Background
Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta was born to Kumudchandra Guhathakurta and Srimati Sumati on 10 July 1920 in Mymensingh town.
humanist Masters Bengali educator
Jyotirmoy Guhathakurta was born to Kumudchandra Guhathakurta and Srimati Sumati on 10 July 1920 in Mymensingh town.
Guhathakurta then got himself admitted in the Department of English of Dhaka University and graduated with honors in 1942, and was first in the class. He completed his masters the following year in the same institute.
He was one of the Bengali intellectuals killed by the Pakistan Army during the 1971 Dhaka University massacre on the night of 25 March 1971. They were originally from Barisal. After matriculating in 1936 from Mymensingh Zilla School, he joined Presidency College in Kolkata to study Intermediate Science.
But he could not attend his final exams there because of typhoid.
He came back to Mymensingh and took admission in Ananda Mohan College from where he passed Intermediate Arts in 1939. His excellent academic results caused him to earn the Pope Memorial Gold Medal in Literature.
Guhathakurta taught in a number of colleges from 1944 to 1949, such as, Department of Administration and Management College, Mymensingh, Gurudayal College, Kishoreganj, and Jagannath College, Dhaka. In 1949 he joined Dhaka University as lecturer in English.
In 1963 he went to King"s College, London University, on a British Council scholarship to do doctoral work on "Classical Myths in the Plays of Swinburne, Bridges, Sturges, Moore and Eliot".
In 1967, Guhathakurta returned to Dhaka University and was promoted to Reader, a position he held till his death. A highly successful teacher, Guhathakurta instilled in his students a love for good literature and the humanist ideals that he cherished all his life. After midnight 25 March 1971, Professor Jotirmoy Guhathakurta was shot in the dark by the Pakistani Army just outside the University building where he lived while at the same time another professor Doctor A.N.M. On the 27th of March, he was taken to the hospital which was almost deserted except for the wounded, with a handful of doctors to attend.
After two days with hardly a regular medical attendant, he died due to severe loss of blood.
Maniruzzaman, and three members of Doctor Maniruzzaman"s family was shot in the landing of the stairwell of the same building.