Sisir Kumar Das
- Poet, playwright, critic, linguist, translator, and scholar, Sisir Kumar Das joined the Department of Modern Indian Languages, University of Delhi, in 1963 after teaching Bangla at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, for three years and retired as Tagore Professor from the department in 2001. Trained in Bangla language and literature, he would often say that he was a teacher of Comparative Literature because he was a teacher of Bangla literature. He served as President of the Comparative Literature Association of India and gave a certain direction to the study of the subject in India. As a critic, he wrote profusely in both Bangla and English. Some of his best known works are Western Sailors: Eastern Seas, The Shadow of the Cross: Hinduism and Christianity in a Colonial Situation, Sahibs and Munshis: An Account of the College of Fort William, Early Bengali Prose: Carey to Vidyasagar, The Artist in Chains: The Life of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Indian Ode to the West Wind, The Mad Lover, while in Bangla they are Bangla Chotogolpo, Bangla Gadya Padyer Dvanda, Kabitar Mil o Amil, Michael Madhusudan Dutta: Nirbachita Rachana, Bhashajijnasa, and Atmajibani: Jibani o Rabindranath. A rare scholar of classical Greek, he translated Aristotle’s Poetics and several Greek plays into Bangla. His creative works, including books for children, are many. Sisir Kumar Das, however, is particularly known for his integrated approach to the writing of Indian literary history in A History of Indian Literature in three volumes. He also edited the English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore.
