Ajit Barua

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Ajit Barua
Native name	অজিৎ বৰুৱা
Born	19 August, 1926 Guwahati, Assam
Died	3 April, 2015 Guwahati, Assam
Occupation	Freedom Fighter, Civil Servant, Litterateur
Language	Assamese, English, Hindi, French Sanskrit, Bengali
Nationality	India
Alma mater	Cotton Collegiate High School Cotton College Calcutta University Guwahati University Institut International d'Administration Publique
Genre	Poem, Novel, Translations Works, Criticism
Notable awards	Sahitya Akademi Award, 1991 Assam Valley Literary Award, 1999
Years active	1939-2010
Spouse	Krishna Das (Married - 1956, Divorced - 1976)
Children	Parjanya Barua (Born: 1957 - Died: 2009) Parmita Barua Mohanchanda (Born : 1958)

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Ajit Barua (Assamese: অজিৎ বৰুৱা, (1926-08-19)August 19, 1926 – (2015-04-03)April 3, 2015) was a freedom fighter and a litterateur of modern Assamese literature. He was at once an administrative officer, a poet, lyricist, critic, translator and an elegant writer but was best known as a poet. Famously called as the ‘Poet of Brahmaputra’, his poems and writings reflected a real and raw image of the society.He is credited with bringing in modernism in the prose and poetry of Assamese literature, while rekindling thorough research on texts written, generalizing while promoting views on the day to day happenstance in the society, thus harping on the good of man, establishing himself in the literary world of the state and country.

Birth and family

Ajit Baruah was born on 19th August, 1926 in Guwahati, Assam. His father Chandakusi Malla Bujarbaruah was a descendent of late Chitramalla Baruah. Another line of descendant of this family had the likes of Haradatta and Biradatta, the leaders of the 1795 Dundiya Rebellion. They were the 8th grandsons of forefather Kalyanmalla Baruah's brother Chatrapati Barua. Chitramalla Baruah was the Inspector of schools. His mother Padmalata Barua was of Guwahati's Majinder Barua's family, later she shifted to Dibrugarh. She was the niece of the great scholar Anandaram Baruah.

Early life and education

Ajit Barua spent his childhood in different places of then undivided Assam owing to his father's occupation as Inspector of schools. He started his educational journey in 1933 from the Chandakusi MV School. Thereafter he received his primary, middle and secondary education in Nalbari Primary School, Jorhat Government High School, Barpeta Government High School, Shillong Government High School and Gordon High School, Nalbari and finally passed HSLC securing 3rd position in the state along with star marks from Cotton Collegiate High School in 1943. In that year itself he admitted himself in ISC at Cotton College which was then affiliated to Calcutta University and passed out securing second class in 1945. He took admission in Cotton College again to do his bachelor's degree in English literature and passed out in 1947 with honours in his subject. He did his master's degree from Calcutta University securing 2nd class 3rd position in English literature.

Later in midst of his working career he completed his bachelor's degree in law under Guwahati University in 1972. In 1973, on receiving scholarship from the French Government to study in Institut International d'AdministrationPublique (IIAP), Paris he received a degree in Public Administration. During his tenure as the economic advisor to the Assam Government in Calcutta (1968-1971) he also studied French language at Alliance Francaise, Calcutta.

Professional Life

He started his working career as a professor at Nowgong College in 1950. Although he was appointed as Professor at Debraj Roy College, Golaghat and Cotton College, Guwahati, he had to leave the position as he qualified the Assam Public Service Commission exam in 1952 and in that year itself he was appointed as an ACS officer. A meritorious student from his young age Ajit Barua in the very same year (1952) cleared the Union Public Service Commission exam and joined in as an IRS officer becoming the first Assamese to do so.

1958 he resigned from his post in the IRS and re-joined as an ACS officer in Assam. As an ACS officer he in 1963 was the deputy secretary of Industry Department and in 1968 the Economic Advisor to the Assam Government in the Calcutta office. In 1971, Ajit Barua was promoted to the position of IAS officer.Subsequently, he was appointed as the Director of Industry Department, the Secretary of the Industry Department, the Secretary of the Revenue Department of the Government of Assam, and in 1984 took the position of the Commissioner of the Revenue Department of the Government of Assam.

In 1984 he also temporarily took charge as the Chairman of the Assam Revenue Board. Simultaneously in 1983 he became the Deputy Commissioner of Lower Assam and while at this position he on 30th November, 1986 took his retirement.

Personal life

In 1956 he married Krishna Das, the daughter of Madan Mohan Das hailing from Dibrugarh. He had a son Prajanya Baruah, born at 1957 and a daughter Parmita Baruah, born at 1958. His son Parjanya Barua was a senior professor of Department of English, Cotton College and passed away in 2009. Ajit Barua and Krishna Das got divorced in 1976.

Literary Contributions

During the 1940s, Barua had started on his literary journey with ‘Mon Mur Nathake Eyat’, written while he was 13. ‘Brahmaputra’, ‘Jengrai 1963’, ‘Senor Paarot’ and many more poems have given Ajit Barua an enviable stature which began with the publication of the poem ‘Taj Mahal’ which was printed in the magazine ‘Abhijaan’, edited by Shri Dhirendra Nath Dutta in the year 1942. It took 29 years for him to complete his now famous poem ‘Brahmaputra’, in which he beautifully renders root to the life of the people in both the banks of the mighty river.

List of his literary works –

Poems

1. Kisuman Podyo Aru Gaan (First edition: 1982, Ajit Baruah; Second edition: 1992, Banlata)
2. Brahmaputra Ityadi Podyo (First edition: August 1989, Ajit Baruah; Second edition: January 1992, Banlata)
3. Gos Premor Podyo (First edition: 2000, Ajit Baruah)
4. Aru Kisuman Podyo Aru Gaan (First edition: 2001, Students' Stores)
5. Ajit Baruah Podyo Xomogro (First edition: 2015, Editor: Kushal Dutta, Bhavani Books)

Novel

1. Ekhon Premor Upannaykh (First edition: 1992, Katha Publishers; Second edition: 1997, Banlata)

Letters and Critical Views

1. Sahityar Bixoye (First edition: 1991, Hiren Bhattacharya)
2. Kabyo Aru Ananya (First edition: 1993, Katha Publishers)
3. Podyor Pasor Kabyo (First edition: December 1994, Students' Stores)
4. Bivinno Prabandha (First edition: 1999, Saraighat Prakashan)
5. Essays on T. s. Elliot (First edition: 2002, Archive)

Translations Works

1. From The Assamese : Translation of Ajit Baruah's Assamese Verse (First edition: September 1990, Ajit Baruah)
2. Brahmaputra, Schizophrenia Ityadi (First edition: January 1991, Ajit Baruah)
3. Nyay Nistha (First edition:1992, Ajit Baruah)
4. Gor (First edition: 1993, Bani Prakash)
5. The Plague (First edition:1994, Second edition: September 2008, Students' Stores)
6. Manuhor Sthiti (First edition:1998, Journal Emporium)
7. Son Mati (First edition: October 1998, Journal Emporium)
8. Selected Farsi Poems (First edition: January 1999, Sairaighat Prakashan)
9. Mapasar Golpo (First edition: December 1999, Sairaighat Prakashan)
10. Selected Modern American Poems (First edition: February 2002, Students' Stores)
11. Poems of Nirmal Prabha Bordoloi (First edition: 2006, Sahitya Akademi)

Autobiography

1. Smriti-Kotha (First edition: 2008, Bristi Prakashan)

Editorial

1. Chandkuchia Bezbaruah Bongkhawali (First edition:2002, Ajit Baruah)

Songs/Poetry Recitations

1. Smriti Binar TaarSwakantha (1989, Pallavi Enterprise)
2. Path Aru Sangit Parikalpana (1995. Ajit Barua)

Unpublished

1. Hamlet (Assamese translation of William Shakespeare's Play Hamlet; published in series on Gariyoshi.)

Awards

Due to his work and his influence, Ajit Barua has been a recipient of numerous awards and honours. A few of them are listed below –

1. 1988, Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad Award, for his contributions toward literary works as a lyricist and poet.
2. 1991, Sahitya Akademi Award, for ‘Brahmaputra Ityadi Podyo’.
3. 1993, Ambikagiri Rai Choudhury Award, Asom Sahtiya Sabha.
4. 1999, Assam Valley Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, Williamson Magor Educational Trust.
5. 2002, Amulya Kumar Chakrabarti Memorial Award, Amulya Kumar Chakrabarti Memorial Trust.
6. 2007–09, Nijora Kobi Sailadhar Rajkhowa Memorial Award, Asom Sahitya Sabha.
7. 2010, Ganesh Gogoi Award, Assam Government.
8. 2010, Padmanath Vidyavinod Memorial Sahitya Purashkar, Ramnath Bhattacharyya Foundation.

Death

Barua was admitted to the hospital on 12^th March, 2015 due to Pneumonia after which upon a week of treatment and showing signs of becoming better he was discharged. However, on the 2^nd of April, his health started deteriorating again and the next day, 3^rd, he passed away in his own residence in Jurpukhuri, Guwahati.

Influence

Ajit Barua was well known for his simplicity, marking himself the advice – ‘Whoever is upright, is righteous’. Always of the scientific temperament, it is not known properly about his inclination towards spirituality; not in the least his abhorrence toward the Theory of Rebirth.. Among his signs of greatness was his utter non-satisfaction toward his works, famously quoting Baudelaire – “Sed non Satiata”. This is portrayed in his dedication towards perfection as he took 29 years to complete his poem ‘Brahmaputra’, repeatedly insisting in his life of the importance of perseverance for art, without which he maintained no sculpture took shape. Among his many literary exploits, he was vocal about the unthankful job of translation, which he deemed to be an act which was to be done from the original piece of work and not from other translations

Ajit Barua is a stalwart in Assamese literature, whose immense offering cannot be gauged from the perspective of an ordinary sitting.A colossal benefactor for the language in which he wrote, Baruah has single-handedly increased and polished the library of prose and poetry of Assamese literature including literary criticisms.

See Also

1. as:অজিৎ বৰুৱা

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