Chinmoy Guha

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Chinmoy Guha
Chinmoy Guha.jpg
Chinmoy Guha in September 2013
Born (1958-09-10) 10 September 1958 (age 66)
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
OccupationProfessor Emeritus of English, essayist, translator, literary critic
NationalityIndian
Notable worksGhumer Darja Thele, Where the Dreams Cross: T.S. Eliot and French Poetry, Bridging East and West: Rabindranath Tagore and Romain Rolland Correspondence 1919-1940
Notable awards Chevalier des Palmes Académiques; Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres; Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite; Sahitya Akademi Award; Vidyasagar Puroshkar
SpouseAnasuya Guha (Former Professor of English at Bethune College)
ChildrenSurangama Guha

Chinmoy Guha (born September 1958 in Kolkata, India) is an Indian essayist, translator, and a scholar of French language and literature, currently serving as Professor Emeritus [1] at the University of Calcutta. [2] He has served as the Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University and Director of Publications, Embassy of France, New Delhi. [3] Earlier he taught English at Vijaygarh Jyotish Ray College in Kolkata for more than two decades, and French at the Alliance Française and the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture for eleven and five years respectively. [4] [5]

Contents

He has been awarded the Lila Ray Memorial Honour for Translation by the Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi in 2008 and the Derozio Bicentenary Award in 2010. He has been knighted by the ministries of Education and Culture of the Government of France in 2010 and 2013 respectively. Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi and the Government of West Bengal conferred on him the Vidyasagar Smriti Puraskar in 2016. [6] The President of France conferred on him in November 2019 the title of Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite for his contribution to intercultural exchange. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award 2019 in Bengali for his collection of essays Ghumer Darja Thele. [7]

Education

Guha graduated in English literature from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta and followed up with an M.A. from the University of Calcutta. He completed his PhD on T. S. Eliot from Jadavpur University where he was a Teacher Fellow for one year. [8]

He has researched in France, Britain and Switzerland. He has lectured on Romain Rolland and India and other subjects at the India Festival in Boulogne-Billancourt (2002), at University of Avignon (2004), Ecole Normale Supérieure of Lyon (2005), Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (2009), Cité internationale universitaire de Paris (2009), Edinburgh Napier University (2012), the Mahatma Gandhi Institute, Mauritius (2012), Université de Paris-Sorbonne (2015), Académie des Belles Lettres et des Sciences, La Rochelle, France (2017) and the Institute of European Studies, Belgrade, Serbia (2017). He has been a visiting professor at the Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme, Paris (2009 and 2013). [9]

Academic Career

Guha is currently Professor Emeritus at the Department of English, University of Calcutta. He was also Professor and former Head of the Department, former Convenor of the PhD Programme in English and former Chairperson of the Undergraduate Board of English Studies at the University. He has also lectured at multiple foreign universities including universities of Paris-Sorbonne, University of Paris 7 Denis Diderot, Edinburgh Napier University, Scotland; St John's College, Oxford; Manchester University, Warwick University, Worcester University College, University of Avignon, France; Institut des Langues Orientales, Paris et al. [8]

Guha was the Vice-Chancellor of Rabindra Bharati University and is a former director of Bureau du Livre, Embassy of France in New Delhi. [8]

Literary activities

Chinmoy Guha with Jacques Derrida Chinmoy Guha with Derrida.jpg
Chinmoy Guha with Jacques Derrida

His translation of Molière's George Dandin , staged by Alliance Française de Chittagong, Bangladesh won an award in 2009. [10]

A review in the Times Higher Education praised his enthusiasm for Eliot's poetry and his book Where the Dreams Cross as 'thoughtful and instructive' which 'casts a fresh light on Eliot's poetry'. [11]

Awards

Documentaries

He has been the narrator of several documentaries produced by the Bhasha Mandakini project of the Central Institute of Indian Languages. [8] The documentaries pertained to subjects such as Rabindranath Tagore, Arun Mitra, Kaliprasanna Singha, Peary Chand Mitra, Bibhutibhushan Mukhopadhyay and Buddhadeb Bosu. [19]

Works

Books

Chinmoy Guha with Le Clezio, the 2008 Nobel laureate in literature Chinmoy Guha with Le Clezio, the 2008 Nobel laureate in literature.jpg
Chinmoy Guha with Le Clézio, the 2008 Nobel laureate in literature

Articles in books

Chinmoy Guha with Romain Rolland's biographer Bernard Duchatelet Chinmoy Guha with Romain Rolland's biographer Bernard Duchatelet.jpg
Chinmoy Guha with Romain Rolland's biographer Bernard Duchatelet

References

  1. "Chinmoy-Guha" (PDF).
  2. "Teachers-Profile-chinmoy". Caluniv.ac.in. Archived from the original on 1 November 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  3. "French honour for Professor Chinmoy Guha – Times of India". Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. 18 October 2013. Archived from the original on 5 January 2017. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  4. "PASSERELLE : Chinmoy Guha, les littératures au cœur". Le Mauricien. 5 April 2013. Archived from the original on 5 November 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  5. "CONFERENCE DU PROFESSEUR CHINMOY GUHA | CitĂŠ internationale universitaire de Paris". 193.52.24.107. 24 November 2009. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  6. "Awards - Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi". Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi.
  7. "Akademi Awards (1955-2023): Bengali". Sahitya Akademi. Retrieved 29 January 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Teachers' Profile of Professor Chinmoy Guha". Archived from the original on 9 September 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  9. "Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme: Chercheurs invités DEA". Msh-paris.fr. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  10. "Int'l French Theatre Festival ends on a positive note". thedailystar.net. 22 April 2009. Archived from the original on 21 February 2014. Retrieved 7 February 2014.
  11. "Epiphany that unlocked a genius". Times Higher Education. 11 May 2001. Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  12. "Dr. Chinmoy Guha's speech on Leela Roy's birth centenary Part-5". YouTube. 12 August 2010. Archived from the original on 25 January 2014. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  13. "French honour for CU professor". The Times of India . 4 April 2010. Archived from the original on 14 October 2013. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  14. "Details". Epaper.telegraphindia.com. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2013.
  15. "Awards - Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi". Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi.
  16. "Dr Chinmoy Guha conferred "Chevalier de l'Ordre national du Mérite"". Consulate General of France in Calcutta. 30 November 2019. Archived from the original on 12 December 2019. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  17. "ফ্রান্সের সম্মান চিন্ময় গুহকে". Ei Samay. 17 November 2019. Retrieved 28 November 2019.[ permanent dead link ]
  18. "Sahitya Akademi Press Release 2019" (PDF). Sahitya Akademi.
  19. "Bengali Bhasha Mandakini Series". Archived from the original on 26 February 2021. Retrieved 21 August 2020.