Popular Bengali Magazines Which Have Great Contribution to Bengali Literature

 

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Magazines are one of the most important and efficient tools of traditional journalism and at the same, they are enjoyable and entertaining as well. Magazines’ publications are usually scheduled weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, and bi-monthly. Bengali magazines have a different identity in the history of Indian literature. Many of the great writers of the past and contemporary times get fame from magazines.

Bengali magazines have a very rich history. Magazines like Bangadarshan, Digdarshan, Samachar Darpan, etc., are some famous Bengali magazines of the colonized period. Bengali magazines gave birth to many prominent kinds of literature. Bengali magazines allow the new and amateur writers of Bengal to publish writings in public.  Sometimes, these helped in freedom movements as well. So, the importance of Bengali magazines could not be neglected anyway. They are very comprehensive and detailed for the audience.

Here I am going to tell you about five magazines of the current period which are widely popular among all generations and mainly among children and contributing to Bengali literature for many years.

 

Anandamela

Source: gobanglabooks

One of the most popular and oldest magazines we can find in West Bengal is Anandamela. Anandamela is a Bengali magazine specially published for children and teenagers. The magazine is published twice a month. The first edition of this magazine was published on March 1975. It has been edited by various notables at various times, including Narendranath Chakraborty, Ashok Kumar Sarkar, and Debashish Banerjee. Poulami Sengupta is the current editor. Many authors started writing for children through Anandamela. For example, author Shirsendu Mukhopadhaya rose to prominence as a children’s writer after writing ‘Manojder Advut Bari’, which was published as a novel serially at Anandamela.

 

Suktara

Source: dhulokhela

Suktara is also a very renowned children’s magazine which was first published in 1948 by Dev Sahitya Kutir Publication. From Rabindranath Tagore to Kazi Nazrul Islam, all the literary writers of Bengal have written for this magazine. The most famous comic characters of Bengali literature Bantul the Great, Handa Bhonda, and Bahadur Beral by Narayan Debnath were published in this very magazine. Apart from this Kalidas Roy, Hemendrakumar Roy, Sunirmal Basu, Akprakash Gupta, Sourindramohon Mukhopadhaya, and many other popular writers work in this magazine.

 

Kishore Bharati

Source: magzter

Kishore Bharati is one of the leading and most eminent magazines for children usually based in Kolkata. The first editor of this magazine is Dineshchandra Chattopadhyay. The first edition of ‘Kishore Bharati’ was published in October 1968. At present, its current editor is Tridibkumar Chattopadhyay, son of Dineshchandra Chattopadhyay. Kishore Bharati features comics, adventure novels, short stories, historical and social stories, etc. written by renowned writers of the time such as Suchitra Bhattacharya, Sanjeev Chattopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, and many others.

Desh

Source: allmagazine

A Bengali fortnightly magazine on the literature of West Bengal, published in Calcutta.  Published by the Anandabazar Patrika Group on the 2nd and 17th of every month since November 24, 1933.  The first editor was Satyendranath Majumdar. Bankimchandra Sen is the second editor.  After that, Sagamoy Ghosh was the editor for a long time.  Currently, Suman Sengupta is handling the editing duties.  At first, it was purely a literary magazine.  Although in the country, apart from literature, politics, sports, Akkal, Bengali hustle and bustle, cinema, theatre, and current affairs - everything is being printed in the country.

Sandesh

Source: pinterest

When it comes to children’s literature, ‘Sandesh’ occupies a prominent place. Upendrakishore Roychowdhury is the founder and father of ‘Sandesh’. He always wanted to publish a unique and incomparable magazine for young children and in 1913 he made his dream true. Since then, this magazine has been published to date. After the death of Upendra Kishore in 1915, his son Sukumar Roy took charge of its editing. It was under Sukumar Roy’s editorship that Sandesh became a unique magazine that brought together humor and humor with literary flavor and information about science and the world.

Later Sukumar Roy’s son the great Satyajit Roy along with Subhash Mukhopadhyay took over the editorship of this magazine. Many of Satyajit Ray’s works were first published here. While Upendrakishore Roychowdhury and Sukumar Roy’s ‘Sandesh’ was meant to entertain children mainly, this duo made it attractive to the youth as well. Leela Majumder, Premendra Mitra, Narayan Sanyal, Sonkho Ghosh, and many others write for this magazine.

Witten by- Joy Gure

Edited by- Kritika Sharma