Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta

Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta (Bengali: জ্যোতির্ময় গুহঠাকুরতা; 10 July 1920 – 30 March 1971) was a Bengali educator and humanist of the former East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. He was one of the Bengali intellectuals killed by the Pakistan Army during the 1971 Dhaka University massacre on the night of 25 March 1971.

Early life

Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta was born to Kumudchandra Guhathakurta and Srimati Sumati on 10 July 1920 in Mymensingh town. Both of his parents were school teachers. They were originally from Barisal. After matriculating in 1936 from Mymensingh Zilla School, he joined Presidency College in Kolkata to study Intermediate Science. But he could not attend his final exams there because of typhoid. He came back to Mymensingh and took admission in Ananda Mohan College from where he passed Intermediate Arts in 1939. Guhathakurta then got himself admitted in the Department of English of Dhaka University and graduated with honors in 1942, and was first in the class. His excellent academic results caused him to earn the Pope Memorial Gold Medal in Literature. He completed his masters the following year in the same institute.

Teaching career

Guhathakurta taught in a number of colleges from 1944 to 1949, such as, AM College, Mymensingh, Gurudayal College, Kishoreganj, and Jagannath College, Dhaka. In 1949 he joined Dhaka University as lecturer in English. In 1963 he went to King's College, London University, on a British Council scholarship to do doctoral work on 'Classical Myths in the Plays of Swinburne, Bridges, Sturges, Moore and Eliot'. In 1967, Guhathakurta returned to Dhaka University and was promoted to Reader, a position he held till his death. A highly successful teacher, Guhathakurta instilled in his students a love for good literature and the humanist ideals that he cherished all his life.

Assassination

File:University Building No. 34, Secretariat Road, Dhaka 3.jpg

This monument to the intellectuals killed by the Pakistani soldiers in the area of the Central Shahid Minar on the night of 25–26 March 1971, lists Dr. Jyotirmoy Guhathakurata's name.

After midnight 25 March 1971, Professor Jotirmoy Guhathakurta was shot in the dark by the Pakistani Army just outside the University building where he lived while at the same time another professor Dr A.N.M. Maniruzzaman, and three members of Dr Maniruzzaman's family was shot in the landing of the stairwell of the same building. On the 27th of March, he was taken to the hospital which was almost deserted except for the wounded, with a handful of doctors to attend. After two days with hardly a regular medical attendant, he died due to severe loss of blood.

Bibliography

• 1973 Classical Myths in the plays of Swinburne, Bridges, Sturge Moore, and Eliot, based on his doctoral thesis – Posthumous Publication, Dhaka University.
• 1977 "Bangla Academy students' English to Bengali dictionary" compiled by Nur Muhammad; reviewed by Zillur Rahman Siddiqui, Jotirmoy Guha Thakurtha, Serajul Islam Chowdhury, Bangla Academy.
• 2011 (reprint) Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta Smarak Grantha (Commemorative Volume of Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta) edited by Sardar Fazlul Karim and Rangalal Sen, (contains a compilation of published articles in various journals and newspapers), Bangla Academy, Dhaka.