Saral Sarkar (
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the ...
সরল সরকার), born 10 May 1936 in
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...
, is an
Indian-German academic and
eco-socialist
Eco-socialism (also known as green socialism or socialist ecology) is an ideology merging aspects of socialism with that of green politics, ecology and alter-globalization or anti-globalization. Eco-socialists generally believe that the expans ...
political activist. Sarkar taught at the
Goethe Institute in Hyderabad from 1966 to 1981, as a lecturer in German. Since 1982, Sarkar has been based in
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
, and has been a prominent figure in the European ecology and peace movement. Sarkar was also the secretary of the local Green Party of Cologne. In the 1980s, The
United Nations University
The (UNU) is the think tank and academic arm of the United Nations. Headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan, with diplomatic status as a UN institution, its mission is to help resolve global issues related to human development and welfare th ...
commissioned Sarkar to conduct an authoritative study of the
Green movement in
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
.
His resultant two-volume study, ''Green-Alternative Politics in
Federal Republic of Germany
Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south ...
'' was published in 1993. Sarkar was prominent in the
anti-globalization movement
The anti-globalization movement or counter-globalization movement, is a social movement critical of economic globalization. The movement is also commonly referred to as the global justice movement, alter-globalization movement, anti-globali ...
from 1997 to 2005 and in active in political debate. Sarkar's writings, in both English and German have been widely disseminated in numerous journals and his works have been published in English, Chinese, French and German.
Personal life
Sarkar is married to the sociologist
Maria Mies.
References
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DEFAULTSORT:Sarkar, Saral
1936 births
20th-century German writers
20th-century Indian writers
Bengali educators
Indian socialists
German socialists
Ecosocialists
German people of Bengali descent
German feminists
Indian feminist writers
Living people