There were also moments when both merged.
In fact, standing just 10 years away from a remarkable centenary year, it was impossible to tell who/what was the bigger star – the man or his creation. At another level the frail ‘mastermoshai’ could also be compared with Ranjitsinhji (1872-1933) the prince and the cricketer, who took the British by utter surprise with the willow in their own game in their homeland. In a sense, that put him in the same bracket with Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray (1861-1944) who urged people to take to entrepreneurship as a step towards ‘liberation’, and Rajshahi’s Maitra brothers – Nani Gopal and Shankaracharya – who founded Sulekha Works in 1934 to generate employment in Indian companies. Rarely earlier was a book written in a rebel act – Sarkar did not take the life of a single British with a bullet or a bomb, but he successfully killed British vanity with his book. On Monday, the 90th year of the publication of the book, Sarkar’s family members and a few prominent citizens celebrated the golden jubilee edition of the historic book. The rebel was Prafulla Kumar De Sarkar, and his book High English Grammar and Composition quickly became a bible to countless Bengalis trying to learn correct English. Snubbed by the officious librarian, the man kicked his job, took up teaching and compiled a book on English grammar – quite an act of rebellion during the Raj when students and teachers swore by Henry Watson Fowler and John Nesfield. Generations of Bengalis who are proficient in English, and also less skilful ones who managed to pass their school exams, ought to be grateful to the librarian of Martin Burn who refused entry to a young Bengali employee in the library that was reserved only for the British.
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