Tridib Mitra

Tridib Mitra (born 31 December 1940) was an anti-establishment writer and part of the Hungry generation movement in Bengali literature of the 1960s. He emerges as one of the crucial figures of the Hungryalist constellation—those who extended and embodied the movement beyond its founding quartet. His work, including Ghulghuli (1965) and Hatyakando (1967), participates in what may be termed a poetics of abrasion: a language that resists lyric containment and instead foregrounds rupture, violence, and existential immediacy. The Hungry Generation itself (launched in 1961) was a deliberate affront to both colonial literary residues and bourgeois Bengali modernism. It sought to dismantle “preconceived colonial canons” and introduce a visceral, often obscene immediacy into literary language.

Tridib Mitra
Born	(1940-12-31)December 31, 1940 Kolkata, India
Pen name	Hari Mitra
Occupation	Poet, Activist, Writer, Humanitarian
Language	English Bengali
Literary movement	Hungry Generation
Notable works	Ghulghuli (1965) Hatyakando (1967) Bagh Barudh Chal (2023)
Spouse	Alo (Krishnakali) Mitra
Children	Titas Mitra Saptarshi Mitra
Relatives	Siladitya Sengupta Rhine Sengupta

Along with his wife, Alo (Krishnakali) Mitra, he edited Hungry generation magazines The Waste Paper (in English) and Unmarga (in Bengali). Through these magazines, the Hungryalists disseminated manifestos (over 100 between 1961–65), constructed a transnational avant-garde network and destabilised linguistic hierarchies by moving between Bengali and English.

Mitra and his wife started poetry readings in burning ghats, graveyards, river banks, and country liquor joints of Kolkata. They also delivered Hungry generation masks of demons, jokers and gods to the offices and houses of ministers, administrators, newspaper editors and other bureaucrats of the West Bengali establishment.

Childhood

From childhood, he used to raise various questions in his mind; against society, religion, and the distorted, sick faces of the state. For the masses, there was no protest or resistance; darkness loomed everywhere. In his life, there was no reconciliation between his ongoing education and reality. During this time, Tridib, along with his friends, began composing works that opposed established stability—rebellion against convention, and a bohemian way of life.

These experiences are reflected in Tridib's poetry. Tridib Mitra and Alo Mitra published the magazines Uttarshar and Waste Paper, which stirred considerable attention. In 1970, Prolapputra was published, and in 1972, Jwalanto. These two books created a stir among the literary circles and academicians of the time.

{{{1}}}

Works

• Ghulghuli (Poetry) 1965
• Hatyakando (Poetry) 1967

See also

• Falguni Roy
• Samir Roychoudhury
• Subimal Basak
• Shakti Chattopadhyay
• Malay Roy Choudhury
• Basudeb Dasgupta
• Sandipan Chattopadhyay

References

• An assessment of Mitra's Firebrand Discourse
• Tridib Mitra the poet
• Van Tulsi Ka Gandh by Phanishwar Nath 'Renu', Rajkamal Prakashan, Delhi (1984)
• Intrepid Edited by Carl Weissner, Buffalo, NY, US (1968)
• Salted Feathers Edited by Dick Bakken. Portland, Oregon, US (1967)
• City Lights Journal No 1, Edited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, San Francisco, California, US (1963)
• El Corno Emplumado No 9, Edited by Margaret Randall, Argentina (1964)
• Kulchur No 15 Edited by Lita Hornick, New York, US (1964)
• Indian Poetry Edited by Prof Howard McCord, Bowling Green State University, US (1965)
• Hungry Kingbadanti Written by Malay Roy Choudhury, Dey Books, Kolkata (1996)
• Hungry Shruti O Shastrovirodhi Andolon by Dr Uttam Das, Mahadiganto Publishers, Kolkata 700 144 (1986)

External links

• Tridib Mitra's Poetry of Protest
• Tridib Mitra and other Hungry generation members: Photographs
• TIME magazine news about the movement
• Tridib Mitra's paper on Hungryalist Influence on Allen Ginsberg