Dr. Shankar Kumar Chatterjee
Jayasree Patrika, which appeared In 1931 in Dhaka as a Bengali periodical under the stewardship of revolutionary Leela Roy (nee Nag) had the blessings of the poet laureate Rabindranath Tagore who christened it and artist Nandalal Bose who drew cover art for the inaugural issue. The magazine dealt primarily with women’s empowerment, simultaneously aimed at instilling a sense of unity and patriotism in contemporary undivided Bengal in British India. The uniqueness of the Jayasree Patrika lay in the fact that it was managed and written entirely by women. Gradually the spirit of the then independence struggle, especially that of the revolutionary movement that had captured the imagination of the educated Bengali middle class led by Subhas Chandra Bose, the future Netaji and India’s liberator as its main protagonist took centre-stage. The Jayasree Patrika maintained an unbroken sequence of publication interrupted thrice, first in 1935 by Government order, after which it reappeared in 1938. The second occasion was when its founder editor Leela Nag was arrested in 1942 till her release in 1946 and for the third time, long after India’s so called independence during the Emergency during 1975, when it was proscribed. Leela Roy, founder editor continued to edit the Jayasree Patrika from inception till February 1968 when she suffered a stroke and went into coma. Then revolutionary Sunil Das took over and continued editing till 1992 after which Prof. Samar Guha became the editor till 2001. Thereafter, Bijoy Nag, Leela Roy’s nephew and adopted son became the editor and has continued editing Jayasree Patrika till date.
Jayasree Patrika has primarily been the voice of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s ideology, embodied in letter and spirit through his confidante cum follower Leela Roy and her husband Anil Roy whose untimely demise in 1952 deprived Bengal and India the continued infusion of thoughts from a mind steeped in the philosophy and vision of Swami Vivekananda and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
From the early seventies the words of Mahakaal began appearing in the issues of Jayasree like a solar flare. Mahakaal to his highly select group of followers bound by an oath of secrecy and Bhagwanji for those who came in his contact in various places in Uttar Pradesh was none other than Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose who lived the life of a mendicant in total secrecy. The prevailing world order and the political landscape of India prevented his coming out in the open and Jayasree Patrika served as a medium of delivering his select messages in a veiled manner to his desired audience in form of suggestions, warnings and at times as stern commands through passages called Bajrabani, all in the best interests of his Janani Janmabhoomi Bharatbarsha. Whether we have lived up to his words is debatable but suffice it to say that the thoughts and ideas that have emanated from Jayasree Patrika continue to reverberate to this day.
As a befitting recognition to the contributions made by this magazine, the Jayasree Patrika has found mention in the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (India’s 75th independence anniversary) highlighting its contribution to India’s Independence movement.
Unavoidable circumstances, chief among them being the Covid pandemic of 2020 rendered the continued publication and distribution of hard copies of Jayasree Patrika untenable given its limited manpower and resources. A motley group of young tech savvy committed followers recently got together and mooted the idea of going online with the revived version of Jayasree Patrika wherein we envision republication of articles published earlier in the magazine containing its core philosophy and message to be followed by fresh writings by eminent authors and Netaji researchers who have been the standard bearers of Subhaschandra-Netaji-Bhagwanji. We have the pleasure of conveying before you that this idea has received the blessings of Sri Bijoy Nag, Editor-in-Chief of Jayasree Patrika. We sincerely hope that the online version of Jayasree Patrika will be well received and blessed with the support of its readers as we renew our journey braving the teething problems of its new version.
