410. Phanindranath Mukhopadhyay (1897-1981)

Phanindranath Mukhopadhyay was born in Agarpara, 24-Parganas, in 1897.He was a social activist, a Journalist, and a Litterateur. He is best known as an editor of "Bharatbarsha" [ now non-existent]. He served in that post for 35 years.

{Bharatvarsa  a Bangla journal originally edited by the famous dramatist dwijendralal roy (1863-1913). The journal appeared in June 1913 (1 Asadh, 1320 BS). Phanindranath Mukhopadhyay edited the journal for a long time.

From the very first issue, the Bharatvarsa created a sensation by publishing six multi-coloured plates of drawings by eminent painters. The fields covered in subsequent issues include literature, science, fine arts, religion, philosophy, history and archaeology. Novels, short stories, drama, poetry, lyrics, travel, reviews etc were its regular features.

From the very first issue, one of the popular sections was ‘Photography’. Many rare photographs with editorial notes were published in this section. Sections like Sports, Women, Children, Cinema, Literary news, current news (both national and international), Cartoon were added from time to time. Besides books, Gramophone records were regularly reviewed.

The Bharatvarsa played an important role in the development of Bangla language and literature.sharat chandra chattopadhyaya (most of his novels were serialised in it), tarashankar bandyopadhyaya, bibhutibhushan bandyopadhyaya, Banaphool (balaichand mukhopadhyay), Premendra Mitra, Narain Gangopadhyaya, Samaresh Bose, Ashapurna Devi, Annadashankar Roy,jasimuddin were regular contributors to the Bharatvarsa. Linguist suniti kumar chatterji, historianramesh chandra majumdar, archaeologist rakhaldas bandyopadhyay, scientist prafulla chandra ray and meghnad saha, criminologist Panchanan Ghosal, magician pc sorcar wrote numerous articles in the journal.

The journal was so popular that many libraries contain complete sets, but its complete index is yet to be published.  [Indrajit Chaudhuri]}

He was a follower of Bipin Behari Gangulee in his student life. He participated in Non-cooperation movement in 1921.He accompanied Gandhiji as an interpreter during his visit to East Bengal in 1925. He was an editor of "Banglar Katha" daily paper founded by Subhas Chandra in 1927.He joined Quit India movement in 1942. He became Presiden of Barrackpore Congress Committee in 1946 and was elected in Assembly Seat there in 1952. His active participation to the service of flood victims of North Bengal attracted the sight of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy.