Bidhubhushan Basu (1875–1972) was an Indian social worker, writer, and journalist working primarily in Bengali.

Early life

Basu was born on 27 May 1875 in Kanthal,

Bagerhat District Bagerhat District () is a district in south-western Bangladesh. It is a part of Khulna Division. Geography Bagerhat district has a total area of 44,959.11 square kilometres. It is bounded by Gopalganj District and Narail District on the north, ...

, Khulna,

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

, British India. He was raised by relatives after the death of his parents.

Career

Basu taught at Shivpur School,

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

where his students included

Suniti Kumar Chatterji Suniti Kumar Chatterji (26 November 1890 – 29 May 1977) was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan. Life Childhood Chatterji was born on 26 Novem ...

and Sushil Kumar De. His writings were published in the ''Sakha O Sathi'' magazine. He served as the editor of the ''Sanjibani'' and ''Pallichitra'' magazines. He was involved with the

Swadeshi movement The Swadeshi movement was a self-sufficiency movement that was part of the Indian independence movement and contributed to the development of Indian nationalism. Before the BML Government's decision for the partition of Bengal was made public i ...

and wrote a number of nationalistic plays such as ''Dada'' in 1922 and ''Brahmacharini'' in 1925. Two of his plays, ''Mirkashim'' and ''Raktayajna'', were banned by the British Colonial government. He was arrested and imprisoned for four years for his story "Shikar". He was imprisoned again for taking part in nationalist movements in India in 1930. He was sued for his poem "Vote Ranga" by a

zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

. He founded schools and the local post office in his hometown. He also funded the construction of ponds. He lost his eye sight in his old age.

Bibliography

*Laksmi Meye (1897) *Laksmi Ma (1898) *Laksmi Bau (1898) *Sati Laksmi (1899) *Charuchandra (1900) *Amrte Garal, Subhadra (1912) *Papistha (1914) *Kamini-Kanchan (1925) *Dipalir Baji (1926) *Godhan, Prakhara (1928) *Kuler Kali (1928) *Nastoddhar, Biser Batas (1928) *Jyathai Ma (1928) *Pautranta (1958) *Parinam (1961) *Banomala (1914)

Death

Basu died on 31 January 1972.

References

{{authority control 1875 births 1972 deaths Bagerhat District Bengali-language novelists Indian dramatists and playwrights Dramatists and playwrights from West Bengal