Sarat Chandra Pandit (27 April 1879 – 27 April 1968), better known as ‘Dada Thakur’ (দাদাঠাকুর), was a well-known composer of humorous rhymes, writer, publisher and social critic. He had his ancestral house at Dafarpur in
West Bengal, India. However, the ancestral seat of the Pandits were originally at ''Dharmapur'', a village in
Rampurhat subdivision,
Birbhum District of
West Bengal. ''Sarat Chandra Pandit's'' grandfather ''Ishan Chandra Pandit'' left his ancestral village ''Dharmapur'' and settled in ''Dafarpur'' following a family conflict.''
''Sarat Chandra Pandit'' single-handedly published the newspaper 'Jungipore Sangbad', from
Jangipur playing the roles of author, press-compositor, proof-reader and printer. Initially he was assisted by his wife and temporary workers in running the press, a wooden hand-press which was run in his bedroom. He also published 'Bidushak'
িদূষক(Jester), a pamphlet of satire, humor and social commentary and used it as his weapon for social change and to bring public awareness against corruption.
Career
He was known for his ability to memorise, ability to compose at will rhymes and songs full of puns and wit.
Sarat Chandra Chatterjee gave him the name 'Bidushak Sarat Chandra' in recognition of his very popular humorous compositions. His keen knowledge of both the Bengali, Hindi and English languages made him a unique composer of multilingual rhymes and witticisms. He created much Bengali
Palindrome
A palindrome is a word, number, phrase, or other sequence of symbols that reads the same backwards as forwards, such as the words ''madam'' or ''racecar'', the date and time ''11/11/11 11:11,'' and the sentence: "A man, a plan, a canal – Panam ...
. The local British administrators also became aware of him and his criticism.
Popular culture
The Bengali film ''
Dada Thakur'' (1962) was made in his lifetime commemorating his life, with
Chhabi Biswas
Chhabi Biswas (''Chabi Biśbās'') (13 July 1900 – 11 June 1962) was an Indian actor, primarily known for his performances in Tapan Sinha's '' Kabuliwala'' and Satyajit Ray's films '' Jalshaghar'' (''The Music Room'', 1958), '' Devi'' ( ...
playing the titular role of Dadathakur. This film Dadathakur was also awarded president award in the year 1962.
References
External links
A collection of songs composed by Dadathakur
1879 births
1968 deaths
People from Murshidabad district
Indian male writers
Indian Hindus
Indian satirists
Social critics
Journalists from West Bengal
20th-century Indian journalists
Writers in British India
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