Where are Bengal’s biographers?

biographies of famous bengalis by local authors are usually hagiographies. so we have to consult leonard gordon to understand the politics of the bose brothers — subhas and sarat — or andrew robinson on satyajit roy. for a dispassionate understanding of the lives of the great sons and daughters of bengal one has to depend heavily on overseas biographers.no one has greater opportunity than a journalist to witness and chronicle in the history in making, particularly in the political field. but only a handful of bengali journalists like ranjit roy, barun sengupta, prafulla roychoudhury, shankar ghosh and sukharanjan sengupta have endeavoured to write authentic and critical appreciation of the lives and times of the chief ministers of west bengal. a former chief reporter of a bengali daily, sudeb roychoudhury, is one of the few biographers who have tried to piece together the multi-faceted personality of the legendary doctor as well as towering administrator, b.c. roy. the man who had defeated giants like rastraguru surendranath banerjee and netaji subhas bose in the elections was the tallest congressman in divided bengal. roychoudhury’s has penned two titles on roy. the book, development’s wonder doctor — dr b.c. roy, is more than a translation of the bengali original, banglar rupakar dr bidhan chandra roy. in fact, roychoudhury has also authored the first bengali biography of mother teresa titled ma teresa long before she got nobel prize. the veteran journalist has no pretension of being a historian. he does not conceal his reverence for the subject of his biographies, be it dr roy or mother teresa. “my books are not critical appreciations of mother and dr roy. both of them inspired me immensely. i wish i had the intellectual insight and the understanding of the historical perspective to make any dispassionate assessment. nevertheless, i believe that journalists can supplement the role of historians and help them to do their job by providing information, anecdotes and observations,’’ he says. roychoudhury believes that a scribe as biographer should maintain some personal detachment from his subject. “though i reported dr roy’s meetings, he did not know me personally. but i felt mesmerised by his personality while covering his last journey. in contrast, i had interacted with mother on several occasions.’’ despite his four-decade long exposure to politicians and bureaucrats, roychoudhury is refreshingly free from journalistic cynicism. the quintessential bengali’s search for the spiritual led him to study the persona of mahendranath gupta, the legendary chronicler of the fables and sermons ramakrishna paramahansa. that book was followed by a compilation in memory of another legend in the literary world, sagarmoy ghosh, the late editor of desh. at 66, roychoudhury still anchors tv shows, attends press meets and plans to bring out more biographical books. he urges other scribes to take up research-oriented studies. “there are examples like p. sainath who spent months in kalahandi to expose how a good drought was loved by powers that be. these days, journalists have ready access to information on internet. one should imbibe the temperament of digging in depth.’’