De was the son of a lawyer, born at Madaripur, Faridpur district, Bengal British India (now in Bangladesh) in 1929.
He supported closer ties between India and China, and was general-secretary of the West Bengal branch of the Indo-China Friendship Society.
[1][4] A Hindu, he married Nasima Banu, a Muslim and the granddaughter of A. K. Fazlul Huq, after completing his post-graduate studies.
[1] His work led to the discovery in Sodepur of the grave of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, a pioneering Indian rationalist thinker and human rights activist.
He had to settle for publication by a small publisher and was accused by his opponents of facilitating the Hindutva agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal.