About Us

Welcome to Calcutta Comparatists 1919, a space dedicated to scholars and enthusiasts of the Humanities and Social Sciences, with a particular focus on Comparative Literature. We are a community of researchers, students, and educators who are passionate about exploring the Indian way of doing Comparative Literature. At Calcutta Comparatists 1919, we believe that comparative literature has the power to bring people together and to foster a deeper understanding of our shared humanity. Whether you are a student or a seasoned scholar, our platform is designed to provide you with the resources and opportunities you need to further your knowledge and to engage with your peers in meaningful discussion. So if you’re passionate about comparative literature and the Humanities and Social Sciences, be sure to follow us for more information and to stay up-to-date on the latest developments in the field. Join us today, and be a part of a vibrant and growing community of scholars and enthusiasts.

Our Trustees and Working Committee Members

Discover the dedicated team behind Calcutta Comparatists 1919. 

Dr. Mrinmoy Pramanick

President
Dr Mrinmoy Pramanick teaches in the Centre for Indian Languages, School of Language, Literature, and Culture Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He taught in the Department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature, at the University of Calcutta, and also served as the founder coordinator of the Centre for Translation and Literary Geography before joining JNU. He earned his MPhil in Translation Studies and PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Hyderabad. His areas of interest are translation studies, language and community, migration - refugee and border, and Dalit literature. He finished a UGC UPE II sponsored major project on the Indian exodus from Southeast Asia and worked on a project on Bengali Dalit Oral narratives. He has published, edited and translated thirteen books and several articles in reputed journals indexed by SCOPUS, and UGC-CARE, including Economic and Political Weekly. He is a Secretary of the Comparative Literature Association of India and president of Calcutta Comparatists 1919. He completed an ICHR-sponsored research project on the history of language studies in the Universities of Calcutta, Mumbai and Madras, and an ICSSR-sponsored project on the Migration of Adivasis from Bangladesh during Partition of India and Bangladesh Liberation War. He also completed another ICSSR ERC sponsored project on Toto PVTGs community and is currently working on an ICSSR sponsored project on Lodha PVTGs community. He translated Sharan Kumar Limbale’s Dalit Sahityache Soundarjya Shastra and Ganesh Devy’s Off Many Heroes into Bengali. Tilted Axis, London published his translation of Kalyani Thakur Charal's poems into English, I Belong to Nowhere. He has won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation in 2023 by the Government of India and received Charles Wallace India Trust Translation Fellowship 2025 at the BCLT, University of East Anglia, UK.
 

Email: mrinmoy@jnu.ac.in

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Dr. Aratrika Ganguly

Vice-President

Dr. Aratrika Ganguly holds a PhD from the Department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature at the University of Calcutta, Kolkata. She served as an Assistant Professor at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneshwar, from 2022 to 2023. Additionally, she was a Guest Lecturer in Comparative Indian Language and Literature at Narasinha Dutt College (Department of English), Gurudas College (Department of Bengali), and Bethune College (Department of Bengali), all in Kolkata. As the vice president of the research group Calcutta Comparatists 1919, she actively promotes scholarly discourse in her field. Aratrika completed her M.Phil. in Comparative Literature from Jadavpur University and worked as a UGC-UPE-II Project Fellow at the University of Calcutta. Her research interests include colonial and postcolonial studies, mining narratives, memory studies, subaltern and labour histories, African studies, indentured labour, and Nepali tea garden literature.

Email: aratrikaganguly.95@gmail.com

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Kingshuk Bandyopadhyay

Secretary

Kingshuk Banerjee is presently serving as an Assistant Professor of English at Shyambazar Law College, affiliated to the University of Calcutta and recognized by the Bar Council of India, New Delhi. He is also pursuing his PhD at the University of Kalyani. Prior to this, he completed his M.Phil in Folklore from the University of Kalyani and earned his Master’s degree from the Department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature, University of Calcutta. In addition to his current academic responsibilities, he is engaged as a Guest Lecturer in the Postgraduate Generic Elective course in Comparative Indian Language and Literature at the Department of English at Lady Brabourne College and Narasinha Dutt College, as well as the Department of Bengali at Gurudas College. He has actively participated in both national and international seminars, where he has presented scholarly papers on a range of literary and cultural topics. He also has several academic publications to his credit. His debut Bengali poetry collection, Libido Tomar Jotno Lalon, was published by Saptarshi Prakashan in 2018.

Email: textkingshuk@gmail.com

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Dr. Pratim Das

Jt. Secretary

Dr. Pratim Das is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Other Languages at GITAM School of Humanities and Social Sciences, GITAM (Deemed to be University), Hyderabad. With six years of teaching experience, he has previously taught at affiliated colleges of the University of Calcutta and MRIIRS, Faridabad. His research interests span Migration and Diaspora Studies, Partition Literature, Southeast Asian Studies, Religious Movement and Translation Studies. He holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Indian Language and Literature from the University of Calcutta and has been a recipient of the Overseas Endowment Travel Scholarship, the Asian Graduate Student Fellowship, and served as a UGC-UPE Fellow. His recent work on the Burmese diaspora, Indentured Labour, has been published in Economic and Political Weekly and the Journal of Migration Affairs. Dr. Das currently serves as the Assistant Secretary of Calcutta Comparatists 1919.

Email: pratimdas60gmail.com

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Shreya Datta

Treasurer

Shreya Datta is a Doctoral Researcher (UGC-JRF) in the Department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature at the University of Calcutta. Her research primarily engages with Medical Humanities, with a specific focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. She has taught in the postgraduate course in the Department of English at Lady Brabourne College, Kolkata. In addition to her academic work, she is an active translator, with few of her translations already published. She also holds experiences of working in a number of research projects. Her broader research interests include Translation Studies, South-East Asian Studies, Dalit Studies, and Comparative Indian Literature. Shreya holds a Postgraduate degree in Comparative Indian Language and Literature and a Bachelor’s degree in English, both from the University of Calcutta. She currently serves as the Treasurer of Calcutta Comparatists 1919.

Email: shreyadatta04@gmail.com

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Ayan Ghosh

Jt. Treasurer

Ayan Ghosh is a PhD Research Scholar (UGC-SRF) in the Department of Comparative Indian Language & Literature at the University of Calcutta. His research area for his PhD is Children's Literature in Translation. He has taught the course paper Modern Indian Literature in Translation in the P.G. course in the Department of English at Narasinha Dutt College, Howrah. He completed his Master’s and MPhil from the same department. He has been a recipient of the Overseas Endowment Travel Scholarship, University of Calcutta. He has experience working on various projects at different institutions and universities. He worked as a Junior Research Fellow at International School of Dravidian Linguistics, Trivandrum, and as a Project Fellow in the Department of English at Jadavpur University. In addition to Bengali, English, and Hindi, he also knows Telugu as a second language. His areas of interest include Translation Studies, Children's Literature, Digital Humanities and Environmental Humanities.

Email: ayanghoshlit@gmail.com

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Avijit Halder

Trustee Member

Avijit Halder is currently a PhD researcher and NFSC Fellow in the Department of Comparative Indian Languages and Literature, University of Calcutta. He completed his MPhil from the School of Women Studies, Jadavpur University. He has also worked as a Bengali Copy-Editor in the Jadavpur University Press (Publication), Jadavpur University. He is currently associated as a Trustee Member of Calcutta Comparatists 1919. He has taught the course paper Modern Indian Literature in Translation in the post graduate course in the Department of Bengali at Gurudas College, Kolkata. He has successfully worked as a Project Fellow in a research project of Paschimbanga Dalit Sahitya Akademi. He has also worked as a Project Fellow in a research project of the Jadavpur University Press (Publication), Jadavpur University. He has been associated with the UGC UPE-II research project for a long time. His areas of interest are Dalit literature, Partition literature, Folk literature, History of newspapers and magazines, Biographical literature, Literature of the Sundarbans, Classical Bengali literature, History of book publishing, etc. He has translated interviews and articles of several Dalit writers and they have already been published in various Bengali publications. Several of his articles on Dalit literature and other articles have also been published in various books and magazines appreciated by the readership. His edited book Adhphota Phul Beler Mala: Sundarbaner Paundrader Biyer Gaan was published by Tritiya Parisar Prakasana in 2024. Also, his most recent novel Pelema Khata Chele was published by Boibhasik Prakasana. He regularly writes on platforms like the so-called famous Bengali daily newspapers: such as Anandabazar Patrika, Robbar Digital.

Email: avijithalder126@gmail.com

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Biswajit Das

Trustee Member

Biswajit Das has completed his Post-graduation in English Language and Literature from the University of Calcutta in 2020. He is now a Senior Research Fellow, pursuing PhD, in the department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature, University of Calcutta. His research areas include autobiographical studies, Dalit literature, and Partition literature of Bengal. He has translated texts from Indian languages, especially from Bengali into English and has several published translations to his credit.

Email: biswajit0002b@gmail.com

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Oudarjya Pramanik

Working Committee Member

Oudarjya Pramanik is currently working as a Research Assistant in an Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR)-sponsored project titled "Language and Colony, Language and Nation: A History of Language Studies at the University of Calcutta, University of Madras and the University of Bombay" at the Department of Comparative Indian Language and Literature, University of Calcutta. He has also worked as a Field Investigator in a Paschimbanga Dalit Sahitya Akademi-sponsored project. Oudarjya’s published translations include contributions to few chapters of Oh Priest, Give Me the Seeded Banana (Hawakal Publishers) into English and few chapters of Aamar-o Kichu Bolar Achhe (Mandas), the Bengali translation of Siddalingaiah’s autobiography. His book reviews have appeared in The Antonym magazine and several other platforms. His areas of interest include historiography, Dalit literature, translation studies, migration literature, and colonial studies. He has been actively involved in archiving, translation, and transcription projects, with experience in working with rare manuscripts and multilingual materials across Bengali, English, Assamese, Sadri and Santali.

Email: oudarjyapramanik11@gmail.com

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Sudeshna Ghose

Working Committee Member

Sudeshna Ghose is currently working as a Research Assistant in an ICSSR PVTG sponsored project. Prior to this her research experience includes serving as Research Assistant on an ICSSR sponsored project examining partition narratives and tribal communities of East and North-east India, as well as working as Archival Assistant on an ICHR sponsored project on colonial language studies at Indian universities. She was also a Field Investigator in a Paschimbanga Dalit Sahitya Akademi sponsored project. She holds a Master's degree in Comparative Indian Languages and Literature from the University of Calcutta, and a Bachelor's degree in English (Honours) from Gokhale Memorial Girls' College, Kolkata. She has multiple published works. She has contributed in translating a few chapters in the collaborative Bengali translation of Siddalingaiah's autobiography Amaro Kichu Bolar Achhe published by Mandas Prakashan. She has presented papers at a number of national seminars. She translated Promod Purkait's short story "Trade" in English for Janajati Darpan. As a translator, she has served as an On-site Translator at TCS, Mumbai and as a Transcriptionist in a project called Real Fathers by CINI and Georgetown University. Being proficient in English, Bengali, Hindi and Korean, she continues her work as a freelance translator. Her areas of research interests includes Partition narratives, gender studies, cultural studies and translation studies.

Email: sudeshnaghose4444@gmail.com

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Dishari Mukherjee

Working Committee Member

Dishari Mukherjee is a Guest Lecturer in the Department of Bengali at Shri Shikshayatan College, Kolkata since January 2017 and in Loreto College since 2023 She holds an M.A. in Bengali from the University of Calcutta and has a M.Phil. in Comparative Indian Language Literature at the same university. In addition to her teaching and research interests, She has worked as a content writer at Hi-Tech Animation, a researcher in commercial movies, and as a coordinator for the West Bengal Government Pavilion at a National Ayurveda Conference. She was also a project fellow for a research initiative on Southeast Asian literature under Dr. Mrinmoy Pramanick contributed as a researcher for a commercial heritage film.
Beyond academics and writing, Dishari is an accomplished Indian classical dancer with a specialization in Bharatnatyam. She holds a Senior Diploma from the Allahabad Board Exam Centre and has been honoured with the national-level award Natyashree by the Utkal Yuva Cultural Society, Cuttack, Odisha.

Email: dishari.mail2016@gmail.com 

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Calcutta Comparatists 1919

Registration Number: IV-190200469/2022

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