The word sahaj means easy. For a book, albeit a primer, that bears the word as part of its title, Sahaj Path has never had an easy existence.
Notwithstanding that it was conceived by Rabindranath Tagore in 1930, Sahaj Path had a restricted reach for a long time. In 1969, the United Front government officially made Sahaj Path I and II part of the school curriculum in West Bengal. But it was not long before the Left Front government raised its raucous cry of “withdraw Sahaj Path” saying it was not representative enough and also not in sync with the times. Then with the turn of the millennium, came the latest onslaught.
Since the expiration of Visva-Bharati’s copyright in 2001, other publishers have come up with their editions of Sahaj Path. And here’s the thing, they began to replace the original illustrations. If it was a trickle then, now it is the accepted trend.
The illustrations in the original are by the legendary Nandalal Bose.
The black-and-white drawings, be it of the crawling baby or the howling dogs or the village scenery, mimic the forms of the letters they accompany as well as the sounds they produce.
Artist Subrata Chowdhury draws attention to the illustration with the letters O and Ou. It shows a woman cooking on an earthen stove. He says, “Notice the delicate design on the pot, the border of her sari, the steam rising from the vessel. These details speak of domestic bliss. It tells a story. That’s linocut for you.”
“Those drawings, they aren’t accessories. They are pedagogy incarnate. The text and the paintings share a soul connection,” says Tamal Bhattacharya, who teaches Bengali at Ramakrishna Mission Centenary Primary School in Baranagar in north Calcutta.
Some of the school principals and teachers The Telegraph interviewed — they do not want to be identified — argued that the new versions with their new illustrations aren’t devoid of merit. They say that parents of students demand colourful school texts “like the English textbooks”. Chowdhury himself has done a whole set of visuals for one such reprint. Others say parents want tweaked versions with activities at the end of every chapter.
The first poem in the first part has a drawing sitting atop it. A tiger in a forest, birds on trees, trees bearing fruits, fish in water... And all of it ensconced in a circle. The art gives voice to the interconnectedness of the natural world that the poem visualises.
“The first part of the book was illustrated using the linocut method,” says Chowdhury. He continues, “It’s a relief printing technique. First, you carve the image into a linoleum block, roll ink over it and press it onto paper. The result? Bold lines, and more importantly, stark emotion.”
Bobbyta Saha, who teaches Bengali at Calcutta’s Mahadevi Birla World Academy, says, “Yes, the exercises at the end help children learn better. However, I personally feel that the original touched the soul.” She continues, “That sketch of the farmer bending in the paddy field, sickle in hand. The posture, the curve of the sickle. The scene, the precision of Nandalal’s magic...”
Sahaj Path II is a collection of self-contained essays or stories, call them what you may. They are meant to be a child’s introduction to the Bengali juktakkhor or conjoined letters. The images in volume II are said to resemble the style of Ajanta murals.
“The white space in the line drawings is deliberate and meant for children to fill in with their chosen colours,” reads the Publisher’s Note from 1930.
Sreemoyee Sengupta Kar, whose daughter is in primary school, says what parents’ want cannot and should not be the reason to replace the work of a titan like Bose.
She says, “I can clearly tell the difference between what I had and what my daughter is learning from.”
Ashis Pathak, who is deputy manager at Visva-Bharati’s publishing department, says, “Rabindranath’s words and Nandalal’s drawings — they weren’t made in isolation. They spoke to each other and supplemented each other. You break that conversation, and the soul of the book weakens.”
Some schools, however, continue to hold on to the old version; Ramakrishna Mission Centenary Primary School is one such.
Says Bhattacharya, “We still use the original. For us, Sahaj Path is not just a book. It’s Tagore’s vision. And Nandalal gave it eyes.”