Suresh Biswas
সুরেশ বিশ্বাস
Lieutenant Colonel Suresh Biswas
Born1861
Nathpur, Nadia, Bengal, British India
Died22 September 1905 (aged 44)
Brazil
Occupation(s)Ringmaster, Doctor, Soldier

Captain Suresh Biswas (1861 – 22 September 1905) was a famous 19th-century adventurer from India.

Life

Suresh Biswas was born in 1861 in Nathpur, Krishnaganj CD block) in Nadia district in Bengal Presidency. He ran away from home as a teen and worked as a timber camp care taker in the Taungoo forest for a while. Biswas had travelled to England as a stowaway at age fifteen. After he arrived in England he drifted through several occupations, before becoming an animal trainer in a circus in Kent. He travelled with the circus to Hamburg. After that, he migrated to Brazil (probably one of the first Indians to do so), and fought valiantly in the Brazilian army (late 19th century). He was made a Lieutenant in the army (and a Captain too, later). In spite of showing remarkable courage during the upsurge of rebellion he was not properly felicitated simply because of racial discrimination (he was after all a non white Hindu Asiatic in the white dominated catholic Brazil). He is often mistakenly mentioned as Col. Suresh Biswas. He was made Captain, not a Colonel in the Brazilian Army.[1]

Suresh Biswas however settled down in Brazil as he found his love there and was enchanted by the natural beauty of the country. He died in Rio de Janeiro in 1905. He was buried in Cemitério São João Batista, Rio de Janeiro, but the tomb was destroyed by the authorities in 1911, just six years after his death.

Though there is little evidence on Biswas's life - only six letters that he wrote to his uncle and some recently excavated circus posters and social records - Suresh Biswas has been the subject of a renewed interest as evidenced by the reprint of his 1899 biography.[2] It includes an essay by Maria Barrera-Agarwal which provides evidence that validate Biswas's claims.[3] A research-driven biopic-screenplay by Indranil Chakravarty has been published from Australia.[4] A detailed discussion of Biswas' context, and an examination of the biographical sources has been published from New Zealand.[5] Chakravarty presents Biswas's life-narrative "as a non-Western, non-elite 19th century cosmopolitan, thereby constructing a counter-narrative to the dominant discourse of cosmopolitanism as a matter of exclusive Western, elite privilege".[6]

Trivia

Biswas was mentioned in Satyajit Ray's novel "Chhinnamastar Abhishap" (Trans: The Curse of the Goddess), featuring the famous fictional detective, Feluda[7] and also in "Du Chakay Duniya" by first Indian globe trotter Bimal Mukherjee.

Famous Bengali Comics strip creator Mayukh Chowdhury created a Bengali comics named 'Bangadesher Ranga' on him featuring him in the midst of the jungles in Brazil.

Colonel Suresh Biswas's name was also referred in the short story "Biswas Moshai" by Banaful (Balai Chand Mukhopadhyay). Also he was mentioned in famous writer Hemendra Kumar Roy's story "Surjo Nogorir Gupotodhon",which belongs to Hemendra Kumar's famous Bimal-Kumar series.

Suresh Biswas is also mentioned in Subhas Chandra Bose autobiography.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "The Royal Bengal Lion-tamer". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  2. ↑ "How a teenager from Bengal become a famous circus performer in 19th century Brazil".
  3. ↑ "Captain Suresh Biswas, myth and reality".
  4. ↑ "Hometowns: A Biopic on Suresh Biswas".
  5. ↑ "Constructing a Biopic Screenplay: Fictional Invention in the Biopic with Scant Evidence".
  6. ↑ "Research Abstract".
  7. ↑ "Captain Suresh Biswas, myth and reality". Dhaka Tribune. 2 July 2016. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  8. ↑ Bose, Subhas Chandra Bose. An Indian Pilgrim. Hindustan Books. p. 59.
  • The Self-Image of Effeteness: Physical Education and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century Bengal by John Rosselli, Past and Present, No. 86 (Feb., 1980)
  • "The Effeminate and the Masculine: Nationalism and the Concept of race in Colonial Bengal" by Indira Chowdhury-Sengupta from The Concept of Race in South Asia edited by Peter Robb, 1995 Oxford Press
  • Upendra Krishna Banerji, Karnel Suresh Bishvas, (1900; second edition, Calcutta 1909-10) - biography of Colonel Suresh Biswas
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