NEW DELHI: Eminent historian Sumit Sarkar, one of India’s leading scholars of modern history and the national movement, died in New Delhi on Thursday. He was 87. His work on colonial India, nationalism and the social history of the freedom movement shaped the study of the period for generations of students and researchers.
Born in 1939 into a Brahmo family in Calcutta, Sarkar grew up in a household where history and scholarship were part of everyday conversation. His father, Susobhan Chandra Sarkar, was a noted historian who taught at Presidency College, Calcutta University and Jadavpur University. He wrote on the Bengal Renaissance, modern European history, historiography and political thought. Sarkar’s maternal uncle was Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis, the eminent statistician.
Sarkar recalled that his family had a tradition of modern, liberal socio-religious reform, which was followed by the Left influence brought in by his father. That interest in social change was evident in his teaching. In Essays of a Lifetime, Sarkar recalled moving beyond the conventional emphasis on social reform to include caste, Adivasi communities and other subaltern lives. He and his students studied these subjects through ethnographic work, the writings of Jyotirao Phule and B R Ambedkar and works of Periya.
Widely known as a Marxist historian, Sarkar was interested in the social forces behind political change. His work on nationalism looked beyond the leading figures to the wider groups and social conditions that shaped it.
Book on Bengal helped establish reputation
Sarkar’s landmark book, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, 1903-1908, published in 1973, established his reputation as a historian of modern India. It remains a seminal study of the nationalist movement in Bengal. His Modern India became a widely used text among students.