Sumit Chakravartty (1945–2025)

Tanika Sarkar

Sumit Chakravartty was born in 1945. He went to St. Xavier's School and did his BSc and MSc degrees in Chemistry from Jadavpur University in Calcutta. He was involved in the AISF students’ politics at that time and met Gargi through those connections. They married in 1970. They have a son named Sagnik.

He became a journalist on leaving university, and after marriage, they went to Moscow for five years during the Soviet era. On coming back, they shifted to Delhi.

He was born to very illustrious parents: his mother, Renu Chakravartty, was elected a CPI MP three times, and his father, Nikhil running the well-known journal, Mainstream. Sumitda eventually joined the journal and took over as editor after Nikhil Chakravartty passed away. Even though his parents were famous figures on the Indian political landscape, Sumitda was able to chart his own independent political path. He was an activist par excellence, joining many teams of enquiry into political atrocities, standing up for the civil and human rights of all left and secular groups and individuals fearlessly and joining multiple campaigns for justice conducted by very different groups: Medha Patkar’s Narmada Bachao Andolon, or the protest against corporate land grabs at Singur and Nandigram–he travelled extensively at both places to see the events unfold first hand.

He wrote beautiful poetry in Bangla and had a sensitive literary taste. He also played football from his early days and was a fervent supporter of the East Bengal Club.

Above all, he was a gentle, warm-hearted, kind human being, totally self-effacing, yet firmly uncompromising in his convictions. Mainstream, under his stewardship, opened itself to opinions of all kinds, given that they were secular and left-wing.

He was also a leading figure in Delhi’s Brahmo Samaj and led the prayers quite often at their events.

Sumitji
Bharat Dogra adds

The combination of very loving politeness and friendliness on the one hand and iron-clad firm commitment to ideals like secularism, inter-faith harmony, socialism, and democracy on the other hand is very rare. However, when this combination is somehow achieved in any personality, then that person becomes a rare gem whose friendship is to be cherished.

I’ll always remember Sumit Chakravartty as such a friend and personality to be loved and respected.

SumitJi breathed his last on July 26 in Kolkata. He was 80. He is survived by his wife, Gargi, an eminent historian and left activist, and son Sagnik, an editor.

There was nothing artificial or made-up about his extraordinary gentleness and friendliness. Whenever I spoke to him, I had this feeling of his deep sincerity and of his very real caring and regard. I was one of the most regular contributors to the great weekly journal he edited (Mainstream), and we often spoke to each other on the phone (apart from meeting sometimes). I cannot recall a single time when our conversation was not pleasant or constructive, although we generally discussed serious and rather worrying issues. I cannot at present remember a single occasion of any disagreement with him. His deep concern for the most basic issues was as sincere as was the gentleness of his personality and his regard and care for his friends.

Once, when some anniversary or special event relating to Mainstream was to be observed, Sumitji told me that he would be contacting as many of the old contributors and associates as he could. I thought this meant he would be writing letters or making phone calls to them for a meeting. However, I found later that he was personally visiting many of them, somehow finding their present addresses.

I cherish the fact that I have had the opportunity to meet all the editors of Mainstream and contribute writings to all of them, starting around 1977, I think, and continuing right up to the present time.

I met the founder of Mainstream, the legendary editor Nikhil Chakravartty, when I was 20 years old, and despite my lack of experience, Nikhilji was very welcoming and encouraging. This started my journey with Mainstream, which has continued to this day. While I am grateful to all the editors of this journal for the freedom they provided to me in writing, the relationship that I had with Sumitji was something very special, as in the course of our long relationship, I do not remember a single time when we had any difference of opinion. Due to his responsibilities as an editor, he had constraints that allowed only limited travel opportunities; he looked forward to hearing from me whenever I returned after covering some social movements.

We shared our admiration for some important social movements, and I could be sure that there was at least one assured place for early publication when I was writing about social movements. At that time, I was also writing for many of the biggest newspapers, but I had the confidence that while the big newspapers may not publish my writings on these social movements, but Mainstream will surely do this.

At a wider level, this also brings out the special importance of alternative media. Sumitji took this forward with great responsibility at a time when it was becoming increasingly more difficult to do so.

One reason why he could do so was because of the support he got from his family. His wife, Gargi Chakravartty, a prominent academic and historian, has been active in the left women’s movement all along, yet she also could find the time to be very helpful for strengthening Mainstream.

Sumit will be remembered, of course, for his great contributions to Indian journalism in particular and to justice-based democracy more broadly, but in addition, he’ll always be remembered by many, many people as a very gentle and caring human being and a friend who can never be forgotten.

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Frontier
Vol 58, No. 9, Aug 24 - 30, 2025