Historian Chittabrata Palit dies of Covid at 82

Time of India

17-06-2025

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Kolkata: Chittabrata Palit, an authority in the agrarian history of colonial Bengal and a specialist in the history of indigenous science, technology, medicine, and American history, passed away in Kolkata on Saturday.
He was 82 and is survived by his wife, son, and daughter.
Hospital sources said Palit was brought to Manipal Hospital Dhakuria on June 11 with complaints of fever, cough, and cold. On testing, he was found to be Covid-19 positive. Palit died on June 13. He was also suffering from diabetes, hypertension, and dementia.
His students mourn the passing of the stalwart who made a deep impression on their lives. "Though he had other issues, it is sad that we lost him to Covid.
It is really sad that ultimately Covid took his life and he could not be given a proper cremation. His mortal remains couldn't even be taken to the institutes where he taught. The saddest part is that we could not take his body in front of the history department of JU where he served for the longest period in his life," said his student Amit Bhattacharya, a former professor of history from JU.
Palit was born in Bangladesh's Khulna on Oct 18, 1941.
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He lost his mother at an early age. His father, a school teacher in Khulna, was transferred to Barrackpore when he was a toddler. In Class III, he secured admission to Sanskrit Collegiate School. Then, he shifted to South Suburban Branch School, where his history teacher, Sushil Chakraborty, instilled an interest in the subject. Later, he went to Presidency College, where he received lessons from Amalesh Tripathi, who had a deep influence on him.
Palit did his PhD on the land system in agrarian Bengal at Cambridge before taking up his first teaching assignment at Burdwan University. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society, London, in 2005 and was a member of the Indian Historical Records Commission, National Commission for History of Science, etc.
Subsequently, he joined the history department of Jadavpur University, from where he retired in 2010.
He was appointed Emeritus Professor of History, Jadavpur University, in 2012 and was chosen as a member of the Indian delegation to the International Conference of History of Sciences, held in Manchester in 2013, where he presented a paper on 'Girish Chandra Bose and Indian Botany'. He was awarded the Legend of History of Science at the International Conference of History of Science Kolkata Chapter in January 2015.
Palit founded the Corpus Research Institute with his ex-students in 1996. It has published more than 50 titles. Some of his major works include tensions in Bengal rural society, commerce and industries in Bengal, science and nationalism in Bengal, scientific Bengal, and the history of medicine in India. Apart from being the former director of the Institute of Historical Studies, Kolkata, Palit himself wrote more than 100 books specialising in economic history and the history of science in Bengal.
He guided more than 100 students in PhD and MPhil.
Bhattacharya, who did his PhD under his supervision on the swadeshi enterprise in Bengal, remembers Palit as an excellent teacher who knew the art of imparting extempore lessons on difficult subjects in a lucid way. "His language was simple, and what struck us was his appealing personality. He never carried any notes to class. He taught us Southeast Asia and Indo-China history.
His lectures on Ho Chi Minh and Sukarno were equally memorable.
I remember how he left us awe-struck with his anecdote on the formation of the Indo-Chinese Communist Party. We listened with rapt attention when he spoke about how it was formed in a soccer stadium when a match was being played!" said Bhattacharya.
Parimal Ghosh, a former professor of Calcutta University who also completed his PhD under Palit, recalled his teacher as someone who knew how to love.
The word that circulated about Palit was that if he noticed promise in a student, he would go out of his way to highlight the student's qualities or offer help. Ghosh once travelled with him to Hyderabad for the History Congress. Being physically challenged, Ghosh used to walk with calipers.
"None of the hotels I could afford had provisions for me to use the bathroom. Sir told me not to worry and himself repurposed an old chair with a hole in the middle that I could use as a makeshift commode.
He was my history teacher, but I never thought he would do this to put me at ease," Ghosh said.
Mimi Bhattacharya, who also had Palit as her PhD guide, remembers him as a beacon in the field of pedagogy. Bhattacharya recalled, "Early in my career, I once shared the challenges of teaching students who may not always be very meritorious. Sir explained to me the importance of teachers not resting on their own laurels and academic excellence but always going down to the level of the student to impart lessons. Forever concerned about his students, his life was an example of how an ideal teacher must be.
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