| Surajit Chandra Sinha সুরজিত চন্দ্র সিংহ |
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|---|---|
| Born | 1926 Susang, Bengal, British India |
| Died | 27 February, 2002 Santiniketan, West Bengal, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Ethnicity | Bengali Hindu |
| Occupation | Anthropologist, administrator |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Spouse | Purnima Sinha (nee Sengupta) |
| Relatives | Mani Sinha (Uncle) |
Surajit Chandra Sinha (Bengali: সুরজিত চন্দ্র সিংহ) (1926 – 27 February 2002) was an Indian anthropologist and a former Maharajkumar of Susang in undivided Bengal.
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He was born in Mymensingh District (currently in Bangladesh) in 1926. He was the eldest son of Maharaja Bhupendra Chandra Sinha, the Maharaja of Susang, a zamindari which ranked third in protocol in the Government House of Calcutta after Coochbehar and Burdwan. The Maharajas of Susang, a hill estate, were amongst the most influential zamindars of Mymensingh. The other major zamindari family of the same district were the Maharajas of Mymensingh (also called Muktagacha) who were, however, the richest zamindars in the district. Muktagacha was the predecessor estate out of which emerged all other estates in the district. Only Susanga was older than Muktagacha in Mymensingh. Sinha's younger sister is Purba Dam, the eminent exponent of Rabindrasangeet. A close uncle, Mani Singh was a well-known communist leader and the author of Jiban Sangram. In his youth Sinha followed in the footsteps of his uncle. Even though Sinha was brought up and worked in Calcutta most part of his life, he spent several years, especially the last few years in Santiniketan, where his parents owned a house from the beginning of the twentieth century. The Sinhas of Susanga can be considered to be one of the founding families of Santiniketan.
After his early education in a high school in Mymensingh, and then at Ballygunge Government High School, Calcutta, he started his college education in physics at Presidency College, Calcutta, but later shifted to geology and then to anthropology. Nirmal Kumar Bose, the eminent anthropologist, became his mentor soon after Bose and Sinha met in the viva examination for the Masters degree, where Bose was one of the examiners. Later, Sinha completed his Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University, USA on a Fullbright Scholarship.
In his illustrious career he held the post of Professor, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta for a long time.
He also held a number of administrative posts such as Director, Anthropological Survey of India, Calcutta, and Upacharya, Visva Bharati, Santiniketan. After retirement he became Director, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.
Sinha distinguished himself in the field of social anthropology. Upon returning to India from the USA, he continued to conduct field research. His main area of research was Indian tribes, particularly the Bhumij tribe in central India.
Sinha was committed to the ideologies of both Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, arguably the two most eminent Indians in the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries. The difference between the views of these two men was that whereas Gandhi wanted every Indian to be (in the best sense) a Sudra, Tagore wanted every Indian to be (also in the best sense) a Brahmin.[1]
He died in 2002 after a prolonged illness leaving behind a rich heritage of anthropological fields of research. He inspired a whole generation of Indian anthropologists and contributed significantly to understanding the process of acculturation of tribal people in India.
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Barun De |
Director, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta 1983–1987 |
Succeeded by Amiya Bagchi |
| Preceded by Pratul Gupta |
Upacharya, Visva-Bharati 1975–1980 |
Succeeded by Amlan Dutta |