Charu Chandra Bhattacharya

Charu Chandra Bhattacharya
Born 19 June 1883
South 24 Parganas, Bengal Province, British India
Died 26 August 1961 (aged 78)
Resting place
 Calcutta, Shantiniketan
Occupation Writer, teacher
Parent(s) Basanta Kumar Bhattacharya (father), Menaka Devi

Charu Chandra Bhattacharya (1883–1961) (Bengali: চারুচন্দ্র ভট্টাচার্য) was a prominent science teacher and writer of various scientific articles mainly for children in Bengali.[1] His writings are even popular today.

Early life and career

He was born to Basanta Kumar Bhattacharya (father) and Menaka Devion 29 June 1883 (১৬ আষাঢ়, ১২৯০ in the Bengali calendar). His ancestral house was at Harinavi, South 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India. From childhood, he was an extraordinary student. He passed the "Entrance Examination" with first class from Metropolitan Institution, Calcutta in 1899. In 1901, Bhattacharya stood 12th place in the F. A. examination. He did his graduation (B. A.) with an Honours from Presidency College (then affiliated with the University of Calcutta) in 1903 and Masters (M. A.) from the University of Calcutta in 1905 in physics. His professional career was started through the post of a Demonstrator at Physics department of Presidency College, later he joined the faculty there. Till 1940, he performed this duty for nearly 35 years. He got Jagadish Chandra Bosu as a teacher when he was a student; and Meghnad Saha, Satyendra Nath Bosu, Shishir Kumar Mitra & Prashanta Chandra Mahalnabish as students when he was a teacher of Presidency College. Another student, Pratul Chandra Gupta once told that, "...he could explain complex matters in a very simple way."

Personal life

All of his writings are in a simple dialect. He preferred Chalit Bhasha [চলিত ভাষা] than Sadhu Bhasha [সাধু ভাষা] while writing. Bhattacharya died on 26 August 1961.

Contributions

As a writer and publisher

In 1939, he joined in the publication department of Visva Bharati [বিশ্বভারতী], Shantiniketan. At that time, the world was terrified by the Second World War & the department had not sufficient money. But, even in this situation, Bhattacharya dared to publish the Rabindra Rochonaboli [রবীন্দ্র রচনাবলী] (Collected works by Rabindranath) and finally did it with Prashanta Chandra Mahalnabish, though these books were not of much demand. Later, when Rabindranath Tagore planned to publish BishwaVidyaSongroho [বিশ্ববিদ্যাসংগ্রহ] and LokShiksha [লোকশিক্ষা] series of books to promote literacy, Bhattacharya performed this task. First book of LokShiksha was BishwaPorichoy by Tagore himself, which the poet dedicated to Satyendra Nath Bosu. In 1943, after two years of death of Tagore, Bhattacharya started writing more books of the BishwaVidyaSongroho series. His first book was about the great scientist: Jagadish Chandra Bosu [জগদীশচন্দ্র বসু] and named as JagadishChandrer Abishkar [জগদীশচন্দ্রের আবিষ্কার] (ভাদ্র, ১৩৫০ in Bengali calendar). LokShiksha series consisted of 10 books, out of which 5 were of science, and out of nearly 150 books of BishwaVidyaSongroho, around 50 books were of science. Pulin Bihari Sen [পুলিনবিহারী সেন], who was among the pioneers of Bengali publication, once told that,

“ ...The main achievement of him is that, he has created a new hope in culture of science in Bengali by motivating a group of authors in this way (...তাঁর প্রধান কৃতিত্ব এই যে, তিনি এক লেখকগোষ্ঠীকে এই পথে প্রবর্তিত করে বাংলা ভাষায় বিজ্ঞান চর্চা সম্বন্ধে আশার সৃষ্টি করতে পেরেছিলেন।).[2] ”

He can be thought of as a successful successor to Jagadananda Roy [জগদানন্দ রায়] & Ramendra Sundar Tribedi [রামেন্দ্রসুন্দর ত্রিবেদী]. His first book on popular science was Nabya Bijnan [নব্য বিজ্ঞান] (১৩২৫ in Bengali calendar). Later, in 1926, his second book Ban(g)alir Khadyo [বাঙালীর খাদ্য] was published.

He had a deep connection with Bongiya Bijnan Parishad [বঙ্গীয় বিজ্ঞান পরিষদ], founded by Satyendra Nath Bosu. He was an active member of the first executive committee. He was elected the vice-president from 1949 to 1958, president during 1960–61. His article, Acharya JagadishChandra Bosu [আচার্য জগদীশচন্দ্র বসু] was published in the first issue of the famous magazine, Jnan O Bijnan [জ্ঞান ও বিজ্ঞান], published from the organisation. Like Visva Bharati, this organisation also had LokBijnan [লোকবিজ্ঞান] and Bijnan Probesh [বিজ্ঞান প্রবেশ] series. First book of LokBijnan series was Bhattacharya's Toriter Avyutthan [তড়িতের অভ্যুত্থান] in 1949. The first 4 books of the Bijnan Probesh series were also written by him: Praromvo [প্রারম্ভ], PodarthoVidya [পদার্থবিদ্যা] in 3 volumes; all of these were published in 1949. In 31 December 1956, he was included in the trustee of Bongiya Bijnan Parishad.

After the demise of Rajshekhar Bosu [রাজশেখর বসু], he delivered the First Rajshekhar Bosu Memorial Lecture, which later is published in a book entitled Poromanur Neucleus in 1962. A few more books in this context are: Acharya JagadishChandra Bosu [আচার্য জগদীশচন্দ্র বসু] (1938), Boijnanik Abishkarer Kahini [বৈজ্ঞানিক আবিষ্কারের কাহিনী] (1953), Bishwer Upadan [বিশ্বের উপাদান] (১৩৫০ in Bengali calendar), Byadhir Porajoy [ব্যাধির পরাজয়] (১৩৫৬), PodartoVidyar NoboJug (১৩৫৮) [পদার্থবিদ্যার নব যুগ].

As an editor

In first life, Bhattacharya edited a magazine, Beporoya [বেপরোয়া]. Later he edited Bosudhara [বসুধারা] for a long time. Bhandar [ভাণ্ডার], the journal of Samabay Samiti [সমবায় সমিতি] was edited by him (during the Bengali calendar years: ১৩৩৩- ১৩৩৯). This magazine was also edited by Tagore.

As a preceptor

Besides writing on popular science, he wrote 2 textbooks of science for classes VI & VIII of West Bengal Board of Secondary Education [পশ্চিমবঙ্গ মাধ্যমিক শিক্ষা পর্ষৎ]. Bhattacharya contributed in making Bengali terminology a lot. Calcutta University once established a committee regarding this, where Rajshekhar Bosu was the president and Bhattacharya was the secretary. He also helped the Central Government of India regarding various measurement and terminologies of science. His articles are often found in many school level textbooks of literature in West Bengal.

List of articles

See also

References

  1. ↑ India, National Commission for Compilation of History of Sciences in; Academy, Indian National Science; India, National Institute of Sciences of (1989). Indian journal of history of science. National Institute of Sciences of India. Retrieved 12 October 2011.
  2. ↑ From the introduction by Shyamal Chakraborty of Chhotoder Sera Bijnan Rochona Sonkolon~ Charu Chandar Bhattacharya, published from Shishu Sahitya Samsad
  3. ↑ Amitabha Ghosh (5, Nov 1998). Pre-commercial Era of Sound- Recording In India PDF, Indian Journal of History of Science, 34(1), 1999.