Durga Charan Primary School, where Saratchandra studied in his initial days. Picture by Ashutosh Kumar

Bhagalpur, Sept. 16: The silk city boasts of a deep connection with late Saratchandra Chattopadhyay.

All of seven years, the great Bangla novelist had come here in 1884 to stay at his maternal uncle’s house. He began his early education at the Durga Charan Balak Vidyalay here (now Durga Charan primary school).

Years later, Sarat Chandra went on to pen famous Bengali novels like Devdas, Pathar Dawi, Srikant. His novels have been translated in as many as 17 languages but non-Bengalis still learn the language to be able to be able to read the original versions.

Today, the school where Saratchandra learnt to read and write Bengali, does not have a single Bengali-speaking student. “There are 148 Hindi-speaking students in this school and we are compelled to adopt Hindi as the medium of teaching here,” said Dipali Shynal, head mistress of the school.

“We have no other options but to send our wards to English or Hindi-medium government schools. Our new generation here has no opportunity to learn Bengali,” said Amlan Dey a former student.

The school, established by Raja Shivchandra Banerjee (maternal grandfather of actors Ashok Kumar and Kishore Kumar) in 1860, is in a dilapidated state.

“State PHED minister and local BJP MLA Ashwani Kumar Choubey have not yet responded to our request for renova-tion of the school,” claimed many community members. The district does not even have any big plans to celebrate the 133rd anniversary of Saratchandra on September 17.

Post-graduate department of Bengali in Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University (TMBU) is planning to pay tribute to the legendary writer with its limited students, most hailing from Bengal.

“It is ironical that Sarat Chandra, who once who depicted Bhagalpur in his works, has today become irreverent in this city,” said Sharmila Bagchi, head of the Bengali department at TMBU.

Bagchi’s predecessor, Binoy Kumar Mahata, who earlier founded Sarat centenary committee (SCC) in 1977, said a number of Bengalis have migrated from Bhagalpur in the past few years. This has led to a decline in the number of students keen to learn Bangla.

Mahata said in 1977, the SCC had organised a weeklong function to mark the 100th anniversary of Saratchandra. Later, in the same year, the postgraduate Bengali depart-ment had been started in TMBU in honour of the writer.

The SCC stopped organising anniversary function from 1999 in want of proper patronage. “We are yet to install a statue of this great writer in this city as the local administration has failed to give land for the purpose,” said Bilash Kumar Bagchi, vice president of Bihar Bengali Association.