Shankha Ghosh

Shankha Ghosh was born on February 6, 1932, in Chandpur, then part of British India and now in Bangladesh. His father, Manindrakumar Ghosh, was a respected headmaster and Bengali grammarian. Ghosh had a strong academic background and studied at Presidency College in Kolkata, where he completed his undergraduate studies in Bengali. He later earned a master's degree in Bengali from the University of Calcutta in 1954.

Ghosh began his professional career as an educator and taught at several institutions, including Bangabasi College, City College and Jadavpur University. He also taught at other institutions and undertook academic research. He retired from Jadavpur University in 1992. His career as a teacher ran alongside his work as a poet, essayist and literary critic.

As a poet, Ghosh developed a distinctive style characterized by careful language, emotional depth and engagement with contemporary society. His poetry often addressed human experience, social tensions and the changing political and cultural environment. Among his well-known collections are Dinguli Raatguli, Dhum Legechhe Hritkomole, Mukh Dheke Jaai Biggapone, Gandharba Kabitaguchcha, Chander Bhitorey Eto Andhakar and Jal-I Pashan Hoey Aache.

One of his best-known works, Babarer Prarthana, received the Sahitya Akademi Award for Bengali in 1977. The official Sahitya Akademi awards list records the award for the poetry collection.

Ghosh was also a respected scholar of Rabindranath Tagore and wrote extensively on Tagore's literature. He served as director of Rabindra Bhavan from 1989 to 1990. His literary criticism and interpretations of Tagore became an important part of his scholarly contribution.

His honors included the Rabindra Puraskar, Desikottama from Visva-Bharati, Saraswati Samman and the Padma Bhushan, which he received in 2011. He was elected a Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi, and in 2016 he received the Jnanpith Award for his contribution to Bangla literature. The Jnanpith's official laureate list identifies him as the 2016 Bangla-language laureate.

Shankha Ghosh died in Kolkata on April 21, 2021, at the age of 89. The Sahitya Akademi recorded his death and held a condolence meeting in his honor. He left behind a substantial body of poetry, prose and literary criticism that remains an important part of modern Bengali literature.