Sibnarayan Ray

Sibnarayan Ray (20 January 1921 – 26 February 2008) was an Indian thinker, educationist, philosopher, and literary critic who wrote in the Bengali language. A radical humanist, he is widely reputed for his works on Marxist-revolutionary Manabendra Nath Roy, and famous polymath Bertrand Russell, commenting on Ray, once said that "... Sibnarayan Ray stands for a point of view which I consider important in every part of the world. ... His writings ably represents a more reasonable point of view than that of most writers of our time."

Life and career

On 20 January 1921, Sibnarayan Ray was born to Upendranath Bidyabhushan Shastri (1867–1959) and poet Rajkumari Roy (1882–1973) in Calcutta, India. His father was a thinker-writer who had published more than 50 books in Sanskrit and English. His mother, too, was a literary person who regularly contributed to magazines like Bamabodhini, Shibam, Antapur, and Mahila. Sibnarayan started writing in his teens. He graduated from the University of Calcutta with a degree in English language and literature. He was married to Gita Ray.

He joined the City College, Calcutta, a constituent undergraduate college of the University of Calcutta, in 1945 at the age of twenty four as a lecturer in English literature. He taught there for fifteen years. He was head of the Department of Indian Studies at the University of Melbourne from 1962 until late 1980.

Ray taught at many universities around the world as a visiting professor, including the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) under the University of London and the Department of Social Science at the University of Chicago. He was invited to deliver lectures at many universities in Malaysia, Norway, England, Germany, and the US. Young Sibnarayan took part in the Radical Humanist Movement launched by M. N. Roy in 1948. He edited the Radical Humanist Weekly. Ray said that it was not just religion, but politics that could stifle free-thinking and the spirit of inquiry. The human mind has a conflict in itself. It will either give in to an authority or ask questions. He believed that in order for a society to thrive, it should follow the latter path. However, Ray believed that today, both rationality and the questioning spirit are on the wane.

Literary criticism Sibnarayan Ray was highly respected for his literary criticism.

Publication of Jijnasa He published and edited Jijnasa (pronounced jiggāsā in Bengali ).

Poetry Sibnarayan Ray composed some poems in his early years of writing. Most of them were collected in an anthology under the title Kothara Tomar Mon, published in 1951. A second edition of the anthology was published in the late 1990s. One of these poems, rendered into English from Bengali by Evelyn Panofsky, is quoted below:

This Rare Afternoon

This rare afternoon in the valley of autumn. Behind the trembling curtain of pine needles sad sun's gold. On chestnut branches scant whorls of mauve-tinted flowers.

Drowsy peace falling, pine needles falling, touch of elderly sadness in the valley of autumn.

No dark monsoon flashes of passion's anguish are in this autumn's serene and elderly sadness.

Afternoon of falling needles. Look, there falls a dew drop and glides down the curved belly of time.

Quotations In the whole world, it is only Goethe who compares with Rabindranath Tagore in terms of literary diversity. If Bengali as a language has any chance to flourish, that will be in Bangladesh and not in West Bengal.

Publications

Ray has more than fifty titles to his credit, including one book of poetry, starting with Prekshita, his first book published in 1945. His works have been translated into many languages. Some of the titles are given below : Prekshita (tr. Perspectives)(Its focus was the decadence of modern English literature.) Moumachi-tantra Sahitya Chinta (tr. Thoughts on Literature), 1956. Kothara Tomar Mon (poetry) M. N. Roy Philosopher-Revolutionary, edited by Sibnarayan Ray, Calcutta, 1959. Nayoker Mrityu (tr. Death of the Hero), 1960. Probasher Journal (tr. Journal written while abroad) Radicalism I have seen Bengal's Face (ed.) 1973. Gandhi, India and the World (edited) Kobir Nirbashon O Onanyana Bhawna (tr. Expulsion of the Poet and Other Issues), 1973. In quest of freedom - A study of the life and works of M. N. Roy The University of Man: The Message of Romain Rolland Vietnam Seen from East and West In Man's Own Image (co-author Ellen Roy)

Essays "Ideologies and the Alienated Writer" in Society and the Writer: Essays on Literature in Modern Asia, edited by Wang Gungwu, M. Guerrero, and D. Marr, pp. 221–37. Canberra: Research School of Pacific Studies, The Australian National University, 1981. "A literary revolution in India", Times Literaray Supplement, August 1957. "Decline of the Indian Intellectuals", Quest, Octo–Dec 1958. "Eastwind Westwind", Soviet Survey, April–June 1959. "Saratchandra Chottopadhya", The Radical Humanist, 22 June 1952. "Ezra Pound and the Artists's Dilemma", The Radical Humanist, September 1952. "Ezra Pound", The Calcutta Review, May 1943. "Albert Camus", Quest, April–June 1960. The Sikh Movement, in A New Renaissance. "Shakespearian Variations on the Theme of Apartheid" by Sibnarayan Ray, in Calcutta Essays on Shakespeare, Ed. Amalendu Bose.

Awards and recognition 1942 Regina Guha Gold Medal, Calcutta University. Bertrand Russell commented that

Poet Edith Sitwell said