Sujit Mukherjee (21 August 1930 – 14 January 2003) was an Indian writer, translator,

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

, publisher, teacher and cricketer.

Career

Sujit Mukherjee was born in the village of Ariadaha, south of

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

, and educated at

St. Xavier's High School, Patna , motto_translation = For God and Country , location = , streetaddress = West Gandhi Maidan Marg , region = , city = , county = Patna , state ...

, Patna College ( MA) and the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universit ...

(PhD). He taught at Patna College, at the National Defence Academy in Khadakwasla, and at the University of Poona before joining

Orient Longman Orient Blackswan Pvt. Ltd. (formerly Orient Longman India, commonly referred to as Orient Longman), is an Indian publishing house headquartered in Hyderabad, Telangana. The company publishes academic, professional and general works as well a ...

in 1970, where he served as Chief Publisher until 1986. He was a prolific writer on a range of literary topics, as well as a translator from

Bangla Bangla (Bengali: বাংলা) may refer to: *Bengali language, an eastern Indo-Aryan language *The endonym of Bengal, a geographical and ethno-linguistic region in South Asia *''Bangla-'', a prefix indicating Bangladesh Businesses and organ ...

into English.

Cricket

Despite having to wear thick glasses to compensate for his

myopia Near-sightedness, also known as myopia and short-sightedness, is an eye disease where light focuses in front of, instead of on, the retina. As a result, distant objects appear blurry while close objects appear normal. Other symptoms may include ...

, Mukherjee had a long career as a

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the ball with a bat to score runs and prevent the loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since September 2021, officially referred to as a batter (historically, th ...

in university, club and first-class cricket. He played five first-class matches as a middle-order batsman for

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

between 1951 and 1960. He made his highest score, 33, in his first innings in 1951–52. Returning to the side for Bihar's last

Ranji Trophy The Ranji Trophy (also known as Mastercard Ranji Trophy for sponsorship reasons) is a domestic first-class cricket championship played in India between multiple teams representing regional and state cricket associations. Board of Control for Cr ...

game in 1958–59, he made the equal top score for the match, 17 not out, in the second innings in a match in Patna in which only 188 runs were scored for the loss of 32 wickets. After being dismissed for 49 in their first innings, Bihar needed 45 to beat

Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of S ...

and were 19 for 2 when Mukherjee came to the wicket and shared an unbroken partnership of 27 with

Satyendra Kuckreja Satyendra Kuckreja (born 28 October 1934) is an Indian former cricketer. He played first-class cricket for Bengal, Delhi and Jharkhand. See also * List of Bengal cricketers * List of Delhi cricketers This is a list of all cricketers who ha ...

, the highest partnership of the match, to take Bihar to victory. He became a noted cricket writer, "a wry observer of both the game and academic pretentiousness" who produced "five elegant cricket books".

Ramachandra Guha Ramachandra "Ram" Guha (born 29 April 1958) is an Indian historian, environmentalist, writer and public intellectual whose research interests include social, political, contemporary, environmental and cricket history, and the field of economic ...

described them as "the finest books ever written on cricket by an Indian". Mukherjee also did radio commentary for

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last f ...

between 1975 and 1978.

Personal life

He married in January 1959. His wife, Meenakshi Mukherjee, who had been one of his early students, was also a literary scholar. They had two daughters. They lived the final years of their lives in

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part ...

Sujit Mukherjee Memorial Lecture

The Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Hyderabad inaugurated the annual Sujit Mukherjee Memorial Lecture in 2014. Lecturers and the titles of their lectures have been: * 2014: Nabaneeta Dev Sen – "Translations and Multilingualism" * 2015: Indra Nath Choudhuri – "The Idea of an Indian Literature" * 2016:

Sukanta Chaudhuri Sukanta Chaudhuri (born 1950) is an Indian literary scholar, now Professor Emeritus at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He was educated at Presidency College, Kolkata and the University of Oxford. He taught at Presidency College from January 1973 ...

– "My Tagore, Your Tagore: Translation and Textual Identity"

Books

On cricket

*''The Romance of Indian Cricket'' 1968 *''Playing for India'' 1972 *''Between Indian Wickets'' 1977 *''Matched Winners'' 1996 *''Autobiography of an Unknown Cricketer'' 1997 *''An Indian Cricket Century: Selected Writings'' 2002

On literature

*''A Passage to America: Reception of

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

in USA 1913–1941'' 1964 *''Indian Essays in American Literature: Papers in Honour of Robert A. Spiller'' 1969 (edited with D.V.K. Raghavacharyulu) *''Towards a Literary History of India'' 1975 *''Some Positions on a Literary History of India'' 1980 *''Translation as Discovery and Other Essays on Indian Literature in English Translation'' 1981 *''The Idea of an Indian Literature: A Book of Readings'' 1981 (edited) *''Forster and Further: The Tradition of Anglo-Indian Fiction'' 1993 *''A Dictionary of Indian Literature: Volume I (Beginnings to 1850)'' 1999

Translations into English

*''Bewitched Veil'' (Monindra Ray's ''Mohini Adal'') 1968 *''Naked King and Other Poems'' (poems by Nirendranath Chakrabarty, translated jointly with Meenakshi Mukherjee) 1975 *''Book of Yudhishthir'' ( Buddhadeb Bose's ''Mahabharater Katha'') 1986 *''Three Companions'' (three long stories by Rabindranath Tagore) 1992 *''Gora'' (Rabindranath Tagore's novel ''

Gora Gora may refer to: *Gora (surname) *'' Gora'', a Bengali novel by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore *Gora (musical instrument) *'' G.O.R.A.'', a 2004 Turkish comedy film * Goparaju Ramachandra Rao ("Gora", 1902–1975), Indian social reformer an ...

'') 1997 *''Modern Poetry and Sanskriti Kavya'' (a long essay by Buddhadeb Bose) 1997

References

External links

Sujit Mukherjee at Cricinfo

"Unknown cricketers"
by Samanth Subramanian
"Notes from the middle"
by Gideon Haigh {{DEFAULTSORT:Mukherjee, Sujit 1930 births 2003 deaths Writers from Patna St. Xavier's Patna alumni Patna University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni Bihar cricketers Indian autobiographers 20th-century Indian translators Indian cricket commentators Indian literary critics Cricket historians and writers Patna University faculty Indian cricketers Cricketers from Patna Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation