Probal Dasgupta

Outside of formal linguistics Dasgupta has written extensively on topics in Esperanto studies, sociolinguistics and literary theory.

[3][4][5][6] Dasgupta's mother Manashi was a social psychologist (PhD Cornell, 1962) who served as the Principal of Sri Shikshayatan College (Kolkata).

She also distinguished herself as a creative writer, publishing five novels and over twenty short stories, in addition to books on social psychology and feminist analysis.

[7][8][9][10] In 1957 Probal Dasgupta travelled to Ithaca, NY with his mother to join his father who was pursuing doctoral studies at Cornell University.

During this period the family travelled extensively in Europe where Arun was involved in academic research and archival work as part of his PhD.

India had started adopting the metric system in 1957; by 1961 all the markets had big displays showing people how to convert between the old and the new weights and measures.

His parents were hesitant, as schools at that time still used the archaic, Sanskritized "sadhu bhasha" instead of the colloquial Bangla for textbooks and examinations.

After graduating he moved to Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute (Pune, Maharashtra) for higher studies in linguistics.

In 1980 he completed his PhD on Questions and Relative and Complement clauses in a Bangla grammar (supervisors: Lewis Levine, Ray C. Dougherty).

The book made a huge impact with critics calling it a "brilliant intellectual tour de force"[12]