Hari Sen was born in 1955 in the royal family of Suket, an erstwhile
11-gun salute princely state whose capital used to be the present-day town of
Sundar Nagar in Himachal Pradesh. Sen's father was
Lalit Sen (1932–1985) – a two-time
member of parliament from the
Mandi constituency – and his paternal grandfather was Raja Lakshman Sen Bahadur (1895–1970), the last ruling king of Suket. Sen's mother was Krishna Kumari, daughter of
Maharawal Sir Lakshman Singh (the last ruling king of
Dungarpur) from his second wife. Sen nominally succeeded to the 'gaddi' (throne) of Suket on 18 October 1985, as the 52nd 'Raja Saheb' of Suket. His nominal title was
His Highness Raja Hari Sen Bahadur of Suket. Sen was married to Dr. Radhika Chopra, a renowned Indian sociologist and the daughter of the journalist
Pran Chopra. Sen was the trustee and president of the Maharaja Lakshman Sen Memorial College in Sundar Nagar. Sen, who was a friend of the writer
Amitav Ghosh, features prominently in Ghosh's often-reprinted essay about the
1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, 'The Ghosts of Mrs Gandhi'. Sen died in New Delhi on 30 March 2024, at the age of 68. == Academic career ==