Leading book retailer Starmark, in association with Penguin, organised an interesting and thought-provoking conversation about the book India’s First Radicals: Young Bengal and the British Empire by renowned literary scholar Ms. Rosinka Chaudhuri.

Readers, scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Indian history came together for a potent evening of discussion and introspection. The conversation focused on the daring and frequently disregarded tale of Young Bengal, a group of intellectuals and students in 19th-century Calcutta who dared to challenge social norms and colonial authority.

During the event, Ms. Rosinka Chaudhuri spoke with two renowned cultural figures: Mr. Samik Bandopadhyay, a renowned art and literary critic, and Mr. Ananda Lal, a renowned academic and theatre critic. The session provided a rich examination of the book’s main themes and was expertly moderated by writer and editor Ms. Anjum Katyal, whose insightful questions and observations steered the conversation. The panel discussed the Young Bengal movement’s importance, its relationship to India’s wider intellectual awakening, and its continued relevance in the modern era.

The book provides a gripping account of the early intellectual uprising in India. It chronicles the Young Bengal movement, which was spearheaded by Hindu College students and motivated by their iconoclastic instructor, Henry Louis Vivian Derozio. During a period of conservative rule and foreign dominance, these young brains promoted liberty, reason, and reform. This book is an outstanding addition to Indian historical scholarship because of Ms. Chaudhuri’s research, which illuminated their values, bravery, and the sociopolitical difficulties they encountered.

Attendees hailed the evening as enlightening and inspiring, and it served as a reminder of the transformative power of intellectual courage and youth-led dissent.

Priyanka Dutta