Amiya Chakravarty

For film director, seeAmiya Chakravarty (director).

Amiya Chakravarty
Born	Amiya Chandra Chakravarty (1901-04-10)10 April 1901 Serampore,British Raj(nowIndia)
Died	12 June 1986 Santiniketan,West Bengal,India

Amiya Chandra Chakravarty(1901–1986) was an Indian literary critic, academic, and Bengali poet. He was a close associate ofRabindranath Tagore,and edited several books of his poetry. He was also an associate of Gandhi, and an expert on the American catholic writer and monk,Thomas Merton.Chakravarty was honoured for his own poetry with theSahitya Akademi Awardin 1963. He taught literature andcomparative religionin India for nearly a decade and then for more than two decades at universities in England and the U.S. In 1970, he was honoured by the Government of India with thePadma Bhushanaward.

Education and career

He studied inHare School,Calcuttaand graduated fromSt. Columba's College, Hazaribagh,which was then underPatna University.He joinedVisva-Bharati Universityin 1921 as a student. Later, he became a teacher there.

He was literary secretary to Rabindranath Tagore from 1924 to 1933. During this time, he was a close associate of the poet. He was Tagore's travel companion during his tours toEuropeandAmericain 1930 and toIranandIraqin 1932.

He was also a close associate ofMahatma Gandhi,walking with Gandhi in theSalt Marchof 1930.

Following his 1933 journey with Tagore, he left India to study atOxford University,and in 1937 earned aD.Phil.He worked at Oxford as a senior research fellow from 1937 to 1940. During this time, he also taught inSelly Oak CollegeinBirminghamas a lecturer. He moved back to India in 1940 to become a professor of English at theUniversity of Calcutta.

In 1948, Chakravarty moved to the US to join the Department of English inHoward University.He was a visiting fellow in English atYale University,and a fellow of theInstitute for Advanced StudyinPrincetonduring 1950–51.In 1953, he became a professor of Comparative Oriental Religions and Literature,Boston University.He also held professorships atSmith Collegeand later theState University of New Yorkat New Paltz.

He wrote both poetry and prose and a number of articles in journals of India,Englandand the United States. He wrote many verse collections in Bengali, most notable among these areChalo JaiandGhare Pherar Din.His poetry reflects idealism, humanism and a great love of nature and beauty.He was awarded theUnesco Prizefor his book,Chalo Jai.In 1963, he received theSahitya Akademi AwardforGhare Pherar Din.He authored the bookDynasts and the Post-war Age in Poetry,which is a critical work onThomas Hardy's poetry.

Chakravarty met with many of the notable figures of his time, including Jawaharlal Nehru,Albert Schweitzer,Boris Pasternak,Albert Einstein and Thomas Merton.

He visited Merton in November 1966 at theAbbey of GethsemaniinKentucky.Merton later dedicated his book,Zen and the Birds of Appetite(1968), to Chakravarty.

He served as a delegate to the United Nations for India

Chakaravarty edited a number of English translations of Tagore's works. Most well known among these are:A Tagore Reader(1961) andThe Housewarming and other Selected Writings(1965). He was also a consulting editor forThe Asian journal of Thomas MertonbyThomas Merton.

Recognition

• Padma Bhushanfrom the Govt. of India (1970)
• TheDeshikottamafrom Visva-Bharati
• Sahitya Akademi Award(1963)

External links

• Visva-bharati page on Amiya Chakravarty
• Excerpts from a 1993 book on Amiya Chakravarty
• Influence of Baudelaire on Bengali Poetry
• William Penn Lecture by Amiya Chakravarty on Gandhi's work and message (1950)Archived3 March 2016 at theWayback Machine