JHENIDAH Sept 24: A construction project on 'Journalist Kangal Harinath Memorial Museum' is going on in full swing at Kumarkhali municipality of Kushtia in order to keep the memorials of the pioneer pressman alive.
Kangal Harinath, a pioneer of country journalism, was born on 22 July, 1833 under Kumarkhali Pourashova in Kushtia and died on 18 April, 1896.
Harinath's disciples were Mir Mosharraf Hossain, Jolodhor Sen, Akkhoy Kumar Moitra, Dinenra Kumar and so on, sources said. A reliable source said that Mir Mosharrof Hossain's 'Bishad Shindhu' was printed at Harinath's press.
Kangal Harinath, firstly, published a hand-written monthly newspaper from his own village, secondly a fortnightly from Gireesh Chandra Press in Kolkata and lastly a weekly from his village home through a printing machine which has still been preserved in a library. The name of his newspaper was 'Grambarta Prokashika' said Dipankor Majumder, a 5th generation descendant of the journalist.
Harinath began journalism as a correspondent of poet Ishwar Chandra Gupta's 'Sambad Provakar'.
He started editing his first newspaper "Mashik Grambarta' in 1863, and his last publication was 'Shaptahik Grambarta' in 1885.
There goes a hearsay that Harinath lost his mother first at infancy and then lost his father at 7. The orphan was thrown into a well to be killed. However, he was rescued by local people and his 'milk fullo' grandmother brought him up.
He joined a service at an indigo centre (Nilkuthi) but he left the job after he had witnessed oppression and exploitation of the innocent commoners and employees there.
A flame of protest burned in Harinath that instigated him to publish 'Mashik Grambarta'.
Shahid Md. Kabir, Executive Engineer, Public Works Department (PWD), Kushtia told the FE, around 60 per cent work of the project, has already been completed, and the rest will be finished within June, 2015. To implement the project 27.75 decimals of land has been acquired and the total cost is Tk 64.20 million including construction of a two-storey building of an auditorium, a library and a memory-collection, etc., sculpture and furniture.
KM Rahatul Islam, Chief Nirbahi Officer, Zila Parishad, Kushtia told The Financial Express, that Kangal Harinath was a rare personality in the world of journalism. Thanks to the government, it has taken initiative to establish a museum through a govt.-funded project to preserve the invaluable machine, Harinath's own hand-written manuscript and other things used by the great man.
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