Benoy Kumar Sarkar
Benoy Kumar Sarkar (sometimes Binoy Kumar Sarkar) (December 26, 1887, Malda, British India – November 23, 1949, Washington D.C, United States) 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.
Also recorded as Binoy Kumar Sarkar
Benoy Kumar Sarkar
The Hindusthanee Student · Public domain
- Name
- Benoy Kumar Sarkar
- Born
- 26 December 1887
- Birthplace
- Malda, British India
- Died
- 24 November 1949
- Place of death
- Washington D.C., United States
- Occupation
- Social scientist
- Spouse
- Ida Sarkar
- Nationality
- India · British Raj · Dominion of India
- Fields
- sociology · education
- Education
- Presidency University · Malda Zilla School
- Known for
- The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology
- Languages
- English · German · French
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Documentary summary
Benoy Kumar Sarkar (sometimes Binoy Kumar Sarkar) (December 26, 1887, Malda, British India – November 23, 1949, Washington D.C, United States) 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.
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Note VALÉORINE
Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887–1949) was an economist, editor and essayist, among other activities and a national of the British Raj and the Dominion of India. The economist was born in Malda.
Benoy Kumar Sarkar studied at Malda Zilla School and Presidency University. The economist worked for University of Calcutta and worked in Kolkata. Benoy Kumar Sarkar was active in education and sociology.
Works include The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology. Languages used include English, French and German.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q4890148 · wikipedia · Benoy Kumar Sarkar
In this article
Biography
Biography
Benoy Kumar Sarkar studied at Presidency University and Malda Zilla School. The recorded working language is English, German and French. The field of work recorded is sociology and education. Places of work recorded in the authority are Kolkata. Employment is recorded with University of Calcutta. Works named in the authority record are The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology.
Benoy Kumar Sarkar statue, Malda BS Road
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Benoy Kumar Sarkar • Born — 26 December 1887 • Birthplace — Malda, British India • Died — 24 November 1949 • Place of death — Washington D.C., United States • Occupation — Social scientist • Spouse — Ida Sarkar • Father — Sudhyanya Kumar Sarkar
Early life and education
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, while he graduated in 1905, at 18, with dual degrees in English and history. The following year he received his master's degree.
Career
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. In 1947, he became a professor and head of the department. In 1949, Sarkar went on a lecture tour in America, visiting 25 universities. During his trip to America, he interacted with scholars such as John Dewey, Talcott Parsons, Carle Zimmerman, and Raymond Leslie Buell. Closely involved with the national education movement of India, Professor Sarkar was highly influenced by the Nationalist action of Sister Nivedita. Sugata Bose writes of Sarkar's cosmopolitan visions for Asia, and his celebration of many Asian polities, "Far from harboring Hindu nationalist sentiments of the sort later propagated by V. D. Savarkar... Sarkar was an eloquent and passionate proponent of Hindu-Muslim equality and unity. Sarkar warned Asians not to trust Western powers. Sarkar challenged the West's racial privileging of democracy:
Death
Death
Sarkar died on a trip to the United States in Washington, DC, in November 1949.
Places
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Malda.
Birth place
Washington and D.C.
Death place
Selected publications
Sarkar wrote in five languages, his native Bengali, English, German, French and Italian, 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. A complete list of his publications is contained in Bandyopadhyay's book The Political Ideas of Benoy Kumar Sarkar. • 1914/1921 The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology • 1916 The Beginning of Hindu Culture as World-Power (A.D. 300-600) • 1916 Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes • 1918 Hindu Achievements in Exact Science: A Study in the History of Scientific Development • 1918 "The Influence of India on Western Civilization in Modern Times" (in The Journal of Race Development) • 1943 The Equations of World-Economy in Their Bearing on Post-War Reconstruction 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. In 1921, he authored a Political Science Quarterly study presenting a "Hindu Theory of the State." 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."
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Sinha, Vineeta. Sociological Theory Beyond the Canon. Palgrave Macmillan. 303–335. 2017. 978-1-137-41134-1.
- 2.Suhrita Saha, "Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887-1949): A Tryst with Destiny" in Sociological Bulletin, 62 (1), January–April 2013, p. 5
- 3.Manjapra, Kris. Age of Entanglement. Harvard University Press. 209. 2014.
- 4.Bayly, Martin J. Global intellectual history in International Relations: Hierarchy, empire, and the case of late colonial Indian international thought. Review of International Studies. 49. 3. 428–447. 2023. 0260-2105.
- 5.The New Indian Express. Need to end the national culture of selective forgetfulness.
- 6.Bose, Sugata. 2024. “In Search of Young Asia.” In Asia after Europe. United States: Harvard University Press,. p. 75
- 7.Bose, p. 85
- 8.As cited in Bose, p. 86
- 9.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
- 10.Suhrita Saha, "Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887-1949): A Tryst with Destiny" in Sociological Bulletin, 62 (1), January–April 2013, p. 4
- 11.Bandyopadhyay, B. (1984) The Political Ideas of Benoy Kumar Sarkar K. P. Bagchi, Calcutta, ,
- 12.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, ; and Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1914) The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology (Part 2, with appendices by Brajendranáth Seal) Sudhindra Natha Vasu, Allahabad,
- 13.Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1916) The beginning of Hindu culture as world-power (A.D. 300-600) Commercial Press, Shanghai,
- 14.Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1916) Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes: a study in the tendencies of Asiatic mentality Commercial Press, Shanghai,
- 15.Sarkar, Benoy Kumar (1918) Hindu achievements in exact science a study in the history of scientific development Longmans, Green and Co., New York,
- 16.Review of Hindu Achievements in Exact Science. American Journal of Sociology. 24. 4. 467. 1919. 0002-9602.
- 17.Sarkar, Benoy Kumar. The Influence of India on Western Civilization in Modern Times. The Journal of Race Development. 9. 1. 91–104. 1918. 1068-3380.
- 18.Tintner, Gerhard. Review of The Equations of World-Economy in Their Bearing on Post-War Reconstruction. The American Economic Review. 35. 3. 452–452. 1945. 0002-8282.
- 19.Sarkar, Benoy Kumar. Hindu Theory of International Relations. American Political Science Review. 13. 3. 400–414. 1919. 0003-0554.
- 20.Acharya, Amitav. The Making of Global International Relations: Origins and Evolution of IR at its Centenary. Cambridge University Press. 100–101. 2019. 978-1-108-48017-8.
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