Eminent Marxist Historian Sumit Sarkar Dies at 87

Sumit Sarkar, one of India's leading scholars of modern history and the national movement, passed away in New Delhi at the age of 87. His work on colonial India, nationalism, and the social history of the freedom movement has shaped how generations of students and researchers have studied this period.

Sumit Sarkar: One of India's Leading Scholars of Modern History and the National Movement

Sumit Sarkar was widely recognised as a Marxist historian, known for looking beyond prominent political figures to examine the social forces and wider groups that shaped India's nationalist movement. His approach expanded conventional history to include caste, Adivasi communities, and other subaltern voices, drawing on ethnographic work and the writings of thinkers like Jyotirao Phule and B R Ambedkar.

Major Academic Works of Sumit Sarkar

Sarkar's academic contributions span several important books. 

1. The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, 1903-1908 (1973), established his reputation as a historian of modern India and remains a key study of Bengal's nationalist movement. 
2. Modern India (1989) became a widely used textbook across universities.
3. Writing Social History (1998) explored deeper themes and methods within social history. 
4. He also co-edited Women and Social Reform in Modern India (2007) and Caste in Modern India (2013) alongside his wife, historian Tanika Sarkar.

Sumit Sarkar's Career

1. Born in 1939 into a Brahmo family in Calcutta, Sarkar grew up surrounded by scholarship.  
2. His father, Susobhan Chandra Sarkar, was a respected historian who taught at Presidency College, Calcutta University, and Jadavpur University, writing on the Bengal Renaissance and modern European history.
3. His maternal uncle was the noted statistician Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis. 
4. This academic environment, combined with his family's tradition of liberal reform and his father's Left leanings, shaped Sarkar's own interest in social change and history.