Barun De

2021-05-21T01:21:20Z

2402:3A80:A8C:755E:0:64:E80D:8601:

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2018}}
{{About|the historian|the pathologist|Barun K. De}}
{{refimprove|date=August 2013}}

{{Infobox scientist
| name =Barun De
| image =
| caption =
| birth_date = 30 October 1932
| birth_place=[[Calcutta]], [[Bengal]]
| death_date = 16 July 2013 (aged 80)
| death_place = [[Calcutta]], [[West Bengal]]
| fields =[[History]]
| alma_mater ={{Plainlist|
*[[St. Xaviers Collegiate School]]
*[[Presidency College, Calcutta]]
*[[St Catherine's College, Oxford|St Catherine's Society, Oxford]]
*[[Nuffield College, Oxford]]
| Awards = Banga Samman Award, 2008-2009
}}
| notable_students = [[Sumit Sarkar]], [[Dipesh Chakrabarty]], [[Rudrangshu Mukherjee]]
}}

'''Barun De''' (30 October 1932 – 16 July 2013) was an Indian historian. He served as the first professor of social and economic history of the [[Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta]], founder-director of the [[Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta]] and the [[Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies]], Kolkata and as the honorary state editor for the West Bengal District Gazetteers. He was chairman of the West Bengal Heritage Commission.

==Early life and education==
De was born into a [[Brahmo]] family.<ref name="telegraphindia">{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130718/jsp/calcutta/story_17126553.jsp |title=Historian Barun De dead |date=18 July 2013 |accessdate=2016-08-15}}</ref> His father, Basanta Kumar De, was a high-ranking official of the Bengal Nagpur Railways.<ref name="frontline1">[http://www.frontline.in/other/obituary/historian-and-administrator/article4995294.ece "Historian and Administrator" - Aniruddha Ray] Retrieved 2015-03-03</ref><ref name="liveslessforgotten">[http://rajsaday.com/?p=1950 Lives Less Forgotten: Basanta Kumar De]</ref> His grandfather was [[Brajendranath De]], ICS.<ref name="vmh">[http://www.victoriamemorial-cal.org/official_info/victoria_newsletter_feb2014.pdf Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 'Obituary' in the ''Victoria Memorial Newsletter'', 2014]</ref> He studied at [[St. Xavier's Collegiate School]], [[Calcutta]]. He completed his higher studies at [[Presidency College, Calcutta]], where he was a student of [[Professor]] [[Susobhan Sarkar|Susobhan Chandra Sarkar]] and later at [[St. Catherine's College, Oxford|St. Catherine's Society, Oxford]]. He completed his [[D.Phil.]] thesis on "Henry Dundas and the Government of India, 1784-1801" under the supervision of Dr. C.C. Davies.<ref name="telegraphindia1">
{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130718/jsp/opinion/story_17126533.jsp#.vOvi_Tb9nIU |title=Clio's Disciple |first=Rudrangshu|last=Mukherjee |date=18 July 2013 |accessdate=2015-02-24}}</ref> on a Beit studentship at [[Nuffield College, Oxford]]. As the holder of this scholarship he taught students of the college. He was awarded the Curzon Memorial Prize for his essay "Macaulay and India". In addition to his academic work, he was secretary, treasurer and president of the Oxford India Majlis.<ref name="thestatesman1">[http://www.thestatesman.com/news/6074-Historian-Barun-De-dead.html "Historian Barun De dead" - The Statesman, 18 July 2013] Retrieved 2015-03-05.</ref>

He formed a lasting friendship with [[S. Nurul Hasan]], the historian and Governor of West Bengal.<ref name="thetelegraphindia">{{cite news|url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150405/jsp/opinion/story_12677.jsp#.V7E5UjgkrIU |title=State of Abounding Grace |first=Gopal Krishna|last=Gandhi |date=2015 |accessdate=2016-08-15}}</ref>

==Career==
De held various positions at various times, including a senior professorship at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta,<ref name="timesofindia1"/> the founder-directorship of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta and the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies,<ref name="telegraphindia1"/> a membership, held for three terms, of the [[Indian Council of Historical Research]], New Delhi, and the role of honorary state editor of the West Bengal District Gazetteers.<ref name="ihr1">[http://ihr.sagepub.com/content/41/1/147.full.pdf+html "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" - Sabyasachi Bhattacharya] Indian Historical Review. Retrieved 2015-03-15.</ref> He taught and worked abroad, among other places, at [[Duke University]] as a visiting [[associate professor]], the [[Indian Institute of Advanced Studies]], [[Shimla]], as a senior fellow,<ref name="thestatesman1"/> Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme, [[Paris]] as a [[directeur]], [[University of Sydney]] and [[University of Milan]] as a visiting [[professor]], and the [[University of World Economy and Diplomacy]], [[Tashkent]] as the India Chair (in the rank of minister-counsellor) for three years, with attachment to the Indian Embassy of [[Uzbekistan]],.<ref name="businessstandard1">[http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/historian-barun-de-dies-at-80-113071700809_1.html "Historian Barun De dies at 80" - Business Standard] Retrieved 2015-03-06.</ref> He was secretary (1974-76), sectional president and general president (1988) of the Indian History Congress.<ref name="frontline1"/>

In 2004, he was appointed to a membership of the [[NCERT]] textbook review committee.<ref>[http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/arjun-singh-appoints-panel-to-review-ncert-textbooks/1/196584.html ''India Today'', 2004]</ref>
In his post-retirement years, he was chairman of the West Bengal State Archives, Calcutta,<ref name="businessstandard1"/> a vice president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,<ref name="frontline1"/>
a member of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Museum, Calcutta,<ref name="frontline1"/> and a member of the Heritage Conservation Committee of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, in which capacity he was among several people who prepared a list of heritage buildings of West Bengal.<ref>[https://www.kmcgov.in/KMCPortal/downloads/Graded_List_of_Heritage_Buildings_Grade_I_IIA_IIB.pdf "Heritage Conservation Committee"] p. 3. Retrieved 2015-03-23</ref> ''[[The Times of India]]'' has described him as "a pioneer of the heritage movement of West Bengal",<ref name="timesofindia1">[http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/Historian-scholar-Barun-De-dies-at-80/articleshow/21156245.cms "The Times of India" - Staff Reporter] Retrieved 2015-02-27.</ref> From 2008-2011 he was honorary chairman (in the rank of minister-of-state) of the West Bengal Heritage Commission, of which he was a member from 2001–2008.<ref name="businessstandard1"/>

He was appointed as a Tagore National Fellow, which he held at the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta.<ref name="victoriamemorialnewsletter1">[http://www.victoriamemorial-cal.org/official_info/victoria_newsletter_feb2014.pdf "Obituary" in the ''Victoria Memorial Newsletter'' - Sabyasachi Bhattacharya] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150226153443/http://www.victoriamemorial-cal.org/official_info/victoria_newsletter_feb2014.pdf |date=2015-02-26 }} Retrieved 2015-0317.</ref>

==Research==
De's research spanned from early- to late-modern periods of Indian history. In the earlier part of his career he wrote on Henry Dundas and the conquest of India, while later on he addressed the Marxist critique of the colonial context of the Bengal renaissance.<ref>[http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a-great-conversationalist-intellectual/article4925060.ece "A Conversationalist Intellectual - Sugata Bose"] Retrieved 2015-03-27.</ref> He was also concerned with the national movement: his popular textbook book, ''Freedom Struggle'', co-authored with [[Bipan Chandra]] and Amalesh Tripathi,<ref name="telegraphindia1"/> was censored by the new Central government that came to power in India in 1977.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4DlMSrtOGLIC&pg=PA272 "Censorship of Historical Thought: A World Guide" - Antoon de Baets] Retrieved 2015-02-21.</ref> It has been translated into Bengali by Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya.<ref>[http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article4385.html "Historian Barun De passes away - Panchanan Chattopadhyay"]. ''Mainstreamweekly''. Retrieved 2015-03-23.</ref> In 1975 he edited a thick volume in honour of Prof. Susobhan Sarkar in which he wrote the main essay on his teacher which reveals his preference for objectivity and critical analysis.<ref name="proceedingsoftheindianhistorycongress1">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/44156392?seq=2&loggedin=true#page_scan_tab_contents Irfan Habib, "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" in ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', Volume 73, 2012, p. 1554]</ref> He was the editor of 24 Parganas and Darjeeling ''District Gazetteers''.<ref name="districtgazetteers">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/44156392?loggedin=true&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Irfan Habib, "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" in ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', Volume 73, 2012, pp. 1553-1555]</ref> He contributed to the editing of the Jalpaiguri District Gazetteers.<ref name="districtgazetteers1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=UfToffd1KxMC&pg=PA201&lpg=PA201&dq=Barun+De,+Jalpaiguri+district+gazetteers&source=bl&ots=LCjhrE6fY2&sig=Rw9AXjtY445QnVTRA6XHXnuaZpU&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjWy5HlxfzaAhXIqo8KHROuAZMQ6AEIQzAF#v=onepage&q=Barun%20De%2C%20Jalpaiguri%20district%20gazetteers&f=false Abani Mohan Kusari, West Bengal District GazetteersL Jalpaiguri, Gazetteer of India, Calcutta, Barun De, Honorary State Editor, West Bengal District Gazetteers, Calcutta, 1981 in Michael Lampert, Discipline and Debate: The Language of Violence in Tibetan Buddhist Monastery, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012].</ref>

==Views==
De was well known for his criticism of the emergency of 1975–77.<ref name="proceedingsoftheindianhistorycongress">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/44156392?seq=1&loggedin=true#page_scan_tab_contents Irfan Habib, "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" in ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', Vol. 73, 2012, p. 1554]</ref>

==Awards==
*D.Litt. (''Honouris Causa''), North Bengal University, 2000.<ref name="jagranjosh">[http://www.jagranjosh.com/current-affairs/barun-de-the-renowned-historian-and-academician-passed-away-at-80-1377577861-1 Akanksha Sharma, 'Barun De, The Renowned Historian and Academician Passed Away at 80' in ''Jagran Josh'', 17 July 2013]</ref>

*Banga Samman, 2008-09

==Death and legacy==

De died due to [[renal failure]] in [[Kolkata]] on 16 July 2013 aged 80.<ref name="timesofindia1" /><ref name="HT20130718">{{cite news|url=http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/kolkata/Historian-Barun-De-passes-away/Article-1094187.aspx |date=18 July 2013 |title=Historian Barun De passes away |publisher=Hindustan Times |accessdate=4 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131010131755/http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/kolkata/Historian-Barun-De-passes-away/Article-1094187.aspx |archivedate=10 October 2013 }}</ref>

The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Calcutta has instituted a Barun De Memorial Lecture.<ref>[http://makaias.gov.in/Programme_BarunDe_Memorial_Lecture1.pdf Barun De Memorial Lecture] Retrieved 2015-02-27.</ref> Barun De Auditorium of Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, the museum of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, is named after him.<ref name="jadunathbhavan">[http://jbmrc.cssscal.org/remembering-professor-barun-de/ Barun De Auditorium, CSSSC]</ref>

==Publications==

*''Secularism at Bay: Uzbekistan at the Turn of the Century'' (New Delhi, 2006)<ref>[https://books.google.com/books/about/Secularism_at_Bay.html?id=TjE74t1I9NsC&redir_esc=y "Secularism at Bay: Uzbekistan at the Turn of the Century" - Barun De] Retrieved 2015-02-17.</ref>
*(ed.) ''State, Development and Political Culture: Bangladesh and India'', (New Delhi, 1997) (co-edited with Ranabir Samaddar)
*(ed.) ''Mukti Sangrame Banglar Chatra-Samaj'' (''Students of Bengal in the Struggle of Liberation'') (in Bengali), (Calcutta: Paschim Banga Itihas Samsad, 1992)
*(ed.) ''West Bengal District Gazetteers, 24 Parganas'', (Calcutta, 1983)
*(ed.) ''West Bengal District Gazetteers, Jalpaiguri'', (Calcutta, 1981) (co-edited with Abani Mohan Kusari).
*(ed.) ''West Bengal District Gazetteers, Darjeeling'', (Calcutta, 1980)
*''The Dialectics Between Response to Exogenous and Autochthonous Innovation in India in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, with Special Reference to Modern Bengal'', (Tokyo: United Nations University, 1979)<ref name="unu">[https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/1713550 The Dialectics Between Response to Exogenous and Autochthonous Innovation in India in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, with Special Reference to Modern Bengal - Barun De] Retrieved 2018-01-12.</ref>
*(ed.) ''Perspectives in Social Sciences, 1: Historical Dimensions'' (New Delhi, 1977)<ref name="perspectivesinsocialscienceihistoricaldimensions">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/2055079?seq=1 David L.Curley (reviewer), ''Perspectives in Social Sciences I: Historical Dimension'', in ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', Vol. 40, No. 1, (Nov. 1980), pp. 158–60]</ref><ref name="perspectivesinsocialscienceshistoricaldimensions1">[https://books.google.com/books?id=GHxJDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT234&lpg=PT234&dq=Barun+De&source=bl&ots=X75XMnufBq&sig=zpY72FIOO7UfU3rH8I71SAT1GPc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1qJrP29vZAhXHPo8KHZP4DMM4FBDoAQhDMAg#v=onepage&q=Barun%20De&f=false Chandak Sengoopta, ''The Rays before Satyajit: Creativity and Modernity in Colonial India'', (New Delhi, Oxford, 2016)]</ref>
* "A Biographical Perspective on the Political and Economic Ideas of Rammohun Ray", in V.C.Joshi, (ed.), ''Rammohun Roy and the Process of Modernisation in India'', New Delhi, 1975<ref name="indianpoliticalthought">[https://books.google.com/books?id=yP59iDghcIkC&pg=PA68&lpg=PA68&dq=Barun+De&source=bl&ots=JEIKcyzgDB&sig=bHJMaKGdoWOXXD6JRAzKMD9DZLY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKyazs3tvZAhUUTo8KHXDCCMM4HhDoAQg1MAQ#v=onepage&q=Barun%20De&f=false Amiya P. Sen, "Rammohan Roy", in Mahendra Prasad Singh and Himanshu Roy, ''Indian Political Thought: Themes and Thinkers'', (Delhi, Pearson, 2011), p. 68]</ref>
*(ed.) ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', (Calcutta: Jadavpur Session, 1974)
*(ed.) ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', (Aligarh: Aligarh Session, 1975)
*(et al. eds.) ''Essays in Honour of Professor Sushobhan Chandra Sarkar'' (New Delhi, 1975)<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xJgDawlnknwC&pg=PA190 "Peasant Labour and Colonial Capital: Rural Bengal since 1770" - Sugata Bose] 2015-02-19.</ref>
*''Freedom Struggle'' (New Delhi, 1972), (co-authored with [[Bipan Chandra]] and Amalesh Tripathi)<ref>[https://www.amazon.in/Freedom-Struggle-Bipan-Chandra/dp/8123702493 "Freedom Struggle" - Bipan Chandra, Amalesh Tripathi and Barun De] Retrieved 2015-02-18.</ref>

== See also ==
*[[NCERT textbook controversies]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[http://www.cssscal.org/ Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta]
*[http://www.makaias.gov.in/ Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Calcutta]
*[http://rajsaday.com/?p=1958 Lives Less Forgotten: Barun De]

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:De, Barun}}
[[Category:1932 births]]
[[Category:2013 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Bengali historians]]
[[Category:Brahmos]]
[[Category:Deaths from kidney failure]]
[[Category:Economic historians]]
[[Category:Historians of South Asia]]
[[Category:Indian civil servants]]
[[Category:Indian Marxist historians]]
[[Category:Indian Institute of Management Calcutta faculty]]
[[Category:Indian political writers]]
[[Category:Indian institute directors]]
[[Category:Presidency University, Kolkata alumni]]
[[Category:Scientists from Kolkata]]
[[Category:University of Calcutta faculty]]

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Barun De