Name: Nilkantha Pal
Email: palnbmhs@gmail.com
Name of Supervisor: Dr. V. Rajesh
Research Focus: My study will focus on the world of Bengali juvenile periodicals/ magazines, published and circulated between 1870s and 1940s, and its complex relationship with the “ideal” childhood constructed by the colonized intelligentsia (the Bhadraloks) of Bengal. It will investigate how from a virtual non-entity in the colonial archives and indigenous memoirs of early- and mid- nineteenth century, juvenile magazines became an indispensable medium of pedagogy and entertainment in the hands of bhadralok parents for their children, from late nineteenth century onwards. Being part of an evolving literary culture, this world of Bengali juvenile magazines, however, did not remain static throughout this period. Focusing on certain major juvenile magazines, my research will analyse how these magazines, just like other literary periodicals for adult audiences, also underwent certain transformations or shifts in terms of their production and circulation as well as their linguistic forms, contents, presentations, illustrations etc. All these happened within the backdrop of rising anti-colonial nationalism in the subcontinent, as a result of which these periodicals too got engaged in the programme of cultivating a nationalist consciousness among the juvenile readers, though, as my work will show, in a complex manner.
Education: Introduction to Modern Social Thought (PhD course-work audited at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, 2022-23)
Master of Arts in History, Jadavpur University (2021)Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in History, Jadavpur University (2019)Fellowship/Scholarship: UGC-NET JRF
Title of Thesis: Children’s Magazines in Colonial Bengal: Childhood, Child Readers, and Bengali Print Market, c. 1880-1950
Achievements:
2023: Awarded a Minor Research Grant (₤250) by the Bibliographical Society, London, for a research trip to Dhaka, Bangladesh.
2021: University Gold Medal for standing First in order of merit at the M.A. Examination in History, Jadavpur University, 2021.
2021: Ratnalekha Roy Memorial Silver Medal for standing first in History at the M.A. Examination, Jadavpur University, 2021.
2020: Qualified West Bengal State Eligibility Test (SET) for Assistant Professor in History, January 2020.
2019: Qualified UGC-National Eligibility Test (NET) for Assistant Professor and Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) in History, December 2019.
2019: University Gold Medal for standing First in order of merit at the B.A. Examination in History (Honours), Jadavpur University, 2019.
2019: Umacharan Sen Memorial Gold Medal for securing the highest marks at the B.A. Examination in History, Jadavpur University, 2019.
Publications:
Pal, Nilkantha. “Fathers in a Motherland: Imagining Fatherhood in Colonial India by Swapna M. Banerjee, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2022, pp. xvii+317, ISBN: 9789391050245.” Gender and History. (Book Review).