Sabyasachi Bhattacharya

Mahatma and the Poet; Letters and Debates Between Gandhi and Tagore 1915-1941

Contributed articles presented at a conference moderated by Indian Council of Historical Research held in December 2006.

Rethinking 1857

This collection of essays aims at providing a comparative and historical perspective on education in modern India. The essays have been organised in thematic clusters. Such as, the role of the nationalist paradigm and its variants in the educational discourse of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the inequalities in the distribution of educational opportunities and the diversities within the nationalist fold, etc.

Perspectives on Education in India

The Contested Terrain

British histories in the nineteenth century were by and large monologues. From the turn of the century Indians began to 'talk back', questioning colonial assumptions and narratives of India's past. What was the point of this endeavour? What was said when the Indians began to talk back? What was the discourse of civilization all about? Sabyasachi Bhattacharya explores these questions and lays bare the various forms this rhetoric took: from the defence of Indian civilization to a tendency towards vainglorious depiction of 'Hindu civilization'; from asserting civilizational unity in the distant past to creating a surrogate for nationhood. Tracing the inception of this discourse in the works of R.G. Bhandarkar and Bankimchandra Chatterjee, this book explores the evolution of the idea of civilization in the writings of luminaries like Gandhi, Tagore, Vivekananda, and Nehru, as well as works of intellectuals, historians, linguists, and sociologists like M.G. Ranade, V.K. Rajwade, D.D. Kosambi, Sardar K.M. Panikkar, Nirmal Kumar Bose, and many present-day scholars.

The Idea of Civilization in the India Nationalist Discourse

Talking Back

History as a social science is arguably more self-reflective than associated disciplines in that family. Other social scientists seem to see little reason to look beyond the paradigm they are developing in the present times. Historians on the other hand, tend to depend on the cumulative process of the development of their craft and the fund of accumulated knowledge. Yet, while this is acknowledged in the practice of research, Historiography in itself as a subject of study has rarely found its place in the syllabi of Indian universities. Knowledge of Historiography is taken for granted when a scholar plunges into research. In an attempt to address this lacuna, the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) has planned a series of volumes on Historiography comprising articles by subject specialists commissioned by the ICHR. The first volume in the series, Approaches to History: Essays in Indian Historiography brings to the readers the first fruits of that endeavour. While the essays encompass areas of research presently at the frontiers of new research, scholars will also find the bibliographies accompanying the essays of significant appeal.

Essays in Indian Historiography

Approaches to History

Sucheta Mahajan

Indian Council of Historical Research

Part of the Towards Freedom series, this collection brings together archival documents from the period 1 January 1947 to 2 June 1947. Together they discuss areas like Constituent Assembly, interim government, the civil disobedience movements organized by Muslim League, communalism, partition besides refugees and minority groups.

Documents on the Movement for Independence in India 1947, Part 1

Towards Freedom

This revised edition of the book, first published in 1971, comprises an expanded introduction, that reviews recent research in this area, and a new imprint of the original text which has been edited afresh to slightly abbreviate some parts. The theme of this work may be summed up as the economic aspects of the theory and practice of the colonial state. The focus is upon the ideas and interests and contestations which went into the making of the policies of the Raj in the formative period following 1857, the years which saw the appointment of the first finance minister of India (then called the Finance Member), the introduction of the budget system and other innovations like the paper currency and income tax.

Ideas and Interests in the Reconstruction of Indian Public Finance 1858-1872

The Financial Foundations of the British Raj

This work explores some of the constitutive elements in the life and mind of Bengal in the twentieth century. The author addresses some frequently unasked questions about the history of modern Bengal. In what way was twentieth-century Bengal different from 'Renaissance' Bengal of the late-nineteenth century? How was a regional identity consciousness redefined? Did the lineaments of politics in Bengal differ from the pattern in the rest of India? What social experiences drove the Muslim community's identity perception? How did Bengal cope with such crises as the impact of World War II, the famine of 1943 and the communal clashes that climaxed with the Calcutta riots of 1946? The author has chosen a significant period in the history of the region and draws on a wealth of sources archival and published documents, mainstream dailies, a host of rare Bengali magazines, memoirs and the literature of the time to tell his story. Looking closely at the momentous changes taking place in the region's economy, politics and socio-cultural milieu in the historically transformative years 1920-47, this book highlights myriad issues that cast a shadow on the decades that followed, arguably till our times.

1920–1947

The Defining Moments in Bengal

This book addresses the familiar issue of unequal access to education in a new perspective. In this regard, whether one looks at gender or caste or tribes or class differences, the gap between the privileged and the dispriviliged is a matter of everyday experience. In what manner and form are these asymmetries reflected in the domain of education is the question at the core of this collection of essays. This volume is likely to be useful to those interested in understanding the interface between education and society in India as well as in other developing countries.

Sabyasachi Bhattacharya

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