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{{short description|Indian historian}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2015}}
{{EngvarB|date=April 2015}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Meenakshi Jain
| image =
| image_size = 220px
| caption =
| birth_date =
| birth_place =
| death_date =
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| other_names =
| known_for = Authoring books about Indian history
| occupation = Historian, political scientist
| alma_mater = [[University of Delhi]]
| awards = [[Padma Shri]]
}}
'''Meenakshi Jain''' is an Indian political scientist and historian. A scholar on relations between caste and politics,<ref name=":1" /> she is currently an associate professor of history at [[Gargi College]], Delhi. In 2014, she was nominated as a member of the [[Indian Council of Historical Research]] by the [[Indian government]].<ref name=":2" /> In 2020, she was conferred with the [[Padma Shri]], India's fourth highest civilian award, for her work in the field of literature and education.<ref>{{cite news|author=The Hindu Net Desk|date=26 January 2020|title=Full list of 2020 Padma awardees|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/full-list-of-2020-padma-awardees/article30656841.ece}}</ref>

Jain wrote ''Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse'' on the [[Sati (practice)|practice of Sati]] in colonial India and had also authored a history textbook (''Medieval India''), which incurred significant scholarly criticism but went on to replace a previous text by [[Romila Thapar]].

== Early life and education ==
Meenakshi Jain is the daughter of journalist [[Girilal Jain]], a former editor of ''[[The Times of India]]''.<ref>[[Khushwant Singh]], [http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/book-review-of-the-hindu-phenomenon-by-girilal-jain/1/293926.html Biased view] (Book review of The Hindu Phenomenon), India Today, 31 August 1994.</ref> She received her Ph.D. in political science from the [[University of Delhi]].<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAESBQAAQBAJ|title=Caste: Its 20Th Century Avatar|last=Srinivas|first=M. N.|date=2000-10-14|publisher=Penguin UK|isbn=9789351187837|pages=313|language=en}}</ref> Her thesis on the social base and relations between [[caste system in India|caste]] and [[politics]] was published in 1991.<ref name=":3" />

== Career ==
Jain is an associate professor of history at [[Gargi College]], affiliated to the University of Delhi.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ichr.ac.in/Council_new.pdf|title=Members of the Council|website=INDIAN COUNCIL OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH}}</ref> In December 2014, she was nominated as a member of the [[Indian Council of Historical Research]] by the [[Indian government]].<ref name=":2">[http://ichr.ac.in/newcouncilMembers.pdf Membership of the Indian Council of Historical Research]</ref>

== Reception ==

=== Martha Nussbaum ===
{{Rquote|1=right|2="...Jain, however, favors a simple narrative of Muslim aggression and Hindu suffering/resistance .... ignores the arts, concentrating on battles, so that no syncretism has a chance to emerge ... On the whole, Jain's account displays a constant oscillation between responsibility to the truth, which she clearly does feel, and the demands of a prior ideological commitment."|3=Martha C. Nussbaum}}
Writing in ''The Clash Within: Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future'' (2007), distinguished philosopher [[Martha Nussbaum]] noted Jain to be an amateur historian, who was trained as a sociologist and was yet to publish any significant work but was inducted into the ranks of a historian to fulfill a political mission.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|url=https://www.questia.com/library/120040798/the-clash-within-democracy-religious-violence|title=The Clash Within : Democracy, Religious Violence, and India's Future.|last=Nussbaum|first=Martha Craven|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2007|isbn=9780674030596|oclc=1006798430}}</ref> Recalling an interview, wherein she asked Jain about historiographic uncertainties faced whilst writing ''Medieval India'', Nussbaum noted her to have a strongly dogmatic persona who entirely lacked in any puzzlement or a sense of difficulty—two desirable traits in a good scholar.<ref name=":4" />

Nussbaum found Jain's ''Medieval India'' to poorly represent the complexity of the medieval period—a simple ideologically-based uni-dimensional war-narrative between the forces of good and evil, that did not highlight the tensions and internal conflicts between seemingly homogeneous groups.<ref name=":4" /> Yet she found her work to be a small "oasis of intelligence", subtlety and literacy, when contrasted with other publications of the NCERT series.<ref name=":4" />

She similarly faulted and criticized multiple aspects of Jain's review of [[Romila Thapar|Romila Thapar's]] ''Somanatha: Many Voices of a History'' and noted that the heavy dose of "dogmatic ideology" contained in it, made her serious points less convincing.<ref name=":4" />

Nussbaum noted that Jain's rebut to the criticisms of her works (by various leading scholars) had integrity.<ref name=":4" /> Whilst she often skipped the broader issues, Jain admitted to some of her errors and often produced secondary scholarly source(s) that had supported her writing, though the merit of the latter as an argument was debatable.<ref name=":4" /> She concluded that whilst Jain remained intellectually ahead of other right-wing historians and had genuine scholarly passions, she was inserted into the wrong domain by political forces and was compelled to produce a sub-standard work in a short time span.<ref name=":4" />

===Others===
Sociologist [[Nandini Sundar]] noted that the exactions of the [[Delhi Sultanate|Sultanate]] rulers and the [[Mughals]] were portrayed from an anti-Hindu perspective in Jain's ''Medieval India'' whilst their legacy contributions to the society, culture and polity were ignored.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Sundar|first=Nandini|date=2004|title=Teaching to Hate: RSS' Pedagogical Programme|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=39|issue=16|pages=1605–1612|issn=0012-9976|jstor=4414900|doi=10.1057/9781403980137_9}}</ref> She saw this as part of a broader pattern of state-induced [[historical negationism]] to suit the need of [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]].<ref name=":1" /> John Stratton Hawley of [[Columbia University]] found the book going against the grain in its treatment of the [[Bhakti movement]] in that she presented the movement as a response to [[Shankaracharya]]'s monism rather than to the egalitarian message of Islam.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/457858|title=A storm of songs. India and the idea of the Bhakti Movement.|last=Hawley|first=John Stratton|publisher=Harvard University Press|year=2015|isbn=9780674187467|pages=38–40|chapter=The Bhakti Movement and Its Discontents|doi=10.4159/9780674425262|jstor=j.ctt1c84d6f|oclc=917361614|chapter-url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/books/9780674425262/9780674425262-004/9780674425262-004.xml}}</ref>

Professor Pralay Kanungo, of [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru University]], noted Jain's ''Rama and Ayodhya'' as a subtle and sophisticated work that can't be outright dismissed and managed to stand apart, when contrasted with the earlier propaganda attempts by Hindutva historians.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://thebookreviewindia.org/alternative-narratives/|title=Alternative Narratives|website=The Book Review|language=en-US|access-date=2019-05-11}}</ref> He noted that a majority of the book was devoted to attacking left-leaning anti-Hindutva historians and by cherry-picking random content from random sources coupled with stray extrapolations, she had managed to produce a useful compilation but not an authentic history.<ref name=":0" /> Kanungo also pointed out other significant errors including her rejecting of the established scholarly consensus about the existence of multiple versions of ''Ramayana''s et al.<ref name=":0" /> He also deemed Jain's ''Medieval India'' to be the sole face-saving volume in the entire NCERT history series, that was published by the newly elected NDA government.<ref name=":0" /> [[M. V. Kamath]] admired of the work as a fair history, which successfully challenged the ignorance espoused by "secular intellectuals" and "[[Jawaharlal Nehru University]] historians" on the locus.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Rama & Ayodhya|url=https://www.freepressjournal.in/book-reviews/rama-ayodhya|access-date=2021-03-09|website=Free Press Journal|language=en}}</ref>

A review over the [[Indian Historical Review]] praised ''Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse'' as a well-researched and cogent magnum opus, that was thoroughly packed with facts, analysis and sources.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Singh|first=Swadesh|date=2017-06-01|title=Book Review: Meenakshi Jain, Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse|journal=Indian Historical Review|language=en|volume=44|issue=1|pages=151–153|doi=10.1177/0376983617694691|s2cid=148735989|issn=0376-9836}}</ref> Another review over [[Studies in World Christianity]] was positive as well.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mallampalli|first=Chandra|date=August 2018|title=Bok review|journal=Studies in World Christianity|language=en|volume=24|issue=2|pages=179–180|doi=10.3366/swc.2018.0222|issn=1354-9901}}</ref>

Professor Abhinav Prakash, of the University of Delhi, noted ''Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples: Episodes from Indian History'' to be a brilliant work.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-11-15|title=Where Did the Temples Go?|url=https://openthemagazine.com/cover-stories/where-did-the-temples-go/|access-date=2020-06-26|website=Open The Magazine|language=en-GB}}</ref>

== Works ==
===Books===
* ''Congress Party, 1967-77: Role of Caste in Indian Politics'' (Vikas, 1991), {{ISBN|0706953193}}.
* ''Medieval India: A Textbook for Class XI'' ([[National Council of Educational Research and Training|NCERT]], 2002), {{ISBN|8174501711}}.
* ''Rajah-Moonje Pact: Documents On A Forgotten Chapter Of Indian History'' (with Devendra Svarupa, Low Price Publishers, 2007), {{ISBN|8184540787}}.
* ''Parallel Pathways: Essays on Hindu-Muslim Relations, 1707-1857'' (Konark Publishers, 2010), {{ISBN|9788122007831}}.
* ''The India They Saw'' (co-edited with Sandhya Jain, 4 Volumes, Prabhat Prakashan), {{ISBN|8184301065}}, {{ISBN|8184301073}}, {{ISBN|8184301081}}, {{ISBN|818430109X}}.
* ''Rama and Ayodhya'' (Aryan Books International, 2013), {{ISBN|8173054517}}.
* ''Sati: Evangelicals, Baptist Missionaries, and the Changing Colonial Discourse'' (Aryan Books International, 2016), {{ISBN|8173055521}}
* ''The Battle for Rama: Case of the Temple at Ayodhya'' (Aryan Books International, 2017), {{ISBN|8173055793}}.
* "Flight of Deities and Rebirth of Temples: Episodes from Indian History" (Aryan Books International, 2019), {{ISBN|8173056196}}.

===Selected articles===
* "Congress 1967: Strategies of Mobilisation in D. A. Low" in ''The Indian National Congress Centenary Hindsights'', 1988.
* "Backward Castes and Social Change in U. P. and Bihar" in ''Srinivas, Caste: Its 20th Century Avatar (2000)''.
* A review of [[Romila Thapar]]'s ''Somanatha: Many Voices of a History'' over [[The Pioneer (India)]].<ref name="Somanathareview">{{cite news|url=http://hindureview.com/2004/04/20/review-romila-thapar%C2%92s-%C2%93somanatha-many-voices-history/|title=Review of Romila Thapar's "Somanatha, The Many Voices of a History"|author=Meenakshi Jain|date=21 March 2004|newspaper=The Pioneer|access-date=2014-12-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141218044553/http://hindureview.com/2004/04/20/review-romila-thapar%C2%92s-%C2%93somanatha-many-voices-history/|archive-date=18 December 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== References ==
{{Reflist|30em}}

{{Padma Shri Award Recipients in Literature & Education}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jain, Meenakshi}}
[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:Historians of India]]
[[Category:Hindu revivalist writers]]
[[Category:University of Delhi alumni]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Analysts of Ayodhya dispute]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women scientists]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian scientists]]
[[Category:Indian women science writers]]
[[Category:Indian political writers]]
[[Category:Writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian writers]]
[[Category:Women writers from Delhi]]
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature & education]]

Meenakshi Jain - Revision history

Aptechguwahatiaz: Content updated and refined

->RegentsPark: unsourced additions. please see WP:V and WP:RS