Gurusaday Dutt

Gurusaday Dutt
Gurusaday Dutt
Born	10 May 1882 (1882-05-10) Birasri, Karimganj, Assam Province, British India
Died	25 June 1941 (1941-06-26) (aged 59) Calcutta, India
Occupation	Civilian, folklorist
Spouse(s)	Saroj Nalini Dutt (nee Dé)
Children	1

Gurusaday Dutt (Bengali: গুরুসদয় দত্ত) (1882–1941) (Bengali: ১২৮৭-১৩৪৮) was a civil servant, folklorist, and writer. He was the founder of the Bratachari Movement in the 1930s.

Early life and education

Dutt, born to Ramkrishna Dutta Chaudhuri and Anandamayee Debi, was a member of the zamindari family of Birasri (বীরশ্রি) village in Karimganj (করিমগঞ্জ) sub-division of Sylhet district, in eastern Bengal (present day Bangladesh). Members of his family were followers of the Vaishnavite sect.

After completing his Entrance examination at Government College, Sylhet, in 1898, Dutt completed his F.A. examination from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1901. He obtained a scholarship raised by the Sylhet Union to study in Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He passed the Open Competitive Service examination in 1905. Subsequently, he was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn.

He was married to Saroj Nalini Dutt and they had one son.

Career

He was the district magistrate of Mymensingh, director of Industries, chief whip in the Bengal Legislative Council, member of the Council of States and of the Central Legislative Assembly (1930-1933) and secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health, Government of Bengal,

Contributions to social work

Dutt's social work for the development of villages and improvement of agriculture led to the foundation of the first Rural Reconstruction Movement in India in Birbhum in 1918, extending the movement to several districts, such as Bankura, Howrah and Mymensingh. In 1922, he started a society for co-operative irrigation in Bankura, which he later extended to Mymensingh and Birbhum. In 1924, he headed an Indian delegation to a meeting of the Agricultural Institute in Rome. In December, 1929, he started Gramer Daak ('গ্রামের ডাক')that dealt with agrarian and rural matters.

His contribution to the empowerment of mostly rural women was evident in the establishment of the Saroj Nalini Dutt Memorial Association, as a Central Training Institute for training women, deprived of formal education, in the crafts and basic education in February, 1925. In October 1925, he started a monthly magazine entitled, Bangalakshmi ('বঙ্গলক্ষী') to give voice to village women.

Dutt contributed immensely to the development of rural dance forms. In Mymensingh he started a Folk Dance Revival Society, which revived the secular Jaari ('জারি') dance. In 1930, he discovered the Raibeshe ('রায়বেশে') folk dance, a martial dance of un-divided Bengal, in Birbhum. Subsequently, he also revived the Kaathi (কাঠি), Dhamail (ধামায়েল), Baul (বাউল), Jhumur (ঝুমুর), Brata (ব্রত) and Dhali (ঢালি) dances from different parts of undivided Bengal. In 1931, after meeting Cecil Sharp, who had revived Morris dancing in England, he set up the Bangiya Palli Sampad Raksha Samiti (বঙ্গিয় পল্লি রক্ষা সমিতি) (Cultural Heritage Protection Society of Bengal).

All these efforts culminated in the founding of the Bratachari movement in 1932. In 1934, the Bangiya Palli Sampad Raksha Samiti was renamed as The Bengal Bratachari Society. In 1936, he started Banglar Shakti ('বাংলার শক্তি'), a journal on behalf of 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 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 ('পটুয়া') scrolls, embroidered kanthas ('কাঁথা'), terracotta panels, stone sculptures, wooden carvings, dolls and toys, moulds used for making patterns on sweets or mango-paste etc. 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 Dutt, which he wrote. Gurusaday Dutt also wrote a good deal about the Bratachari movement.

Controversies

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 House of Lords in London and as a punitive measure he was transferred to Mymensingh. In Mymensingh he refused to take against those who were protesting against the government's Salt Act, which led to his transfer to Birbhum.

Organisations founded

• Mymensingh Folk Dance and Folk Music Society (1929)
• Pallisampad Raksha Samiti (পল্লি রক্ষা সমিতি);(1931)
• Bratachari Loknritya Samiti (ব্রতচারি লোক নৃত্য সমিতি) (1932)
• South India Bratachari Society (1932)
• Sarbabharatiya Bratachari Society (সর্ব ভারতীয় ব্রতচারি সোসাইটি)
• Bratacharigram (ব্রতচারি গ্রাম) (1941)
• Bratachari Janashiksha Pratishthan (ব্রতচারি জনশিক্ষা প্রতিষ্ঠান) (1941)

Publications

• Bhajar Banshi (ভজার বাঁশি) (1922)
• Palli Sangskar (পল্লী সংস্কার) (1925)
• Village Reconstruction (1925)
• Agricultural Organisation and Rural Reconstruction in Bengal (1919)
• Ganer Saji (গানের সাজি) (1932)
• Indian Folk Dance and Folklore Movement (1933)
• Bratachari Synthesis (in Bengali) (1937)
• Patuya Sangit (পটুয়া সঙ্গীত) (1939)
• Bratacharir Marmakatha (ব্রতচারি মর্মকথা) (1940)
• A Woman of India (1941)
• Bratachari: Its Aim and Meaning (1942)
• The Folk Dances of Bengal (1954)
• Shrihatter Lokasangit (শ্রীহট্টের লোকসঙ্গীত) (1966)
• Folk Arts and Crafts of Bengal (1990)
• Art of Kantha (1995)
• Banglar Lokashilpa o Lokanritya (বাংলার লোকশিল্প ও লোকনৃত্য) (Calcutta: Chatim Books, 2008)
• Goraey Golod (গোরায় গলত)
• Gramer Kaajer ka kha Ga (গ্রামের কাজের ক, খ, গ) (in Bengali)
• Saroj Nalini
• Palli Sanskar O Sangathan (পল্লী সংস্কার ও সংগঠন)
• Paaglamir Puthi (পাগলামির পুঁথি)
• Purir Mahathwa (পুরির মাহাত্ম্য)
• Banglar Samrik Krira (in Bengali)
• Chaander Buri (চাঁদের বুড়ি) (in Bengali)
• Bratachari Shakhaa (ব্রতচারি শাখা)
• Bratachari Parichoy (ব্রতচারি পরিচয়)
• Banglar Bir Jodha Raebeshe (বাংলার বীর যদ্ধা রায়বেশে)

Legacy

A road in Calcutta, a gold medal and a cash prize, awarded to the first ranked student of geography of Calcutta University and a scholarship given by the Sylhet Union (Srihatta Sammilani) (শ্রীহট্ট সম্মিলনী) are named after him. His portrait hangs on a wall of Mahajati Sadan, Calcutta.

See also

• Bratachari movement
• Saroj Nalini Dutt
• Gurusaday Museum

External links

• Official Website of Gurusaday Museum
• Profile of Gurusaday Dutt at Lives Less Forgotten