Sukanta Bhattacharya

Sukanta Bhattacharya was a Bengali poet and playwright. Along with Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, he was one of the key figures of modern Bengali poetry, despite the fact that most of his works had been in publication posthumously. During his life, his poems were not widely circulated, but after his death his reputation grew to the extent that he became one of the most popular Bengali poets of the 20th century. He has had a significant influence on poet Subhas Mukhopadhyay and composer Salil Chowdhury who set some of his popular poems to music.

The poetry of Sukanta Bhattacharya is characterised by rebel socialist thoughts, patriotism and humanism. Yet, it is characterised by romanticism as well. Sukanta Bhattacharya was born on 15 August 1926 in Kolkata, India.  His parents was Nibaran Chandra Bhattacharya and Suniti Devi .

 Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the former Chief Minister of West Bengal is his nephew-the son of his cousin. Sukanta was born at his maternal grandfather's house at Kalighat, Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal), although his family hailed from the village of Kotalipara in Faridpur of modern-day Bangladesh.

Sukanta spent his childhood at their house at Nibedita Lane, Bagbazar.  Sukanta  joined the Communist Party of India in 1944. He edited an anthology named Akal (Famine), which was published by the Anti-Fascist Writers' and Artists' Association, in the same year. He was a close friend of the poet Shubhas Mukhopadhyay. He was the editor of the Kishore Sabha (youth section) of the Bengali daily organ of the party, Dainik Swadhinata, since its inception in 1946. On 13 May, he died of tuberculosis at the Jadavpur T. B. Hospital (later, K. S. Roy T. B. Hospital) in Calcutta at a very young age of 21.

A comprehensive account of the poet's life can be found in Kabi Sukanta Bhattacharya O Sei Samay written by the poet's youngest brother, Amiya Bhattacharya. Prodigious Sukanta's poetry was published in magazines while he was alive, and except for Chharpatra his books were all published posthumously.

His works are deeply marked and influenced by his communist experience. One of his shorter poems name "Hey Mahajibon" from the book Chharpatra compares the moon with a burnt roti, a prosaicness born of hunger.