Former colleagues of Swapan Chakravorty, who had taught English at Jadavpur University and passed away on September 25, lauded his “institutional commitment” as much as his scholarship at an online memorial meeting on Wednesday.
The meeting was attended, among others, by JU emeritus professor Sukanta Chaudhuri, who had taught Chakravorty at the erstwhile Presidency College before they became colleagues.
“More generally Swapan had a deep institutional commitment for instance, as Samantak (Das, professor of comparative literature and JU pro-vice-chancellor) said. He took a great interest in the affairs of the institution, Jadavpur University, which appeared in focus when he took charge of coordinating the NAAC visit in 2011,” said Chaudhuri. He had shown the same commitment as the director-general of the National Library.
Malabika Sarkar, vice-chancellor of Ashoka University and a former professor in JU’s English department, said she had sought his guidance in developing the library at the private university.
“When in 2019 I was persuaded to take up vice-chancellorship at Ashoka, I phoned him, saying Ashoka does not have the library it needs to have…. As the library adviser... he did meticulous work of such high level,” said Sarkar.
Supriya Chaudhuri, also a JU emeritus professor, said Chakravorty would be remembered for “starting off on new trends of thoughts”. “What a brilliant mind Swapan was, incredible memory for scholarly details, how he could give you references you were looking for and starting off on new trends of thoughts!” she said.
JU vice-chancellor Suranjan Das attended the meeting.