Remembering Sandip Dutta, Who Built Little Magazine Movement Book By Book

Sandip Dutta, a poet, an essayist and a librarian, whose name in the last forty years has become synonymous with little magazine movement in West Bengal, passed away on 15 March 2023. 

Dutta single-handedly established a library for little magazines which has been one of the chief resources for the researchers working on important but not so well-known writers of Bengali literature (writing mostly in little magazines) ever since its establishment. 

Not only in Kolkata Book Fair but also in several other book fairs and little magazine fairs held across the state, the sight of Dutta wearing a cap and t-shirt on which are written slogans for reading and buying little magazines was pretty common for last 30 years. The demise of Dutta is a huge blow to the little magazine movement of West Bengal. 

When Dutta was just 21, while visiting the National Library in Kolkata, he found that some little magazines covered by dust were kept disregard in a corner. This sight and the common disrespect for little magazines that he found in the large and reputed libraries of West Bengal made him think of establishing a library exclusively meant for little magazines. 

In 1978, Dutta actualised his dream by establishing ‘Kolkata Little Magazine Library and Research Centre’ in his own small two-room residence in Tamer Lane, Kolkata. With time, the library grew in size and became a storehouse of rare Bengali little magazines published not only in West Bengal but also in Bangladesh and in other states of India. 

The library, for instance, has in its possession the inaugural issue of Bangadarshan, the magazine edited by none other than Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, published in 1872. The library can also boast of curating a rare journal published by Calcutta Police during the British rule as also of preserving journals published in miniature forms. 

The library also has a journal printed on an actual palm leaf. It has preserved a number of little magazines which have now perished and can only be found in the library. Dutta, in particular, had a preference for collecting and preserving those magazines which were truly avant-garde. Once in an interview with Maitrayee B. Chowdhury, he said, “There are so many good magazines which had to shut down, either because of the lack of funding or because they were far ahead of the times. But what is very interesting is that these magazines weren’t looking at publishing well-known names or a certain type of writing. In fact, these magazines were truly avant-garde.” The library now has almost 1 lakh books and 150 life members. 

All through his life, Dutta went on promoting those little magazines which encourage experimental writings and are not published only to make profit. In fact, with the two important slogans mentioned above, later he added a third one: “Be selective in reading little magazines.”

This new slogan reveals how he was aware of the fact that some little magazines, with time, cease to remain ‘little’ and make profit-making their sole goal. In a recent essay, he also urged the publishers to read little magazines to find out manuscripts worthy to be published as books: “In rural Bengal, important writings of different authors lie in the form of manuscripts. One can find on the pages of little magazines such literary gems. Publishers must find them out (my translation).” All through his life, Dutta went on writing ceaselessly on the ideological and other related aspects of little magazines. He edited an English little magazine, All India Little Magazine Voice and wrote a book, Little Magazine Bhabna (Thoughts on Little Magazine). 

Posterity will remember Dutta for playing a pioneering role in conceiving the Little Magazine Fair, a fair organised annually by the state government of West Bengal and dedicated only to the selling and buying of little magazines. With time, this fair has grown in volume and now is an important event in the state’s literary calendar. As Dutta wished, unlike a common book fair, this fair has become a winter event in which innumerable sellers offer their little magazines and books to enlightened and progressive readers. 

A few years ago, when this fair was shifted from the Nandan Complex of Kolkata (where it was being held since the beginning), a parallel little magazine fair was organized by the editors and publishers of a few little magazines. Dutta became the backbone of this new fair too. Later, the fair organised by the government came back to the Nandan Complex but Dutta was neglected by the organisers of the fair, probably because of his involvement in organising the alternative fair. In one of his Facebook posts, he once expressed his grievance for not getting even an invitation letter from the organisers of a fair which began its journey on the basis of his proposal. 

All through his life, Dutta remained an iconoclast. He dedicated his life to magazines which are called ‘little’ not because of their size and importance but because of the lack of support of the government or the capital. By preserving such magazines and encouraging researchers to work on authors who are immensely important but neglected by commercial magazines, major publishing houses and media alike, he went on promoting writings which are offbeat and experimental. 

Dutta's life proves that an individual having dedication and commitment to unselfish work can himself become an institution. His work reveals the strength of an individual in impacting the opinion of the intelligentsia and in forming platforms that could be alternatives to the ones controlled by government and corporate houses. 

In fact, for running his library, he never sought financial help from the government. He was also unwilling to hand over the library to either government or industrialists. In fact, in the interview mentioned above, he even said, “Ideally, it [the library] should be run by booklovers, archivists, researchers, people who value and relevance of what I have here.” 

After his death, like-minded and progressive editors, publishers and workers of little magazines of West Bengal should join hands to run the library as an independent venture.