Bengali Poet & Playwright Sukanta Bhattacharya. He was called ‘Young Nazrul’ and ‘Kishore Bidrohi Kobi’, a reference to the great rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam for Sukanto’s similar rebellious stance against the tyranny of the British Raj and the oppression by the social elites through the work of his poetry. He died of tuberculosis at the Jadavpur T. B. Hospital (later, K. S. Roy T. B. Hospital) in Kolkata at a very young age of 21.
The poetry of Sukanta Bhattacharya is characterised by rebel socialist thoughts, patriotism, humanism and yet romanticism. The plight of the working class was a running theme in poems by Bhattacharya. One of his shorter poems name ‘Hey Mahajibon’ (হে মহাজীবন) from the book Chharpatra (ছাড়পত্র) compares the moon with a burnt roti, a prosaicness born of hunger. Along with Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, He was one of the key figures of modern Bengali poetry, most of Sukanta’s works had been published posthumously. His reputation grew, and the world knew of his genius only after he died. Soon, he became one of the most popular Bengali poets of the 20th century.
On August 15, 1967, on his 42nd birth anniversary, Sarswat Library, owned by his family, brought out a collection of Sukanta’s writings, mostly poetry, for the first time. ‘Sukanta Samagra’ was an instant hit, as it accomplished the absolutely impossible mission of putting together the writings scattered across West Bengal and erstwhile East Pakistan — in the form of manuscripts, handwritten or typed letters and published works. He has had a significant influence on poet Subhas Mukhopadhyay and composer Salil Chowdhury who set some of his popular poems to music.
Source : Wikipedia
