Remembering Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam as Editors: A Glimpse of Periodicals in Early Twentieth Century Bengal

The departments of Journalism and Mass Communication and Bengali of the Bhawanipur Education Society College collaborated to organize a webinar on 8th June 2022, to mark the journalistic vision of two of Bengal’s great personas Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. The primary focus of the webinar was to discuss and bring to light the journey of periodicals in the early twentieth-century Bengal. Dr Kausturi Mukherjee, a faculty member of the Bengali Department, marked the beginning of the program, followed by Dr Kapil Kumar Bhattacharyya, a faculty member of the Journalism and Mass Communication Department, who very kindly introduced everyone to the esteemed guests and speakers of the day. The moderator of the webinar was Professor Subir Ghosh, a senior Media Professional and former Principal of Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. The esteemed speakers who gracefully shared their views on the topic were, Professor Pabitra Sarkar- former Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University; Professor Gopa Dutta – former Vice-Chancellor of University of Gour Banga and Mr Arka Deb – Editor-in-chief of Inscript.me and a Fellow at Nazrul Centre for Social and Cultural Studies respectively.

The two hours long engaging session was open to the students in the offline mode as well. The webinar was conducted in the Society Hall of the College. A large number of participants joined online and several students and faculty members were present in the auditorium to mark the event a success. The sessions were engaging and informative. Each speaker very interestingly explained how the two stalwarts of Bengali Literature – Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam had been associated with Periodicals in Early Twentieth-Century Bengal and played the roles of editors. The session ended with a vote of thanks by Dr Priyam Basu Thakur of the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication.