LETTER FROM Lori McDougall, a journalist

Dear Mr. Sarkar,

I am writing at the suggestion to Soma Sengupta of Sankhita Gender Resource Centre in Kolkata.  She was kind enough to pass on your name when I consulted her today in regard to a magazine feature that I am writing for a British magazine called Woman’s Journal.  The topic of the article is witchcraft-related murders in West Bengal.  My focus district will be Malda, but the situation in Bankura will also be of much interest.  I am interested in exploring the gender and legal implications of this ongoing situation.

Soma tells me that you have written some papers on this topic.  Would it be possible to meet?  I would be most interested in your views.  Are you ever in Calcutta?  My deadline is 31 August, but I hope to do a fair amount of background research before visiting Malda from 17-20 August to collect information for his story.  I don’t have your telephone number, so may I ask to call or fax and I will call you back instantly to discuss a possible meeting?

Many thanks for your kind information of this matter.  I look forward to speaking with you soon.

Sincerely,

Lori McDougall.

TWO BOOKS OF LAKSHMINDRA KUMAR SARKAR

LAKSHMINDRA KUMAR SARKAR’S

AKHYATO GAYER PROKHYATO SHILPI (RENOWNED ARTIST OF AN UNKNOWN VILLAGE)

Padmasree

Gambhir Singh Mura

and

Chotanagpur’s

Sindhubala Devi

(Chyapi)

Picture:  Pranab Sikdar

Price:  Rs. 25/-

Padmashree Awarded Gambhir Singh Mura of Chou Dance and State Music, Drama Academy awarded Sindhubala Devi who is called Chotanagpur ‘bulbul’ (Chyapi).  Those who deal with folk culture, they know these personalities.  Mr. Lakshmindra Kumar Sarkar has researched on these two personalities very well.  He has collected many incidents of their lives.  He came to know the grief and anger of them.  There are also comments of some culture-minded people who know them well.  They are Subodh Basu Roy, Birinchi Kumar Dey, Dr. Shishir Mazumdar, Sraboni Chakraborty (researcher), G.M. Abubkar, Sanjib Sarkar etc.  Many pictures.  You will come to know the close relationship of the author with them.  This book is important to the researchers, it is equally important to the students and ordinary people.

To get the book, you need not pay in advance.  Please enlist yourself by sending your name and address.

There is a special rebate for the students of research institutions.

Childrens’ Books

Lakshmindra Kumar Sarkar’s

Still alive 116-year-old

SWADESHI DAKATH MOHAN (FREEDOM FIGHTER DACOIT MOHAN)

Price:  Rs. 20/-

Picture:  Debabrata Ghosh.

There are different types of pictures of Mohan Kheria in every pages.  The children would love to read it, and their parents would also think about Mohan.  After spending so many years of his life in this country, he is having difficult times in his old age.  He has been marked by the British as a ‘dacoit’ as he gave the side of the poor people.  The writer narrates the story of the dacoit in good and bad times.  Along with the author, Mohan Kisku also throws light on some remarkable incidents.

Contact:

R.B. Prakashani, 19/7A Pottery Road, Kolkata -15; P.O. Tangra.

Registered Office:  36/17, C.N. Ray Road, Kolkata – 700 039.

Branch Office:  Khatra, Vivekananda Road, Bankura – 722 140; opposite to Kansai Press.

International Bengali Language Movement Day observed at Khatra on 21st February

L.K. Sarkar is the first man at Khatra, who introduce and starting International Bengali Language Movement Day observed on 21^st February every year from 1996.  L.K. Sarkar through his foundation organization Sahitya-Sanskriti-Basar.  He organized a rally to communicate the Khatra Educated people about Bengali language movement in Bangladesh.  From that year, that particular date (21^st February) every year rally move Khatra area with floating mugic team lecture, etc. and banner with poster are performing.  Members’ of Sahitya-Sanskrity-Basar and Manimela Children also joint this venture.

THE VILLAGES BECKONED

(by G.V. Nair, Telegraph 22 December 1994)

If you want towork for the uplift of the villagers, the first thing to do is to go and live among them.  “No one could grudge Rabindranath Tagore the right to give this advice, for he himself,  scion of an aristocratic family in Calcutta, pent the larger part of his adult life in villages.  From Vidyasagar downwards , Bengal has seen a stream of men and women work, leave the cities to work in rural ideals are held at a low premium ; and sometimes, it is a flood, as in the late sixties, the Golden Age of revolution.

Lakshmindra Kumar Sarkar and his wife Srabani, who could be seen sitting in a tiny bookshop, “R.B. Sarkar  Prakashani” at Khatra, a small town wedged between Bankura and Purulia districts, have kept alive this tradition to this day.  Selling books comes secondary, a way to earn a frugal livelihood.  The main concern is their work among the tribal population.

The bookshop also happened to be the office of the Khatra Adibasi Culture and Development Centre, there these two might be found in the bookshop surrounded by a group of young Santals walking along dusty village paths talking to young adibasis.

Mr. Lakshmindra Sarkar,  a journalist from Calcutta till two years ago, had met Sraboni in one of his frequent visits to tribal villages in the Bengal-Bihar border area.  She was doing research for her doctorate on the ‘Bengali Influence on Adibasi Culture,’ marriage soon followed.  Editing the first adibasi newspaper Adibasi Sambad, and writing two books one a chronicle of the antidan movement in Purulia and the other a history of the Santali language and literature, are the high watermark of Lakshmindra’s interaction with the tribal life and culture.  He must have found the combination of daily grind in a city newspaper and work among the adibasis increasingly impossible to sustain.  One morning there appeared a notice one room flat in pottery road “Left for villages, never to return, New address – R. B. Sarkar Prakashani, Khatra, Bankura district.

LETTER OF APPRECIATIO OF ADIBASI SAMBAD AND RARH BANGLA SAMBAD FROM DR. SHYAMAL GUPTA.

Dr. Shyamal Gupta is a judicial magistrate, Khatra Court, P.O. Khatra, district Bankura -722140.  (formerly deputy magistrate, and deputy collector Purulia, formerly judicial magistrate, first class, Howrah, formerly Garhbeta Munsif court, Garhbeta, formerly member of W.B. Civil service (executive), formerly member of W.B. Audit and Accounts Service, gold medalist ‘distance educationist’, Shiromoni award winner ,Rabindra Gyan Tirtha, academic counselor ,Indira Gandhi National Open University, Advisor of Indian Board of Alternative Medicine, member of the Indian Society of Criminology, International Holistic Medical Society, Council of Sex Educatoin and Parenthood, Indian Society for Natural Family Planning.

Dr. Shyamal Gupta,

Judicial Magistrate,

Khatra Court , P.O. Khatra,

District Bankura- 722140.

West Bengal                                                                                                                                       Dated:  18^th April, 1998.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I have an opportunity to go through some old copies of ADIBASI SAMBAD & RARH BANGLA SAMBAD (‘Bengali Newspapers), edited by Sri Lakshmindra Kumar Sarkar of Khatra and found those most interesting and inspirational for the development of Tribal Communities and local people of Bankura/Purulia area.  Aid and assistance, support and strength from all corners, specially from the local elites are highly needed for its continuous publication and elevation.  Unless the local people, tribal communities are motivated and awakened over their needs and problems, the real purpose of such publication will not be achieved.

I wish the success of both these newspapers and hope for continuous struggle of tribal communities for its excellence.  Finally , I wholeheartedly appreciate the yeoman’s service and sacrifice of the editor.

Shyamal  Gupta

Judicial Magistrate, Khatra.