Dr. Ameya Chakravarty

Dr. Ameya Chakravarty, who was teaching religion at Boston University, and who had been the personal secretary of Rabindranath Tagore, invited Shri Nathji to his home at Boston in 1964 and heard him in rapt attention. Shri Nathji gave him a warm embrace upon parting, and left his blessings with the man.

Amiya Chakravarty (1901-1986) was a major Indian (Bengali) poet, essayist, international scholar, critic, teacher of the post-Tagorian era. He was secretary to Rabindranath Tagore for some years (1924-1933), a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi and a friend of Albert Einstein. He walked with Gandhi in the historic Salt March of 1930. Amiya Chakravarty lived the second half of his long and illustrious life in the US. A D.Phil from Oxford University, Amiya taught at Selly Oak College, Birmingham, UK, Calcutta University, India, and in the US first at Howard University, next at Yale and Princeton as a visiting fellow and finally for many years at Boston University as a professor of Comparative Oriental Religions and Literature in the department of Missions and World Religions. In addition, he served as a delegate to the United Nations for India  Amiya won many awards most notably a UNESCO Prize and the Sahitya Academy (Government of India) Award (1963). His poetry is undergoing a resurgence. In the wake of globalization, scholars are tempted to revisit Chakravarty's poetry which lights the torch of humanism and global vigil.