Years active 1929–1998 Died 1998, West Bengal | Awards Padma Bhushan Award Padma Bhushan | |
Born 1903 Dhaka, East Bengal, British India Occupation Academic
Scholar
Writer Known for Shakesperean literature Books Shakespearian Comedy, Bankimchandra Chatterjee | ||
Subodh Chandra Sengupta (1903–1998) was an Indian scholar, academic and critic of English literature, known for his scholarship on Shakespearean works. His books on William Shakespeare, which included Aspects of Shakespearian Tragedy, Shakespearian Comedy and Shakespeare's Historical Plays are reported to be critically acclaimed. He was a professor at the Department of Bengali Language and Literature of the University of Calcutta as well as a professor of English literature at Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, an autonomous college under the same university. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1983, for his contributions to literature and education.
Biography
Subodh Chandra Sengupta was born in 1903 in Dhaka, in the erstwhile East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh) of the British India and did his college studies at Presidency College, Calcutta during 1924-26 where he had the opportunity to learn under such academics as Harendra Coomar Mookerjee, Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and Achintya Kumar Sengupta. After securing his MA in 1927, he continued his doctoral studies under Premchand Roychand scholarship during which time he started his career as a faculty member at the Hindu College, Calcutta. He served the institution from 1929 till 1960, barring two interludes from 1933 to 1935 and from 1942 to 1946. In between, he secured his PhD in 1934 and also taught at Ramakrishna Mission Residential College for a while.
Sengupta published five books on Shakespeare, The whirlgig of Time: The problem of Duration in Shakespeare's Plays (1961), A Shakespeare Manual (1977), Aspects of Shakespearian Tragedy (1972), Shakespearean Comedy (1950), and Shakespeare's Historical Plays (1964), which are known to be reference texts on the English playwright. He also wrote on other literary figures such as George Bernard Shaw (The Art of Bernard Shaw), Rabindranath Tagore (The Great Sentinel: A Study of Rabindranath Tagore ), Saratchandra Chatterjee (Saratchandra: Man and Artist) and Bankimchandra Chatterjee (Bankimchandra Chatterjee). His other major works included two original books, Towards a Theory of Imagination, a philosophical treatise, India Wrests Freedom, a historical interpretation of Indian freedom movement, and two translations, Dhvanyaloka, a commentary on aesthetics by Anandavardhana translated into Bengali by Sengupta, and Mahatma Gandhi, As I Saw Him, a critical account of the life of Mohandas KaramChand Gandhi written by Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and translated by Sengupta. He also assisted in the publication of a dictionary, Samsad Bengali-English Dictionary and edited the annual publications of Presidency College Alumni Association.
Sengupta, who was honored by the Government of India with the civilian award of the Padma Bhushan in 1983, died in 1998, at the age of 95. Several writers have recorded their indebtedness to Sengupta in their works. The story of his life has been documented in a work, Professor Subodh Chandra Sen Gupta: Scholar Extraordinary, published by the foundation bearing his name.