Editorial August 2026
সুকান্ত স্মরণে / Remembering Sukanta
August 2026
Some poets belong to an age; a rare few belong to the conscience of generations. Sukanta Bhattacharya belongs to the latter.
Born into a time marked by colonial oppression, poverty, famine, war and social upheaval, Sukanta did not turn away from the harsh realities around him. He brought them into poetry with an extraordinary directness, transforming hunger into metaphor, suffering into protest, and the dreams of ordinary people into a language of hope. His poetry carries the urgency of a young voice that refused to remain silent in the face of injustice.
Sukanta's life was tragically brief. Yet the brevity of his life only makes the intensity of his poetic journey more remarkable. He wrote not from a distance, but from within the struggles of his time. The streets, the hungry child, the worker, the soldier, the mother, the broken household and the wounded homeland—all found a place in his poetic imagination. His famous declaration that “the world is astonished” becomes, in his poetry, both a cry of disbelief and an indictment of a world that has accepted suffering as ordinary.
But Sukanta was not merely a poet of despair or protest. Beneath his anger lived a profound tenderness—a longing for a world where human beings could live with dignity, where hunger would no longer dictate the meaning of life, and where hope could survive even among ruins. His poetry therefore remains remarkably contemporary: the questions he raised about hunger, inequality, freedom, war and human dignity continue to confront us.
CHINTON presents this special tribute not simply to remember a poet who died young, but to revisit a voice that remains startlingly alive. Through an article, poetry, sketch and recitations, we invite readers—especially those who may be encountering Sukanta for the first time—to listen to the rhythm of his words and discover the human heart beneath his revolutionary voice.
For those who know Sukanta, we hope this tribute will renew an old conversation. For those discovering him anew, we hope it will open a door.
He left us young.
His words did not.
They continue to speak—to question, to stir, to awaken.
CHINTON remembers Sukanta Bhattacharya.
Because some voices do not belong to the past. They belong to every generation that still dreams of a more humane world.
With warm regards,
Tasneem Hossain
Editor, CHINTON