Benoy Kumar Sarkar

Benoy Kumar Sarkar (sometimes Binoy Kumar Sarkar) (1887–1949) was an Indian social scientist, professor, and nationalist. He founded several institutes in Calcutta, including the Bengali Institute of Sociology, Bengali Asia Academy, Bengali Dante Society, and Bengali Institute of American Culture.

Benoy Kumar Sarkar
বিনয় কুমার সরকার
Photo of Sarkar from the March–April 1917 issue of The Hindusthanee Student.
Born26 December 1887
Malda, British India
Died24 November 1949(1949-11-24) (aged 61)
Washington D.C., United States
NationalityIndian
OccupationSocial scientist
SpouseIda Sarkar
Parent
  • Sudhyanya Kumar Sarkar (father)

Early life and education

Binoy Kumar Sarkar was born in Malda Town of Malda, West Bengal, in Bengal Presidency. He started his early education in Malda Zilla School. Sarkar entered the University of Calcutta at the age of 13 after standing first at the entrance examination from Malda Zilla School,[1] while he graduated in 1905, at 18, with dual degrees in English and history. The following year he received his master's degree.

Career

In 1925 Sarkar started as a lecturer at the Department of Economics of University of Calcutta. He praised Nazism as "form of benevolent dictatorship", and advocated the establishment of a fascist dictatorship in India.[2] In 1947 he became a professor and head of the department. In 1949, Sarkar went on a lecture tour in America, visiting 25 universities.[3] During his trip to America, he interacted with scholars such as John Dewey, Talcott Parsons, Carle Zimmerman, and Raymond Leslie Buell.[3]

Closely involved with the National education movement of India, Professor Sarkar was highly influenced by the Nationalist action of Sister Nivedita.[4]

Selected publications

Sarkar wrote in five languages, his native Bengali, English, German, French and Italian,[5] publishing a large volume of work on a variety of topics, including 53 books and booklets in English alone, his written production amounting in all to some 30 000 pages.[6] A complete list of his publications is contained in Bandyopadhyay's book The Political Ideas of Benoy Kumar Sarkar.[7]

  • 1914/1921 The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology[8]
  • 1916 The beginning of Hindu culture as world-power (A.D. 300-600)[9]
  • 1916 Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes[10]
  • 1918 Hindu achievements in exact science a study in the history of scientific development[11]

In 1919, he authored a study in the American Political Science Review presenting a "Hindu theory of international relations" which drew on thinkers such as Kautilya, Manu and Shookra, and the text of the Mahabharata.[12][13] In 1921, he authored a Political Science Quarterly study presenting a "Hindu Theory of the State."[13] According to Barry Buzan and Amitav Acharya, Sarkar's works "may be the first major IR contributions by an Indian, and one of the first modern efforts to develop an indigenous Non-Western theory of IR."[13]

Death

He died on a trip to the United States in Washington, DC, in November 1949.

Notes
  1. Suhrita Saha, "Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887-1949): A Tryst with Destiny" in Sociological Bulletin, 62 (1), January–April 2013, p. 5
  2. Manjapra, Kris (2014), Age of Entanglement, Harvard University Press, p. 209
  3. Bayly, Martin J. (2023). "Global intellectual history in International Relations: Hierarchy, empire, and the case of late colonial Indian international thought". Review of International Studies: 1–20. doi:10.1017/S0260210522000419. ISSN 0260-2105. S2CID 252861083.
  4. "Need to end the national culture of selective forgetfulness". The New Indian Express.
  5. Andrew Sartori, "Beyond Culture-Contact and Colonial Discourse: "Germanism" in Colonial Bengal" in Shruti Kapila (ed.), An Intellectual History for India, Cambridge University Press (2010), p. 82
  6. Suhrita Saha, "Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887-1949): A Tryst with Destiny" in Sociological Bulletin, 62 (1), January–April 2013, p. 4
  7. Bandyopadhyay, B. (1984) The Political Ideas of Benoy Kumar Sarkar K. P. Bagchi, Calcutta, ISBN 0-8364-1336-9, OCLC 12419520
  8. published in two parts, the first in 1914 and the later in 1921: Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1914) The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology (Part 1) Pânini Office, Allahabad, OCLC 2005865; and Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1914) The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology (Part 2, with appendices by Brajendranáth Seal) Sudhindra Natha Vasu, Allahabad, OCLC 48121776
  9. Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1916) The beginning of Hindu culture as world-power (A.D. 300-600) Commercial Press, Shanghai, OCLC 5732399
  10. Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1916) Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes: a study in the tendencies of Asiatic mentality Commercial Press, Shanghai, OCLC 82020
  11. Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1918) Hindu achievements in exact science a study in the history of scientific development Longmans, Green and Co., New York, OCLC 1193853
  12. Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1919). "Hindu Theory of International Relations". American Political Science Review. 13 (3): 400–414. doi:10.2307/1945958. ISSN 0003-0554. JSTOR 1945958. S2CID 146956993.
  13. Acharya, Amitav; Buzan, Barry (2019). The Making of Global International Relations: Origins and Evolution of IR at its Centenary. Cambridge University Press. pp. 100–101. doi:10.1017/9781108647670. ISBN 978-1-108-48017-8. S2CID 159147042.

References
  • Sen, Satadru (2015) "Benoy Kumar Sarkar. Restoring the nation to the world", Taylor and Francis: London. ISBN 9781317410676
  • Behn, Wolfgang (2004) "Benoy Kumar Sarkar: 1887-1949" Concise Biographical Companion to Index Islamicus, 1665-1980: An international who's who in Islamic studies from its beginnings down to the twentieth century (Volume Three (N-Z)) Koninklijke Brill: Leiden, Netherlands. ISBN 90-04-14189-8
  • Sinha, Vineeta (2007) "Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1887–1949)" in Ritzer, George (ed.) (2007) Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology Blackwell Publishing: Malden, MA. ISBN 978-1-4051-2433-1
  • Sarkar, Ida (1977) "My life with Prof. Benoy Kumar Sarkar", compiled and translated from the German text by Indira Palit. Prabhat: Calcutta. (BEPI, 1994. The Natl. bibliogr. of Indian literature / gen. ed. B.S. Kesavan; V.Y. Kulkarni, 1962, vol. I, p. 246. NUC pre-1956)
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