Gour Kishore Ghosh

Gour Kishore Ghosh (b. 22 June 1923)

Gour Kishore Ghosh was born in Hat Gopalpur village in the Jessore district in undivided Bengal, (presently Bangladesh), on 22 June 1923. He completed his schooling in Nabadwip, and completed his intermediate science (I.Sc.) examinations in 1945.

Due to extreme poverty, Ghosh could not continue his education further and had to become a professional soon after.

He continually changed his professions between 1941 and 1953. Amongst others, he worked as private tutor, electrician and fitter, sailor, waiter at restaurants, trade union organiser, schoolteacher, manager of a touring dance troupe, land customs clearing clerk, proof reader and others, until from an interim job as a border customs clerk he joined a new daily newspaper, Satyayuga where his distinctive writing style earned him promotion to editor of two feature sections. Thus, he settled at his chosen profession, that of a reporter / journalist.

Ghosh went on to author popular columns in the literary weekly Desh and in Calcutta's largest vernacular daily, Anandabazar Patrika, of which he also became senior editor. He portrayed the agony of West Bengal during the Naxalite movement from 1969 to 1971, in sharp satire, in his "News Commentary by Rupadarshi". He often wrote under his pen-name, Rupadarshi.

After the emergency was imposed upon India in 1975, Ghosh shaved his head and wrote a symbolic letter to his 13-year-old son explaining his act of "bereavement" over the loss of his freedom to write. Published in Kolkata, a Bengali monthly, this letter caused his arrest, was widely circulated through the underground and became a classic of protest. He was sent to jail along with another reporter Barun Sengupta. Ghosh smuggled from prison two other letters on abuses of authoritarian rule before, in his cell, he suffered a third heart attack.

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