The Rays before Satyajit: Creativity and Modernity in Colonial India by Chandak Sengoopta

Author:Chandak Sengoopta [Sengoopta, Chandak]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: OUP India
Published: 2016-05-04T00:00:00+00:00

Epilogue

New Challenges, Old Values

After Sukumar passed away in 1923, the management of U. Ray & Sons as well as the editorship of Sandesh were taken over by Subinoy Ray (1890–1941), a rather orthodox Brahmo who was a talented writer in his own right.1 Neither he nor Sukumar, however, was a particularly gifted businessman. As early as in 1919, when Sukumar was healthy and at the helm of affairs, goods were being stolen and jobs done so unsatisfactorily that even Ramananda Chatterji, one of the Ray firm’s oldest and most loyal clients, had threatened to take his work elsewhere. Sukumar charged the office manager Karunabindu Biswas with neglecting the Rays’ work in order to develop his own (unspecified) business and proposed that he retire.2 Biswas stayed on, however—we do not know why or how—and after Sukumar’s death in 1923, the situation worsened rapidly. Leela Majumdar heard that the company had debts of 150,000 rupees and outstanding bills worth more than 200,000 rupees.3 If Majumdar’s information was correct, then the firm failed to collect what was owing to it, for Subinoy borrowed a hundred thousand rupees by mortgaging the house, the press, and the remaining land in Mymensingh to the wealthy Kundu family of Bhagyakul.4

Even that loan did not help clear the firm’s debts and the creditors refused to wait any longer. They even called in the police, who, mistaking Upendrakishore’s youngest son, Subimal, for Subinoy, arrested the hapless young man, who had to spend the night in gaol.5 Finally, in 1927—a mere twelve years after founder Upendrakishore’s death—U. Ray & Sons declared bankruptcy.6 The family mansion at 100A, Garpar Road, was purchased by the Athenaeum Institution, a nearby boys’ school, and Suprabha Ray was awarded a monthly sum for the education of her son as long as he was a minor.7 Every single object in the house—except the women’s jewellery—was put up for auction, with the young Satyajit, totally uncomprehending of the crisis, playing amidst the clutter with great enjoyment.8 The business, along with its trading name, was purchased by the same Karunabindu Biswas whom Sukumar had tried to remove. Biswas was a Brahmo and is said to have assured the Rays that he was purchasing the firm so as to allow the family to continue running it. He did not keep his promise. He continued to publish Upendrakishore’s books and those by other members of the family but did not pay any royalties. Old blocks continued to be used long beyond their lifetime and Biswas did not make any effort to maintain, let alone improve, the firm’s prowess in block-making.9

The passing of Sukumar and the collapse of the business could have crushed the Rays forever. (Problems with the East Bengal zamindari may also have contributed to this toxic mix but nothing seems to be known about this aspect. We do not even know who purchased the land that Upendrakishore had retained.) Members of the family scattered in all directions, moving in with relatives. Amazed by the fact that the celebrated

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