Sunanda Sanyal (1 February 1934 – 22 March 2022) was an Indian eminent academic, essayist, social activist and columnist from West Bengal.

Life

Sanyal was born into an illustrious family of Pabna in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

(now in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

) on 1 February 1934. He completed his schooling at Pabna and came to Kolkata for higher studies and thereafter at Hyderabad and Leeds University. Sanyal did his graduation and post-graduation in English literature from

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

. He got his postgraduate DTE degree from English and Foreign Languages University at

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

in the early 1970s.

Career

Sanyal started his career as a teacher in English at the Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira at

Belur Math Belur Math () is the headquarters of the Ramakrishna Math and Ramakrishna Mission, founded by Swami Vivekananda, the chief disciple of Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. It is located on the west bank of Hooghly River, Belur, West Bengal, India. The tem ...

. He was also a part-time English lecturer in

and University of Burdwan at Burdwan. He wrote articles on different social issues in different English and vernacular newspapers. Sanyal opposed the Left Front government’s decision not to teach English in the primary classes. As a member of the state education commission, he gave his note of dissent on the LF government’s English language policy decision for which he was upbraided by the chairman of the commission,

Ashok Mitra Ashok Mitra (10 April 1928 – 1 May 2018) was an Indian economist and Marxist politician. He was a chief economic adviser to the Government of India and later became finance minister of West Bengal and a member of the Rajya Sabha. Early life ...

, the then Minister of the LF government. Sanyal was also closely involved with the All Bengal Save Education Committee headed by Tarunkanti Naskar. Professor Sanyal had always wanted proper education for poor rural children. Because of his prolonged opposition against the LF government’s education policy, the government was finally forced to bring back English in the primary level. Sanyal, along with several others, formed Ganamukti Parishad to support the movements launched by

Mamata Banerjee Mamata Banerjee (; born 5 January 1955) is an Indian politician who is serving as the eighth and current List of chief ministers of West Bengal, chief minister of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of West Bengal since 20 ...

Singur Singur is a census town in Singur CD Block in Chandannagore subdivision of Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Geography Location Singur is located at . It has an average elevation of 14 metres (45 ft), and is si ...

, Nandigram and Jungle mahal. He visited these areas and took part in rallies and meetings to create public opinion.

Death

Sanyal was suffering from old age-related ailments, was admitted to a private hospital in Salt Lake area on 26 February. He was diagnosed with sepsis and multiple-organ failure. He died on 22 March 2022. Former advocate general Bimal Chatterjee described Sanyal as a perfect gentleman of high moral values and integrity and a repository of knowledge.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanyal, Sunanda 1934 births 2022 deaths Bengali Hindus University of Calcutta alumni Indian academics People from Pabna District Academics from Kolkata