"রাজা সবারে দেন মান,    

সে মান আপনি ফিরে পান,

মোদের  খাটো ক'রে রাখে নি কেউ কোনো অসত্যে--

      নইলে মোদের রাজার সনে মিলব কী স্বত্বে?"

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT

The Bengali Department of the college is affiliated to the University of Calcutta. The Bengali Department was established in 1915. Initially, Pass Bangla was introduced. Later on Professor Arun Chad  Dutta, the former Head of Bengali Department upgraded the department to Honours level in the year 1964.

At present the Department comprises four full-time teachers and two part-time teachers and an average of 20 students per honours class. The department has its own staff-room and seminar library with a stock of approximately 2000 books for the use of the students and the staff. The Bengali department of the college has a stock of 5621 books.

Library books are purchased in accordance to the recommendation of the Department. In addition, for the purposes of holding departmental seminars, publications of departmental seminar proceedings etc., special but limited expense is granted by the college.

The Department actively encourages development of extracurricular talents amongst students such as sports, creative writing and fine arts. To encourage the students students are motivated to participate in the Departmental Seminars.

The dedicated faculty members of this department give special emphasis on literature, particularly on the genres of novel, drama, essays, criticism, poetry and short stories. A portion of the syllabus also covers the history of Modern Indian Languages, along with that of Bengali. Other linguistic aspects of the Bengali language like dialects, phonology, morphology and semantics are also taught. The syllabus also includes study on the histories of Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit and English literature. The aim of the department is to create an all–inclusive perspective in the minds of the students so that they develop their own literary vision.

VISION :

Presently the department offers courses in Bengali Honours, General and Compulsory. The department has an intake capacity of approximately 48 students. SC, ST and minority students are given special privilege during the admission.

All the teachers of the department share excellent terms with the students of the department and are involved in regular class teaching and various other academic and non-academic activities. Apart from academic studies, students of the department are encouraged to take part in different extra-curricular activities. The department also tries to organize excursions with the departmental students on regular basis.

All the members of the faculty are paper setters of various papers of the subject of Calcutta University. All the members of the faculty are University Examiners.

One of the members of the faculty is a member of the U.G. board of studies of the Bengali Department of the Calcutta University.

Presently there are 4 full time teachers in the department and 2 SACT Faculty members There were 5 full time posts in the department till 2003. One of the posts being a special post was discontinued by the government after the retirement of the post-holder.

Mission:

Approximately 20% of the students pursue for higher/PG studies every year.

UG level of studies being in midway between the college and university it’s always difficult to keep track of the college students once they leave the college. The College too does not have any scientific method of keeping track of the ex-students, unless and until they become member of the Alumni Association of the college. But whatever contacts we manage to keep with the students, we have seen that:

i). Roughly 20% of the students of our department pursue higher studies in different universities. This rate has started to increase for the last 3 years after different colleges have started to open PG Faculty (on NAAC recommendation).
ii). Approximately 15% of our students pursue their career in teaching jobs.
iii). Approximately 10% sits for competitive exams and lesser than that get absorbed in the process.
iv). Substantial no. of students approximately 25-30% gets engaged in different sales and marketing jobs.

Actually if ends and means are compared, it will be seen that we take students with average marks and groom them for three years to do their best at the highest level of degree course. Most of our students come from a very ordinary background but our faculty members impart their best to get the best out of them. But unfortunately after qualifying with Honours, only the best among them are able to get admission in the Post-graduate level. Others are forced to discontinue their studies. It’s true that keeping all these things in mind we often wonder and dream of a small Post-Graduate section for these students. But that wont be possible unless and until number of faculty members are increased by the UGC and we are provided with more infra-structural benefits.

WHY STUDY BENGALI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

One might ask, what is the utility of studying Bengali or taking Bengali in UG Level as a subject in time like this when AI and Chat GPT have taken over the space of writing and language skills?   The first question that comes up--Will it increase the employability of students studying Bengali literature and language? Well we will have to keep it in mind that Bengali is the 5th largest language spoken by people across the world. So definitely studying Bengali or taking it up as a subject will help the students pursuing a career after completing. As a subject in the new CCF syllabus, Bengali is opening up a vast horizon.

Obviously if one can clear the NET or SLET they can pursue their career in higher education as future academics. The areas in which they can research are:

Bengali literature itself.
Linguistics.
Comparative Studies.
Folklore studies.
Multi disciplinary studies in humanities.

Even if one fails to clear the NET or SLET one can teach in schools in primary or secondary levels after completion of B.Ed or PGT training.

TEACHING OR RESEARCH IS NOT THE ONLY OPTION, THERE ARE NUMEROUS OTHERS:

It is not necessary or even compulsory for students to pursue academics as their career after completion of the four year degree course or three year diploma or even the two year certificate course as has been structured and developed in the new CCF curriculum.

There are many other practical fields which students, studying Bengali language and literature, can explore:

They can become copy writers or copy editors.
Pursue their career in journalism with so many Bengali media houses at present.
Can become news readers or anchors in the electronic media houses.
Work in radio channels or become a podcaster.
Become a Bengali blogger in any field of their interests.
Work as translators.
Interpreters.
DTP operators.
Proofreaders.
Prepare for IAS, WBCS or other competitive examinations.

In the changing scenario Bengali as a language study gives a student various and vast opportunities for pursuing a career.