Surajit Chandra Sinha Biography
Surajit Chandra Sinha was an anthropologist and former Upacharya of Visva Bharati. He has served as the director of Anthropological Survey of India. Born in a royal family, he was also a former Prince of Susang in undivided Bengal. After Indian independence in 1947, he was offered a newscaster’s job at the age of 21. This young man went on to become the voice of radio, years before television became the no. 1 entertainer of Indian people.
He was born in Susang of Bengal in 1926 as the eldest son of Maharaja Bhupendra Chandra Sinha, the Maharaja of Susang. His mother belonged to the zamindari family. He completed his education from Presidency College and got married to Purnima Sinha, daughter of eminent scholar and writer, Dr. Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta. She was a doctor, writer and music scholar. His paternal uncle, Maharajkumar Mani Singh was a politician and writer. Though he started with physics, later he shifted to geology and then to anthropology and completed graduation. Sinha completed his PhD in anthropology from Northwestern University on a Fulbright Scholarship.
Then he joined Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, where he worked as a professor for a long time. Among his administrative posts, director of the Anthropological Survey of India Kolkata and Upacharya of Visva Bharati in Santiniketan are the most senior positions. He has also served as the advisor to the then Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 1993. He died on 27 February 2002 at Shantiniketan after a prolonged illness. He spent most of his life in Kolkata. But his last days were spent at Shantiniketan.
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Updated: March 25, 2014