Page:Calcutta Review (1925) Vol. 16.djvu/520

Babu Ramananda protests that he “never said that the Calcutta Review has not published any good article of academic value.” I am quoting below what he did say and let my readers judge whether I have done him any injustice. “A University is undoubtedly justified in spending something for an organ which publishes original papers of academic value and serves in addition the purpose of a bulletin. But there cannot be any justification for a University to throw away money on a magazine which makes the publication of serial stories and other kinds of light literature and commonplace popular illustrations some of its main features.” My knowledge of English is limited and may be defective, but I thought that there was in the above lines a clear implication which the venerable editor now denies. But he works in a wonderful place, away from his office and library where he can easily place his hand on the back numbers of the Calcutta Review, but where the back numbers of the Prabasi are not available. He triumphantly quotes from an announcement “that short stories, poems, portraits and cartoons besides articles of general interest, and fine Indian paintings will be a special attraction.” As a matter of fact only two cartoons and only one serial story were published in this Review, I may tell my readers here why the University found it necessary to have an organ of its own. A few years ago Babu Ramananda and some of his friends organised a campaign of lies and falsehood against the University. The University found it difficult to place its own case before the public, and it was decided to publish University News and Notes. This decision, if I remember correctly, for I am also writing away from any Library, met the approval of the Senate and even got the blessings of Babu Ramananda. But it was pointed out that mere Notes and News will have no customer, and the Calcutta Review was acquired to ventilate the views of the University and its defenders. Since then there has been a remarkable change in the public opinion. The University has a Journal