Birinchi Kumar Barua

Birinchi Kumar Barua (born October 16, 1908,Puranigudam, Nagaon, Assam, India, died 1964) was a scholar and eminent 20th century littérateur of Assam. Barua was the pioneer in the study of folklore in northeast India, and was one of the many founders of Guwahati University. Barua's contributions to Assamese literature are significant, both as a novelist and as an early literary critic.^[1]

Biography

Early life and education

Birinchi Kumar Barua's father, Bijoy Ram Barua, was in the postal service and later served at the Assam secretariate at Shillong. Passing the matriculation examination with a first from Nowgong Govt High School in 1928, Birinchi left for Kolkata to pursue higher studies. There he was admitted into Presidency College. In 1930, Barua passed IA in first division and passed BA in 1932 with honours in Pali language. He obtained Ishan Scholarship for his outstanding performance in BA examination. In 1934, he passed MA in Pali language from Calcutta University, standing first in the university. Simultaneously, he studied law at Calcutta University. After completing his BA, Barua also passed the ICS examination, but the British government at that time refused to appoint him as an administrative officer on the ground that he could not ride horses.

In 1935, Calcutta University introduced Assamese as a modern language, and Barua was appointed as a teacher. He taught Assamese in the MA classes. Apart from teaching, he wrote a number of textbooks in Assamese for BA and MA classes of the university. After three years of teaching, he left Kolkata in 1938 and joined Cotton College as a lecturer in Assamese. In 1946, Barua left for England to read for a PhD.

By the time he left for England, he had written several short stories, a short history of Assamese literature, and perhaps one of the most important novels in modern Assamese literature, Jivanar Batot. In London, he was based at the School of Oriental and African Studies and completed his thesis on the cultural history of Assam. He was awarded a PhD degree in 1948, and his thesis later published as A Cultural History of Assam, is now regarded as a milestone in Assamese historiography.

Works