became the Vice Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University, a position I held till 1997, after which I was the Vice-Chairman, West Bengal State Council for Higher Education. I retired in 2003.

From 1969 to 1975 I was in the United States on a Fulbright Scholarship, which enabled me to do an M.A. and Ph. D. in linguistics at the University of Chicago (1975). I also taught at the University of Minnesota for two years, from 1973-1975.

I had, besides, an interest in theatre. I did some acting, first at Dipen Sengupta's Anukar, and then at Nandikar, where Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay was the director. Apart from acting, I started writing about theatre later, and became an active theatre reviewer both in Bangla and English, and wrote for almost all Bangla newspapers, more regularly for Anandabazar, and in English, for The Statesman. The 'Professor' in Eugene Ionesco's The Lesson, adopted as Nilima in Bangla, was my best role done on stage.

I have written about 86 books so far, and edited 104. Should you look at the list of my books, you will have an idea of their variety of themes and approaches. My best pastime is to write humorous rhymes for children. I still write serious articles, both in English and Bangla. I am now writing my autobiography, Alpa Punjir Jiban, on my computer.

Other responsibilites that were thrust on me include those of President, Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, Natya Shodh Samsthan, Bhartiya Bhasha Parishad, Jadavpur University Teachers' Assiciation, Indian Advisory Board, American Institute of Indian Studies; Chairman, Centre for Adult Education, West Bengal, One-Man Committee on English at the Primary Schools in West Bengal, Committee on Santali Language in Alchiki Schript, West Bengal, Upajati Bhasha Commission, Govt. of Tripura. I was member of Sahitya Akademi and Sangeet Natak Akademi of Delhi, and am now a Vice President, Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi, and the newly formed Society for Natural Lanugage Technology and Research, West Bengal. In various capacities, I was associated with the Association of Indian Universities, University Grants Commission, Central Institute of Indian Languages, Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, National Assessment and Accreditation Council, National Council of Teacher Education, etc. From 2003 to 2009, I was the Project Director, Dictionary Project, Asiatic Society, Kolkata.