Gurusaday Dutt

Gurusaday Dutt
Born	10 May 1882 (1882-05-10) Birasri, Karimganj, Assam, British India
Died	25 June 1941 (1941-06-26) (aged 59) (৬০) Calcutta, India
Occupation	Civil servant, folklorist
Spouse(s)	Saroj Nalini Dutt (সরোজ নলিনী দত্ত) (nee De) (দে)
Children	1

Gurusaday Dutt (Bengali: গুরুসদয় দত্ত (চৌধূরী)) (10 May, 1882– 25 June, 1941) (Bengali: ২৮ বৈশাখ, ১২৮৯- ১১ আষাঢ়, 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 (রামকৃষ্ণ দত্ত চৌধূরী) and Anandamayee Debi (আনন্দময়ী দেবী) was a member of the zamindari family of Birasri (বীরশ্রি) village in Karimganj (করিমগঞ্জ) sub-division of Sylhet (শ্রীহট্ট), 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 and political views

His first posting, in 1905, was as assistant magistrate and assistant collector of Arrah in Bihar. He served in the judicial wing of the ICS from 1911 to 1915. In 1916 he was appointed as the district collector of Birbhum. In 1923, he was appointed as secretary of agriculture and industries.

In 1928, he was sent to Howrah as its district magistrate. Here, 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 action against those who were protesting against the government's Salt Act. This led to his transfer to Birbhum in 1931.

From 1930 to 1933, he was the chief whip in the Bengal Legislative Council and a member of the Council of States of the Central Legislative Assembly. In the last few years of career he was appointed as secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health, Government of Bengal.

Social, cultural and artistic contributions

Social

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.

Cultural

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.

Artistic

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.

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)

Awards

• Scindia Gold Medal (1901)
• Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal (1938)

Publications

• Agricultural Organisation and Rural Reconstruction in Bengal (1919)
• Bhajar Banshi (ভজার বাঁশি) (1922)
• Palli Sangskar (পল্লী সংস্কার) (1925)
• Village Reconstruction (1925)
• 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)
• Saroj Nalini
• Palli Sanskar O Sangathan (পল্লী সংস্কার ও সংগঠন)
• Paaglamir Puthi (পাগলামির পুঁথি)
• Purir Mahathwa (পুরির মাহাত্ম্য)
• Banglar Samrik Krira (বাংলার শ্মরিক ক্রীড়া)
• Chaander Buri (চাঁদের বুড়ি)
• 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

External links

• Official Website of Gurusaday Museum
• Gurusaday Museum