‘Bibhutibhushan’s writings are a commentary on our ideas of civilisation inherited from colonisers’

Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay – the name rings a bell for even those who are not familiar with Bengali literature. If not read, they might have heard about one of his most popular novels, Pather Panchali. Cinephiles already know how immensely moved Satyajit Ray was by it that he visualised it for the big screen as his directorial debut.

It was the year 1925that Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay was working at Khelat Ghosh’s Pathuriaghata Raajbari, where he composed the initial ideas of his very first novel, Pather Panchali. Only a couple of his short stories had been published in popular Bengali periodicals by then. Bandopadhyay worked on that estate for three years, and it took him the same number of years to write the novel. Pather Panchali was first serialised in 1928 in a Bangla periodical, Bichitra. It was published as a complete volume by Ranjan Prakashanalay in 1929. And later, in 1955, it attained national and international fame after Satyajit Ray filmed it as his debut directorial venture.

The year 2026 marks 100 years since Bandopadhyay started writing Pather Panchali. Last year, when the author’s grandson, Trinankur Banerjee (an artist himself), exhibited a few of his merchandise items inspired by the author’s work, he never thought it would be so popular. People not only bought his...

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