Syamal De Sarkar is recorded as an Indian student enrolled on the 1965-66 postgraduate ‘General Course’ at the Architectural Association’s Department of Tropical Studies, in London. Details of his earlier education are not yet known to us other than the fact that he obtained a BArch degree and by 1961 was already an established academic, publishing an article on Calcutta’s (now Kolkata) metropolitan planning in the Journal of the Institute of Town Planners, India. It appears that following completion of his course within the Tropical Department, De Sarkar returned to India and established his own practice, ‘De Sarkar and Associates’ in Kolkata, whilst retaining links with academia, writing a paper for Eastern Regional Organization for Planning and Human Settlement (EAROPH) on Urban Project Planning and Management in Developing Countries, in 1988.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1945-71. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Council Minutes, 18th July 1966
• De Sarkar, S.K. ‘Calcutta: A problem metropolis’, Journal of the Institute Town Planners, India, No. 25-26, Jan-April 1961, pp61-73
• De Sarkar, S.K, Roy, S. ‘New Horizons in Urban Project Planning and Management in Metropolitan Regions in Developing Countries, ‘Eastern Regional Organization for Planning and Human Settlement (EAROPH), 1988