Susobhan Sarkar

Susobhan Chandra Sarkar (1900-1982) was an Indian historian and academic.

Background and education

Sarkar was born into a Brahmo family of Dhaka. After attending Dhaka Collegiate School and then studying history at Presidency College, Calcutta, he continued his studies at Jesus College, Oxford from 1923 to 1925.

Career

He returned to India as a Lecturer in History at Calcutta University before being appointed Reader in History at Dhaka University in 1927. Through the 1920s he was involved in the administration of Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, still under the active tutelage of its founder, Rabindranath Tagore. In 1932, he was appointed Professor of History at Presidency College, Calcutta. His contribution to the development of the history department of the college is legendary and he will be remembered as one of those long serving professors of the college who inspired generations of students, not only from history, but from other social science and arts streams.^[1] He moved to Jadavpur University as Professor in 1956. He returned to Calcutta University for his final academic post from 1961 to 1967.

Sarkar, whose work was influenced by his Marxist views, concentrated on the history of modern Europe, particularly the development of constitutional history in Britain and political thought in Western Europe. He also wrote from the 1930s onwards about the Bengal Renaissance, with his Notes on Bengal Renaissance sparking an interest in nationalist Indian historiography.^[2] He also wrote the manifesto of the CPI.

References