Now Reading: Historian Sumit Sarkar, Subaltern Studies founder, dies at 87
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Historian Sumit Sarkar, Subaltern Studies founder, dies at 87
Eminent historian Sumit Sarkar died at his Delhi residence on Thursday due to age-related ailments, historian and family friend G Arunima told PTI. He was 87. Sarkar is survived by his wife,…
The Story in Brief
Eminent historian Sumit Sarkar died at his Delhi residence on Thursday due to age-related ailments, historian and family friend G Arunima told PTI. He was 87. Sarkar is survived by his wife, historian Tanika Sarkar, and son Aditya Sarkar, a professor at the University of Warwick. His last rites are likely on Saturday.
Sarkar, a Marxist historian, was a founding member of the Subaltern Studies Collective and later critiqued it. He wrote seminal works such as 'The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal' and 'Modern India: 1885, 1947'. He returned the Rabindra Puraskar in 2007 to protest the CPI(M) government's treatment of farmers in West Bengal.
The Indian Opinion
Some will remember Sarkar only as a polemical Marxist who returned an award and later broke with Subaltern Studies. That misses the man who saw history as a democratic project, who urged students to keep imagination alive even while weighing sources, and who wrote about Gandhi's genius in allowing dissenters to struggle together. The real test of his legacy is not ideological purity but whether a new generation, drowning in instant takes, still picks up 'Writing Social History'.
Source: thefederal.com
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