Tushar Kanjilal

{{Short description|Indian politician (1935–2020)}}

{{Use Indian English|date=August 2016}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2016}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Tushar Kanjilal

| image =

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| caption =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1935|03|01|df=y}}

| birth_place = Noakhali, British India

| death_date = {{Death date and age|2020|01|29|1935|3|1|df=y}}

| death_place =

Kolkata, India

| restingplace =

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| occupation = Social worker

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| spouse = Bina Kanjilal

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| children = Three children

| parents = Dwigendralal Kanjilal

| website =

| awards = Padma Shri

}}

Tushar Kanjilal (1 March 1935 – 29 January 2020) was an Indian social worker, political activist, environmentalist, writer and headmaster of Rangabelia High School.{{citation needed|date=February 2020}} He was the founder of a non governmental organization, which merged with the Tagore Society for Rural Development, a social organization working for the upliftment of the rural people in Sunderbans region, in the Indian state of West Bengal.{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2r8AgAAQBAJ&q=Tushar+Kanjilal&pg=PA332 | title=The Hungry Tide: A Novel | publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | author=Amitav Ghosh | year=2014 | pages=352 | isbn=9780547525204}}

Born to Dwigendralal Kanjilal{{cite book | url=http://www.tsrd.org/board.html | title=Board of Management | publisher=TSRD }} in Noakhali, in the present day Bangladesh, Kanjilal's family migrated to West Bengal before the Indian independence.{{cite book | url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/Rural+vision/1/10435.html | title=Rural vision | publisher=India Today }} He was attracted to Marxist ideologies from a young age and had a frequently disrupted education due to his activism. After his marriage to Bina, he settled in Rangabelia, a small hamlet in the Sunderbans region, where he stayed with his family of three children, Tanima, Tania and Tanmoy, and worked as the headmaster of the local high school. There, he started his social service, founding an organization, which was later merged with the Tagore Society for Rural Development. He was also involved in environmental activism{{cite web | url=http://www.the-dispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?p=3&tc=pg&AID=/20070411/ZNYT03/704110309&cachetime=5 | title=Sea's Rise in India Buries Islands and a Way of Life | publisher=The Dispatch.com | date=11 April 2007 | access-date=18 August 2015}} and wrote a book, Who Killed the Sunderbans?, which deals with the issue of the destruction of the mangrove forests of Sunderbans.{{cite book | title=Who Killed the Sunderbans? | publisher=PA | author=Tushar Kanjilal | year=2000 | asin=B00BP0IMRM}}

The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of Padma Shri in 1986.{{cite web | url=http://mha.nic.in/sites/upload_files/mha/files/LST-PDAWD-2013.pdf | title=Padma Awards | publisher=Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India | date=2015 | access-date=21 July 2015}} He received the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 2008.{{cite web | url=http://www.jamnalalbajajawards.org/awards/archives/2008/science-and-technology/tushar-kanjilal | title=Tushar Kanjilal – Jamnalal Bajaj Award 2008 Recipient – Application of Science & Technology for Rural Development | website=Jamnalal Bajaj Awards | access-date=17 July 2018}} Kanjilal was in the process of founding an institute, Interpretation Complex, which is aimed at dealing with the problems of the Sunderbans region. He resided in Kolkata, West Bengal.