Kylas Chunder Dutt: First Indian writer of fiction in English

The book has been edited and introduced by Kalyan Chunder Dutt, former Principal and Emeritus Professor of Scottish Church College, who is also from the illustrious Dutt family of Kolkata that excelled in many ways.

Kylas Chunder Dutt's father Rosomoy was the first Indian puisne judge and first Indian secretary of Hindu College, according to historical notes. His niece was the famous poet Toru Dutt, daughter of his brother Govin Dutt.

The book, which was unveiled at a function in the Press Club, Kolkata, puts on record the archival discovery of the lost writings of Kylas Chunder Dutt (1817-1859).

As an eighteen year old student of Hindu College, Kylas Chunder was the first Indian to pen a fiction in English . His first story was published in the ‘Calcutta Literacy Gazette’ of 1835.

Apart from Kalyan Chunder Dutt, others present at the programme were Sahitya Academy award-winning author Binod Ghoshal, best-selling author Binayak Bandhyopadhya, veteran journalist Ranjan Bandopadhyay and film-director Aniket Chattopadhyay.

Said Kalyan Chunder Dutt: ‘This book project took a long time because I had to gather data from different sources.  My appointment as principal in Scottish Church College also slowed down the work. But finally I managed to complete it."

He thanked the online coordinator of the book, Vineeta Dutt.

Apart from the book-launch, there was also a panel discussion on ‘Nineteenth Century Literature in Bengal.’

The event concluded with a reading from the book by Dr. Arpita Mukherjee of Scottish Church College. 

The price of the book is Rs. 1,500 and will be available at all leading online bookstores Amazon.in, Amazon.com, Flipkart, Infibeam, Snapdel, shopclues, E-bay.in and Power-Publishers.com.

(Reporting by Ayana Chatterjee, Images by Avishek Mitra/IBNS)