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Samar Sen | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1916-10-10)10 October 1916 |
| Died | 23 August 1987(1987-08-23) (aged 70) |
| Language | Bengali |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Citizenship | India |
| Education | Graduate |
| Alma mater | Scottish Church College, at theUniversity of Calcutta |
Samar Sen (Bengali:সমর সেন; 10 October 1916 – 23 August 1987) was a prominent IndianBengali poet and journalist in the post-Independence era.[1][2][3]
Samar Sen was a graduate of theScottish Church College, at theUniversity of Calcutta.[citation needed]
Sen was born in a well-knownVaidya[4] family. Sen's grandfather,Dinesh Chandra Sen, was a well-known writer and member of theBangiya Sahitya Parishad. His father, Arun Sen, an academic, noted, "I am the son of an illustrious father and the father of an illustrious son!" Samar Sen, along withSubhash Mukhopadhyay, belonged to the second generation of modern Bengali poets. He gave up poetry fairly early, however, and devoted the better part of his later life to Marxist politics and journalism. He was the editor of the leftist newspaperFrontier, published fromKolkata, which was banned during the period of theIndian Emergency (1975 -1977) declared by Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi.[1]
Samar Sen, like his poetic contemporaries, grew up under the gigantic impact ofRabindranath Tagore. Yet Sen was perhaps the first to 'break' with the lyrical romanticism of Tagore and introduce "modern" concerns (disenchantment, decadence, avant-garde urban perspectives) into Bengali verse. Through his work, the influence of French and Englishmodernism was first translated into Bengali verse; at the same time, the convergence of modernism andMarxism was evident early on in his poetic thought and style. His poetry was somewhat over-shadowed by his very original journalism, produced while he served as editor of the legendaryFrontier. He was also known for his translations ofSoviet literature; he spent nearly five years inMoscow working as a translator, although later in life he became doubtful about bureaucratic Communism.[5]Samar Sen also edited the radical journalNow, publishing a galaxy of prominent scholars and writers, includingJoan Robinson andSatyajit Ray; his deputy editor was the playwright and actorUtpal Dutt. In his private life Sen was a man with a wry sense of humour, sometimes acerbic but often lethally accurate. He never regretted the sacrifice of what could have been a comfortable material life, supported by conventional measures of bourgeois success. His loyalty was always to the downtrodden. Some critics mourn his abandonment of poetry as a loss to Indian literature, reasoning that his acute perception and extraordinary command of languages would have continued to produce memorable verse of lasting significance. Sen decided, however, that poetry was a luxury in a world of gross deprivation and injustice and decided he would instead dedicate himself to agitating on behalf of the poor, regardless of the cost to himself. He remained committed to this cause for the rest of his life, despite experiencing significant poverty himself.
Samar Sen was founder-editor of the weekly magazineFrontier, first published in 1968.
