By Bibek Sen
Veteran journalist Sankar Ray who was closely associated with India Press Agency (IPA) for the last twenty years, passed away on Tuesday morning in a Kolkata nursing home. He was 82. He was recuperating from an injury. Despite his age and injury he was active till his last moment.
Sankar Ray belonged to the bygone generation of Bengali gentlefolk who carried the spirit of all that was best of two Bengals, be it literature or liberalism, political or social progressiveness or even a majlis and adda over a cup of flavoured tea.
A student of Economics and a diploma holder in Statistical survey he had initially joined Government of West Bengal in the Planning and Development Department but left the job after a couple of years to work as a political activist and earn his livelihood from journalism. He worked under the legendary Prem Shankar Jha before working as an independent writer. He used to write for almost all newspapers and magazines which voiced a different opinion than the official versions.
As a political activist he worked under several high level leaders of CPI and saw them from a close quarter. The raging debates within the communist circle didn’t fail to attract his notice. The Secret Speech of Nikita Khrushchev, Indo-China war, Naxalbari uprising, Dange letters: these events, inner party struggles and breakdown of a communist movement into several lines – he was an inner witness of a great history of communists rise and fall in West Bengal.
But he didn’t compromise his values. The ideal of socialism and suffering of the common mass was always in his agenda. While writing against the neo-liberal economic and environmental plunder of India, against the tax evasions by big houses he was in search of his philosophy. Under the influence of Jollymohan Kaul, the estranged communist leader of undivided CPI and new interpretation of Marx’s Capital by Dr Paresh Chattopadhyay he found a new meaning of the struggle.
Mr Roy found an informal group of Marx enthusiasts, named Calcutta Marx Circle which exchanged research works on Marx and working class movements around the Globe. Sankar Ray called himself a libertarian socialist. He was open to new ideas and always looked for any fresh interpretation of Marx’s ideas and works. He edited the volume on writings on Marx on the occasion of his bicentenary in 2018 along with the Patna based economist and development planner Dr. Saibal Gupta. He also finished last month the editing of the volume in memory of Dr. Paresh Chattopadhay in Bengali. This was released by the Anustup publication at Kolkata Book Fair early this month.
A Tagore enthusiast he loved Tagore songs and deeply believed in the healing power of the philosophy of Tagore, he kept Marx and Tagore both in his pantheon of great masters.. He himself was a good singer. He also was a regular visitor to the art exhibitions and had friendship with many of the leading painters of Kolkata. His elder brother Dhruva Ray was a well known artiste.
As a senior journalist he nurtured young writers, infused them with knowledge and self-confidence. His knowledge of left movement and marxist texts was encyclopaedic. A rare personality with so much enthusiasm, interest, knowledge and dignity would always be missed. It was a great experience to know him in this century of narrow selfishness and scams.. His sudden demise is being mourned in the subcontinent, especially in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal where he has many friends equally active in the movement for a new social order. Sankar Ray was a mentor to many in Kolkata pervading all spheres of scholarship. For them, his absence will be felt for long. (IPA Service)
