HISTORY OF THE DEPARTMENT

1955-1959: Origins

The Department of English, Gauhati University, came into being in 1955. It started with Sri Manikanta Ganguli joining the Department as a Lecturer on 2 August 1955. Dr Sukumar Ganguli, a distinguished medievalist and Chaucer scholar, joined the department as its first Professor on 12 September 1955. Sri Jyotibhusan Bhattacharyya, a distinguished alumnus of Calcutta University joined the department on 1.10.1955 and the first Master's Degree programme in English was organized with the requisite strength of staff. This was the three-member group that took it upon itself the responsibility of building a sound academic base for the department, with the legendary scholar K.K. Handiqui (1898-1982) at the helm of affairs as Vice-Chancellor of the university. Some of the finest educationists of the India -- of the likes of Professor S.C. Sengupta, eminent Shakespeare scholar and author of Shakespeare's History Plays were contributors to the development of an appropriate curriculum et al. Dr Hilton Francis and Dr Sudhangsu Charan Bhattacharyya served as part-time teachers of the department at the initial stage - the latter eventually joining the department as a whole-time lecturer on 28.2.59, followed by Sri G.V.L.N. Sarma and Sri Jambunathan Rao joining the department as lecturers.

1960 - 80

The sixties saw several bright young teachers joining the department, some of the most distinguished being Dr Amaresh Dutta who joined as a Reader on 17.3.60, Sri Motnahalli Surappa Prabhakar (Lecturer, 6.2.62), Sri Brajdeo Singh (Lecturer, 23.11.62.), Sri G. Rajaram Rao (1963), Sri Hirendranath Dutta (1964), Sri Bhola Banerjee (1965), Sri Dilip Kumar Barua (Reader, 1966), Sri Bhaben Barua (Lecturer, 1968) and Dr Hiren Gohain (1970). Dr Amaresh Dutta, a celebrated Shakespeare scholar and poet, is well-known for his two books, Shakespeare's Tragic Vision and Art, and The Captive Moments - the former a study of Shakespeare's tragedies and romances and the latter a collection of poems that won him international acclaim. Motnahalli Surappa Prabhakar went on a Fulbright Scholarship to the U.S.A. in 1964-65 and later earned his doctorate on "George Orwell and the Crisis in Civilization" from Mysore University, Karnataka. Dr Dilip Kumar Barua, Dr Hiren Gohain, Sri Hirendranath Dutta, and Sri Bhaben Barua have also distinguished themselves with their contribution to Assamese letters - poetry and criticism in particular. A brilliant alumnus of Calcutta, Delhi and Cambridge Universities, Dr Hiren Gohain is well-known for his two works on Shakespeare and Milton, namely, Nature and Art in Shakespeare and Tradition and Paradise Lost: A Heretical View. The thesis on which Dilip Kumar Barua earned his Ph.D. from Sheffield University, United Kingdom - Edward Carpenter 1844-1929: An Apostle of Freedom, was eventually published by the University of Burdwan in 1991.

Outstanding Individual Achievements of Faculty Members

Sri Bhaben Barua got the Sahitya Akademi award in 1979 for his collection of poems Sonali Jahaj and Dr Hiren Gohain in 1989 for his monograph Asamiya Jatiya Jibanat Mahapurusia Parampara. Dr Gohain was a visiting Professor at Delhi University in 1988 and Sri Bhaben Barua a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, during 1998-2001. Sri Hirendranath Dutta represented Assam a number of times at the national level poetry-meets held in Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Calcutta and was honoured with the Sahitya Akademi Award for his poetry in 2004. Dr Prafulla Kotoky's thesis on Indo-English poetry was brought out by the Publication Department of the University. This batch of the sixties thus put the department on a firm footing and the significant strides it made in teaching and research during the period 1960-80 may be attributed to the leadership of Professor Amaresh Dutta who headed the department for a record period of two decades, first as a Reader till May 1963 and then as a Professor (2.1.64 - February 1980).

1980s and After

The teachers who joined the department in the next few decades include Dr G.P.Sarma, Ms Gayatri Bhattacharyya, Ranjit Kumar Dev Goswami, Ms Anita Barua, Ms Aparna Bhattacharyya, Ms Nandana Dutta, Dr Pradipta Borgohain, Ms Asha Kuthari Chaudhuri and Ms Manashi Bora. Dr G.P. Sarma's Nationalism in Indo-Anglian Fiction (Delhi, 1978), a well-known work on the topic, is among the prescribed readings in several universities of the country. Professor Sukumar Biswas of the Department of Bengali, a distinguished philologist, taught the history of the English Language in this department from 1964 till his retirement in 1992. Professor Upendranath Sarma, formerly on the staff of the Department of English, Cotton College, Guwahati, also served here for a period of four years (1989-1993) as a guest faculty.

Visiting Scholars

This department has also attracted some outstanding scholars including Professor S.C.Sengupta, Professor Amalendu Bose, Professor V.K.Gokak, Professor C.D.Narasimhaiah, Professor Kitty Datta, Professor Subhash Mukhopadhyay, theatre personality Utpal Dutt, Professor Sisir Kumar Das, Professor Naresh Chandra, Professor Bhabatosh Chatterjee, Professor Amiya Dev, Professor Mrinal Miri, Professor Philip Gerber, Professor Huck Gutman, poets Richard Harteis and William Meredith, Professor P.C.Kar, eminent dancer Sonal Mansingh.