Shankariprasad Basu was born on 21 October 1928 in Howrah, West Bengal. He was an Indian scholar, writer, and critic who writes mainly in the Bengali language. He was a student at the Howrah Vivekananda Institution. He received an M.A. degree from Calcutta University and later became a professor of Bengali literature there. He was appointed the head of the department in 1985 and remained in that position until his retirement in 1993. He had written 48 publications by 1999. Many of his printed works have been in Bengali, including biographies, essays, and criticism. His seven-volume Vivekananda o Samakalin Bhartbarsha is considered a monumental work, for which he was honored with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1978 by the Government of India.