Identity: Researcher, critic, and translator of Urdu and Bengali language and literature

Shanti Ranjan Bhattacharya was born on September 24, 1930, in Masura village of Faridpur district (now Bangladesh). His father, Baikuntha Nath Bhattacharya, was an employee in the railway department of the Nizam State of Hyderabad. In 1937, the family relocated to Hyderabad, where he studied at Mahboob College High School in Secunderabad and developed an extraordinary command over the Urdu language. Since his student days, he actively participated in literary activities and remained associated with local literary circles.

In his youth, he was deeply influenced by the Telangana People's Movement, and against this backdrop, he penned his first novel, Dharti Se Akash Tak, which was serialized in an Urdu daily. He began his journey in journalism and column writing in 1953, and moved to Calcutta in 1956. There, he took over the editorship of the Urdu weekly Film Weekly. Later, in 1965, he was appointed as an Urdu translator and English proofreader in the Department of Information and Public Relations, Government of West Bengal, from where he retired in 1988.

Shanti Ranjan Bhattacharya is widely recognized as a pivotal figure in strengthening the literary and cultural ties between the Urdu and Bengali languages. He carried out invaluable research work on the contributions of Bengali writers to Urdu literature. His acclaimed book Bengali Hinduon Ki Urdu Khidmat received phenomenal appreciation, and for this masterpiece, he was honored with the prestigious Rabindra Puraskar by the Government of West Bengal in 1966.

His prominent publications include Rah Ka Kanta, Shair Ki Shadi, Manzil Kahan Teri, Zameen Se Aasman Tak, Urdu Aur Bengal, Bengal Mein Urdu Zaban-o-Adab, Ghalib Aur Bengal, Iqbal, Tagore Aur Nazrul, Urdu Adab Aur Bengali Culture, and Rabindranath Thakur: Hayat-o-Khidmat. He translated several Bengali books into Urdu, including Bibhutibhushan's famous novel Chander Pahar (Moon Mountain), and translated Rajinder Singh Bedi's classic Urdu novel Ek Chadar Maili Si into Bengali.

He played a stellar role in introducing the rich literary heritage of Urdu and Bengali languages to each other.

Death: Shanti Ranjan Bhattacharya passed away on September 15, 1993, in Calcutta.