Profile Ink Introduction

Early 1940’s. The world was being sucked into a war the kind of which mankind had not witnessed before. There were shortages everywhere and India was no exception. Seething below the surface was a volcano of rage against the British Raj that was waiting to erupt. The Swadeshi movement was gaining momentum by the minute, as India and most Indians were obsessed with the desire to prove that were not inferior in any way, that their products and services too, could be at par with those produced in the West.

Abanindra Nath Thakur and Nandalal Bose, two of the greatest exponents of art in India were in search of a Swadeshi drawing ink and had approached Hiralal Roy, who is acknowledged as the father of Chemical Engineering in India. Having completed his engineering studies at MIT, he was then the head of the Chemical Engineering department at Jadavpur University and entrusted the job of making a Swadeshi drawing ink to his student, Bijon Kumar Dutta.

The Shellac-based ink was created and was commercially made available in 1943 under the brand name Profile. The label was designed by another legend, Ranen Ayan Dutta.

Profile was not only blessed by Aban Thakur and Nandalal Bose and their contemporaries in Shantiniketan, but was the chosen medium of expression used by successive generations of artists, both in India and abroad. In its heydays, Profile was widely exported and successfully competed with the best drawing inks available in the world, and was known for its exceptional quality and competitive price.

Profile and Sulekha were neighbors in Jadavpur and both had extremely close bonds with the University – their key men being engineering graduates from JU. There was another common feature between the two – these Swadeshi entities, having unfurled the tri-color around the world, were forced to down shutters due to militant trade unionism in the late 1980s. But that is not where the similarities end – today, after Sulekha has done the phoenix, Profile is all set to make a comeback, to reclaim its position at the very top.

Watch this space. The story of knowledge-based Swadesh entrepreneurship is not over yet. Join us as we invoke Bengal’s spirit for a science-led, intellectual renaissance. The socio-economic resurgence will follow as we are sure that trickle will soon turn into a deluge.

Courtesy : Subhobrata Ganguly (Chawm Ganguly)