Benoy Kumar Sarkar and Italy (An Old and Rare Book)

When I was asked to write a Foreword to this book, I agreed with pleasure. I am the daughter of Benoy Sarkar and so it is an honour and a privilege for me to comply with this request.

Benoy Sarkar was not only a nationalist but an internationalist par excellence. His trips abroad, his contacts with scholars from all the countries, his lectures at international Universities, his vast knowledge of international problems, his mastery of foreign languages, and, last but not least, his marriage with Ida Stieler, an Austrian lady, all these bear testimony to his internationalism.

Benoy Sarkar was a man of great horizons: his bold and unique views, as well as his outlook on world-affairs, were marked by international and comparative perspectives. He used to compare events and facts, and that became part and parcel of his personal style. The whole world was his workshop and he was open to all new ideas. He was like an artist, who needs the diversity of colour and form in order to beautify his art. Likewise, the more he was able to introduce foreign idioms and words in his books, the happier he was. His perspective in the line of equations was also very special. He added and multiplied, subtracted and divided historical events and economic factors and this method was undoubtedly quite novel.

Giuseppe Flora is an Italian scholar, who comes from a foreign country and it is amazing and astonishing that he should take interest in Benoy Sarkar, an Indian author. He came across the works of Benoy Sarkar in an Italian library more than ten years ago. He was surprised to find so many articles written by him in Italian. In Calcutta, he was astonished to discover the vastness of Benoy Sarkar's writings, interests and erudition. After years of investigations in Indian and Italian libraries and archives, Giuseppe Flora lectured at the Calcutta University on the two papers published in this volume. I will try to summarize them briefly.

**Contents and Sample Pages**