Gurusaday Dutt
Encyclopedia
Gurusaday Dutt was a civil servant, politician, folklorist, and writer.
of Birasri village in Karimganj sub-division of Sylhet
district, in eastern Bengal (present day Bangladesh
).
Always a brilliant student, he completed his schooling at Minor School which had been set up by his father's elder brother Radhakrishna Dutt Chaudhuri. He completed his Entrance (School Leaving) examination at Government College, Sylhet where he stood 2nd in 1898. He stood 1st in the F.A. examination (prior to Graduate studies) from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1901 and was awarded the Scindia Gold Medal. He went on a Scholarship from the Sylhet Union to Emmanuel College, Cambridge
, UK and then took the Indian Civil service (ICS) examination. He is the first Indian to have stood first in the ICS examination. He also passed the Bar examination with a First Class, and was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn
. He removed Chaudhuri from his surname while at Cambridge.
He repaid the scholarship money to Sylhet Union after working for a few years, so that the Union could help another student from the same district with that money. In 1905, he returned to India and started work as an ICS officer.
, Hooghly
, Pabna
, Bogra
, Jessore, Faridpur
, Comilla
, Dacca, Barisal, Khulna
, Birbhum, Bankura
, Howrah and Mymensingh
, before coming to Calcutta. He was District Magistrate, Mymensingh, Secretary, Industries and Local Self Government and Public Health, and also the Government Chief Whip in the Bengal Legislative Council. From 1930-1933, he was a nominated Member of the Council of State and of the Central Legislative Assembly
(the erstwhile Parliament of British India).
, who became an eminent Social Worker in her own right, was inspired by Gurusaday to start Mahila Samitis (Women’s Institutes) as early as 1913, at Pabna district in British India, where he was then the District Magistrate.
In 1918, he started the first Rural Reconstruction Movement in India in Birbhum. He then extended the movement to several districts where he was subsequently posted, like Bankura, Howrah and Mymensingh. This movement was a bold and unique India that was under British Rule at the time. In fact, he was advised by his senior officer that he should spend time in the Club socializing with other officers rather than pursuing activities to promote rural development and social welfare.
He was the first amongst Civilian officers to set an example of the dignity of labour, by manually working with a group of followers to eradicate the water hyacinth, a plant that covers ponds and makes water unusable. He would also re-excavate silted irrigation canals with a band of workers. In those days, it was unthinkable for a Magistrate to work manually with common people.
In 1922, he started a Society for co-operative irrigation in Bankura, which he later extended to Mymensingh and Birbhum.
He headed the Indian delegation as a representative of the British Indian Government at a meeting of the Agricultural Institute at Rome in 1924.
In 1925, he lost his wife at a very early age. He established the Saroj Nalini Dutt
Memorial Association, in February 1925, as a Central Training Institute for training crafts and basic education to provide livelihood to women who had been deprived from receiving formal education in early life and lived at the mercy of relatives. He thought of non-formal education many years before it was officially started. His pioneering work was started when most women in India were still behind the purdah (veil), and would not dare to come out in the world to create a future for themselves. This organization became the apex organization for Mahila Samitis (Women’s Institutes) in Eastern India, and was later affiliated to the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) and the International Alliance of Women.
In October 1925, he started Bangalakshmi, a monthly magazine that is still published.
In 1929, he started a magazine called Gramer Daak that dealt with agrarian and rural matters of concern.
It was at Mymensingh that he started a Folk Dance Revival Society. He revived the Jaari dance, being inspired by the secular nature of the dance and its spirit of unifying both Hindus and Muslims, at a time when communal tensions were running high.
In 1930, he discovered the Raibeshe folk dance, a martial dance of un-divided Bengal, in Birbhum. He studied the origins of the dance and discovered its rich cultural past and its connection with the army of Raja Man Singh of Rajasthan. Subsequently, he also revived the Kaathi, Dhamail, Baul, Jhumur, Brata and Dhali dances from different parts of un-divided Bengal.
In 1931, he met Cecil Sharpe, who revived Morris dancing in England, when he visited London. He also attended All-England Folk Dance & Folk Song Festival. This inspired him to set up the Bangiya Palli Sampad Raksha Samiti (translated as Cultural Heritage Protection Society of Bengal) on his return.
In 1932, he started the Bratachari movement. In his words in The Bratachari Synthesis, first published in 1937,
In its aim to re-establish life on its fundamental unity, while preserving the inherent values of the individual and regional diversities, the Bratachari movement relies on a system of simultaneous physical, moral and spiritual culture with the threefold objectives of
i) shaping of life in accordance with a fully balanced ideal comprising the five Bratas or ultimate ideals which are of universal application, and adopting a course for their pursuit for the integration of the culture of the body and the soul, and of the thought, speech, and behaviour;
ii) the pursuit of rhythmic discipline for bringing about unification, harmony and joy as well as inner transformation; and
iii) bringing men and women of every country in touch with the regional culture of their own soil and with the arts and crafts, dances and songs, and customs and manners of their own region, thus providing a natural cultural medium for their healthy all-round growth.
By this threefold sadhana (devotion), the Bratachari system seeks to enable men and women in each land to become, simultaneously, truly national and truly international.
In 1934, the Bangiya Palli Sampad Raksha Samiti was renamed as The Bengal Bratachari Society.
In 1936, he started a magazine Banglar Shakti for The Bengal Bratachari Society.
Gurusaday Dutt did extensive research in the field of Folk art, crafts and folk dances of Bengal. He collected objects of folk art and crafts from the countryside. He had great compassion for the artists and craftsmen who created unique art objects without any training or technical knowledge. Folk art was neglected and not appreciated in those days. He wrote in different journals about the wealth and beauty of folk art and left his collection on his death to The Bengal Bratachari Society.
, which he wrote. Gurusaday Dutt also wrote much about the Bratachari movement and village development. In 1936 he started publishing a monthly magazine named Banglar Shakti (The Force of Bengal).
and Lord Birkenhead, then Secretary of State for India
in the British Government, had to answer angry questions. British Parliamentarians wanted Dutt, referred to as this Indian officer, punished for having the audacity to question a British officer’s action. As a punitive measure he was transferred out of Howrah to Mymensingh.
His stay in Mymensingh was also cut short when he failed to give orders as required by him by the British Indian Government to deal with protesters against The Salt Act imposed by the Government. M.K.Gandhi
had called for a satyagraha
against this Act. He was transferred to Birbhum by telegram (then the fastest means of communication), which was an unprecedented way of dealing with an ICS officer in those days.
His portrait adorns the walls of Mahajati Sadan, Calcutta.
Biographies have been written on his life and works in Bangladesh by Shankar Prasad De, Amitabha Chowdhury, Shaikat Azgar, Naresh Banerjee and Habib Ahmed Dutta Chowdhury.
A Medal in his honour, known as “The Gurusaday Dutt Medal” along with a Cash prize, was endowed by his grandson, Devsaday Dutt, at the University of Calcutta, which is given to the student who stands First in the Post-Graduate Examination in Geography, from 2008 onwards.
Gurusaday Dutt Scholarships are also being awarded by the Sylhet Union(Srihatta Sammilani), Kolkata for brilliant students pursuing post-graduate studies.
His articles initially published in the 1930s in journals such as Prabashi, Banglar Shakti, Bangalakshmi and Aloka (in Bengali), have been republished in a book entitled Banglar Lokashipla o Lokanritya in August 2008.
Early Life and education
He was the son of the Ramkrishna Dutt Chaudhuri and Anandamayee Debi. His father was the zamindarZamindar
A Zamindar or zemindar , was an aristocrat, typically hereditary, who held enormous tracts of land and ruled over and taxed the bhikaaris who lived on batavaslam. Over time, they took princely and royal titles such as Maharaja , Raja , Nawab , and Mirza , Chowdhury , among others...
of Birasri village in Karimganj sub-division of Sylhet
Sylhet District
The district of Sylhet consists 6754 mosques, 453 temples, 96 churches and four Buddhist temples.-Places of Interests:-Historical:#The Shrine of Hazrat Shah Jalal#The Shrine of Hazrat Shah Paran#Shahi Eidgah#Gour Govinda Fort#Kean Bridge...
district, in eastern Bengal (present day Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
).
Always a brilliant student, he completed his schooling at Minor School which had been set up by his father's elder brother Radhakrishna Dutt Chaudhuri. He completed his Entrance (School Leaving) examination at Government College, Sylhet where he stood 2nd in 1898. He stood 1st in the F.A. examination (prior to Graduate studies) from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1901 and was awarded the Scindia Gold Medal. He went on a Scholarship from the Sylhet Union to Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
Emmanuel College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay on the site of a Dominican friary...
, UK and then took the Indian Civil service (ICS) examination. He is the first Indian to have stood first in the ICS examination. He also passed the Bar examination with a First Class, and was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn
Gray's Inn
The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...
. He removed Chaudhuri from his surname while at Cambridge.
He repaid the scholarship money to Sylhet Union after working for a few years, so that the Union could help another student from the same district with that money. In 1905, he returned to India and started work as an ICS officer.
Career
He served with distinction in the Bengal cadre which in 1905 included the present the Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa in India. He served in various capacities in the districts of ArrahArrah
Arrah is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district in the state of Bihar, India. The actual name of Arrah is Ara but it was misspelt by the British and now corrected to Ara but still known as Arrah in many records. It is the district headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near the...
, Hooghly
Hooghly District
Hooghly district is one of the districts of the state of West Bengal in India. It can alternatively be spelt Hoogli or Hugli. The district is named after the Hooghly River.The headquarters of the district are at Chinsura...
, Pabna
Pabna
Pabna is a town in Rajshahi Division ofBangladesh and the administrative capital of eponymous Pabna District. It is located on the north bank of Padma river and has a population of about 138,000.-Name:...
, Bogra
Bogra
Bogra is a town, and one of the oldest towns in northern Bangladesh. It is a centre of commerce and trade within the Bogra District and located under the Rajshahi Division. Bogra is sometimes described as the nerve centre of Northern Bangladesh. Amongst many notable activities, it has been hosting...
, Jessore, Faridpur
Faridpur District
Faridpur is a district in central Bangladesh. It is a part of the Dhaka Division. Faridpur District has a population of over 1.7 million people and is situated on the banks of the Padma river . It is bordered by Madaripur, Narail, Rajbari, Magura, Shariatpur, Gopalgonj, Dhaka and Manikganj...
, Comilla
Comilla
Comilla is a city in south-eastern Bangladesh, located along the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway. It is the administrative center of the Comilla District, part of the Chittagong Division. The Eastern Wing of Bangladesh Highway Police is located in Comilla....
, Dacca, Barisal, Khulna
Khulna
Khulna is the third largest city in Bangladesh. It is located on the banks of the Rupsha and Bhairab rivers in Khulna District. It is the divisional headquarters of Khulna Division and a major industrial and commercial center. It has a seaport named Mongla on its outskirts, 38 km from Khulna...
, Birbhum, Bankura
Bankura
Bankura is a city and a municipality in Bankura District in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bankura District.-Etymology:...
, Howrah and Mymensingh
Mymensingh
Mymensingh , pronounced moy-mon-shing-haw, is a city of Bangladesh situated on the river Brahmaputra. It is the headquarters of the administrative unit Mymensingh District. Mymensingh is the anglicized pronunciation of the original name Momenshahi, referring to a ruler called Momen Shah. The cadet...
, before coming to Calcutta. He was District Magistrate, Mymensingh, Secretary, Industries and Local Self Government and Public Health, and also the Government Chief Whip in the Bengal Legislative Council. From 1930-1933, he was a nominated Member of the Council of State and of the Central Legislative Assembly
Central Legislative Assembly
The Central Legislative Assembly was a legislature for India created by the Government of India Act 1919 from the former Imperial Legislative Council, implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms...
(the erstwhile Parliament of British India).
Contributions to social work
From his youth, he started to take active interest in social service and participated in helping in fire-fighting and assisting in relief work during floods and other natural disasters. He was one of the social reformers of the first half of the nineteenth century who thought independently about various avenues of service to the rural poor. He realized that in order to establish any progressive idea on firm foundation it was necessary to educate women and make them self-reliant. Saroj Nalini DuttSaroj Nalini Dutt
Saroj Nalini Dutt, MBE, was an Indian feminist and social reformer.-Background:Saroj Nalini was born in her father’s country house in Bandel, near Hooghly, in Bengal. Her parents were Brajendranath De, ICS and Nagendra Nandini Dé...
, who became an eminent Social Worker in her own right, was inspired by Gurusaday to start Mahila Samitis (Women’s Institutes) as early as 1913, at Pabna district in British India, where he was then the District Magistrate.
In 1918, he started the first Rural Reconstruction Movement in India in Birbhum. He then extended the movement to several districts where he was subsequently posted, like Bankura, Howrah and Mymensingh. This movement was a bold and unique India that was under British Rule at the time. In fact, he was advised by his senior officer that he should spend time in the Club socializing with other officers rather than pursuing activities to promote rural development and social welfare.
He was the first amongst Civilian officers to set an example of the dignity of labour, by manually working with a group of followers to eradicate the water hyacinth, a plant that covers ponds and makes water unusable. He would also re-excavate silted irrigation canals with a band of workers. In those days, it was unthinkable for a Magistrate to work manually with common people.
In 1922, he started a Society for co-operative irrigation in Bankura, which he later extended to Mymensingh and Birbhum.
He headed the Indian delegation as a representative of the British Indian Government at a meeting of the Agricultural Institute at Rome in 1924.
In 1925, he lost his wife at a very early age. He established the Saroj Nalini Dutt
Saroj Nalini Dutt
Saroj Nalini Dutt, MBE, was an Indian feminist and social reformer.-Background:Saroj Nalini was born in her father’s country house in Bandel, near Hooghly, in Bengal. Her parents were Brajendranath De, ICS and Nagendra Nandini Dé...
Memorial Association, in February 1925, as a Central Training Institute for training crafts and basic education to provide livelihood to women who had been deprived from receiving formal education in early life and lived at the mercy of relatives. He thought of non-formal education many years before it was officially started. His pioneering work was started when most women in India were still behind the purdah (veil), and would not dare to come out in the world to create a future for themselves. This organization became the apex organization for Mahila Samitis (Women’s Institutes) in Eastern India, and was later affiliated to the Associated Country Women of the World (ACWW) and the International Alliance of Women.
In October 1925, he started Bangalakshmi, a monthly magazine that is still published.
In 1929, he started a magazine called Gramer Daak that dealt with agrarian and rural matters of concern.
It was at Mymensingh that he started a Folk Dance Revival Society. He revived the Jaari dance, being inspired by the secular nature of the dance and its spirit of unifying both Hindus and Muslims, at a time when communal tensions were running high.
In 1930, he discovered the Raibeshe folk dance, a martial dance of un-divided Bengal, in Birbhum. He studied the origins of the dance and discovered its rich cultural past and its connection with the army of Raja Man Singh of Rajasthan. Subsequently, he also revived the Kaathi, Dhamail, Baul, Jhumur, Brata and Dhali dances from different parts of un-divided Bengal.
In 1931, he met Cecil Sharpe, who revived Morris dancing in England, when he visited London. He also attended All-England Folk Dance & Folk Song Festival. This inspired him to set up the Bangiya Palli Sampad Raksha Samiti (translated as Cultural Heritage Protection Society of Bengal) on his return.
In 1932, he started the Bratachari movement. In his words in The Bratachari Synthesis, first published in 1937,
In its aim to re-establish life on its fundamental unity, while preserving the inherent values of the individual and regional diversities, the Bratachari movement relies on a system of simultaneous physical, moral and spiritual culture with the threefold objectives of
i) shaping of life in accordance with a fully balanced ideal comprising the five Bratas or ultimate ideals which are of universal application, and adopting a course for their pursuit for the integration of the culture of the body and the soul, and of the thought, speech, and behaviour;
ii) the pursuit of rhythmic discipline for bringing about unification, harmony and joy as well as inner transformation; and
iii) bringing men and women of every country in touch with the regional culture of their own soil and with the arts and crafts, dances and songs, and customs and manners of their own region, thus providing a natural cultural medium for their healthy all-round growth.
By this threefold sadhana (devotion), the Bratachari system seeks to enable men and women in each land to become, simultaneously, truly national and truly international.
In 1934, the Bangiya Palli Sampad Raksha Samiti was renamed as The Bengal Bratachari Society.
In 1936, he started a magazine Banglar Shakti for The Bengal Bratachari Society.
Gurusaday Dutt did extensive research in the field of Folk art, crafts and folk dances of Bengal. He collected objects of folk art and crafts from the countryside. He had great compassion for the artists and craftsmen who created unique art objects without any training or technical knowledge. Folk art was neglected and not appreciated in those days. He wrote in different journals about the wealth and beauty of folk art and left his collection on his death to The Bengal Bratachari Society.
Contributions to art and culture
Gurusaday Dutt was mostly known for his interest and contributions to Bengal's folk art, folk dance and folk music. He started a number of organisations and societies aimed at preserving the elements of folk culture. He spent a lifetime collecting and studying art objects and handiwork from the remotest corners of undivided rural Bengal collecting items of folk art such as Kalighat paintings, patuas’ scrolls, embroidered kanthas, terracotta panels, stone sculptures, wooden carvings, dolls and toys, moulds used for making patterns on sweets or mango-paste etc. Most of the several thousand specimens of folk art and craft he collected, along with other folk artefacts, are on display at the Gurusaday Museum in Thakurpur in the suburbs of Kolkata. Gurusaday Dutt also wrote extensively on folk culture. Rabindranath Tagore and C.F. Andrews wrote in the foreword of the biography of his wife, Saroj Nalini DuttSaroj Nalini Dutt
Saroj Nalini Dutt, MBE, was an Indian feminist and social reformer.-Background:Saroj Nalini was born in her father’s country house in Bandel, near Hooghly, in Bengal. Her parents were Brajendranath De, ICS and Nagendra Nandini Dé...
, which he wrote. Gurusaday Dutt also wrote much about the Bratachari movement and village development. In 1936 he started publishing a monthly magazine named Banglar Shakti (The Force of Bengal).
Controversies
His fearless independence and indomitable spirit of nationalism brought him into conflict with the British Government on more than one occasion. In 1928, at Howrah, in connection with the Bamangachi Firing case, he condemned the firing on a crowd of protesters by the police led by a British officer. The matter was raised in the British House of LordsHouse of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
and Lord Birkenhead, then Secretary of State for India
Secretary of State for India
The Secretary of State for India, or India Secretary, was the British Cabinet minister responsible for the government of India and the political head of the India Office...
in the British Government, had to answer angry questions. British Parliamentarians wanted Dutt, referred to as this Indian officer, punished for having the audacity to question a British officer’s action. As a punitive measure he was transferred out of Howrah to Mymensingh.
His stay in Mymensingh was also cut short when he failed to give orders as required by him by the British Indian Government to deal with protesters against The Salt Act imposed by the Government. M.K.Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
had called for a satyagraha
Satyagraha
Satyagraha , loosely translated as "insistence on truth satya agraha soul force" or "truth force" is a particular philosophy and practice within the broader overall category generally known as nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. The term "satyagraha" was conceived and developed by Mahatma...
against this Act. He was transferred to Birbhum by telegram (then the fastest means of communication), which was an unprecedented way of dealing with an ICS officer in those days.
Organisations founded
- Mymensingh Folk Dance and Folk Music Society (1929)
- Pallisampad Raksha Samiti (1931)
- Bratachari Lokanritya Samiti (1932)
- South India Bratachari Society (1932)
- Sarbabharatiya Bratachari Society etc.
- In 1941 he also set up the Bratachari village(Bratacharigram) near Calcutta, and the Bratachari Janashiksha Pratishthan. The Bratachari movement founded by Gurusaday Dutt (from vrata, vow) was a movement for spiritual and social improvement. The movement aimed at creating a sense of world citizenship as well as national awareness among people, irrespective of caste, religion, sex and age. The movement aimed to nurture the mind and the body and to encourage people to work for national and individual improvement through encouraging traditional and folk culture, especially folk dance and folk song. The bratacharis, or followers of the movement, pledged themselves to build their moral fibre and serve the country on the five principles of knowledge, labour, truth, unity and joy. They aimed at developing the mind and body through dance as well as by undertaking to perform good deeds. The Bratachari movement did not catch on all over India and slowly died away after the death of its founder. In 2011, the Mamata Banerjee Government has again made Bratachari education compulsory in Primary schools in West Bengal, after the Marxist Communist Government had withdrawn it from the School curicullum in 1984.
- Gurusaday Museum (1961).
Publications
Gurusaday Dutt wrote many books and articles, which are listed below. The latest book to be published is "Banglar Lokashilpa o Lokanritya" (in Bengali), which is a collection of his essays and articles on Folk Art and Folk Dances of Bengal in various magazines between 1928 and 1941(his death), that were painstakingly obtained from the old magazines at Bangiya Sahitya Parishad's library by his grandson Devsaday Dutt and grand daughter-in-law Priyadarshini Dutt. The book has been published by Subhromani De and Subhadra De of Chhatim Books in 2008.- Bhajar Banshi (1922) (in Bengali) (A book of rhymes for children)
- Palli Sangskar (in Bengali) (1925)
- Village Reconstruction (1925)
- Agricultural Organisation and Rural Reconstruction in Bengal (1919)
- Ganer Saji (in Bengali) (1932)
- Indian Folk Dance and Folklore Movement (in Bengali) (1933)
- Bratachari Synthesis (in Bengali) (1937)
- Patuya Sangit (in Bengali) (1939)
- Bratacharir Marmakatha (in Bengali) (1940)
- A Woman of India (1941)
- Bratachari: Its Aim and Meaning (1942)
- The Folk Dances of Bengal (1954)
- Shrihatter Lokasangit (in Bengali) (1966)
- Folk Arts and Crafts of Bengal (1990)
- Art of Kantha (1995)
- Banglar Lokashilpa o Lokanritya (in Bengali) (Calcutta: Chatim Books, 2008)
- Goraey Golod (in Bengali)
- Gramer Kaajer ka kha Ga(in Bengali)
- Saroj Nalini
- Palli Sanskar O Sangathan(in Bengali)
- Paaglamir Puthi(in Bengali)
- Purir Mahathwa(in Bengali)
- Gaaner Saaji(in Bengali)
- Banglar Samrik Krira(in Bengali)
- Chaander Buri(in Bengali)
- Bratachari Shakhaa(in Bengali)
- Bratachari Marmakatha(in Bengali)
- Patua Sangeet(in Bengali)
- Bratachari Parichoy(in Bengali)
- Srihotter Lokageeti(in Bengali)
- Banglar Bir Jodha Raebeshe(in Bengali)
Commemoration
After he died in 1941 - Ballygunge Store Road - was named after him.His portrait adorns the walls of Mahajati Sadan, Calcutta.
Biographies have been written on his life and works in Bangladesh by Shankar Prasad De, Amitabha Chowdhury, Shaikat Azgar, Naresh Banerjee and Habib Ahmed Dutta Chowdhury.
A Medal in his honour, known as “The Gurusaday Dutt Medal” along with a Cash prize, was endowed by his grandson, Devsaday Dutt, at the University of Calcutta, which is given to the student who stands First in the Post-Graduate Examination in Geography, from 2008 onwards.
Gurusaday Dutt Scholarships are also being awarded by the Sylhet Union(Srihatta Sammilani), Kolkata for brilliant students pursuing post-graduate studies.
His articles initially published in the 1930s in journals such as Prabashi, Banglar Shakti, Bangalakshmi and Aloka (in Bengali), have been republished in a book entitled Banglar Lokashipla o Lokanritya in August 2008.