Barun De: Difference between revisions

Dey's research spanned from early to late modern period of Indian history. In the early half of his career, he wrote his doctoral thesis on Henry Dundas, Chairman of the Board of Trades, and the conquest of India. Later, he addressed primarily two interconnected themes - the 18th and 19th centuries in India and 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> In 1975, he edited a volume in honour of [[Susobhan Sarkar]], in which he wrote the main essay that 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 edited the 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> and contributed to the editing of the Jalpaiguri District Gazetteers too.<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> Still later, he was concerned with Area Studies, especially Central Asia, in the post-USSR phase of geo-politics.

The most important theme he was concerned with, was India's national movement. His popular textbook, ''Freedom Struggle'', co-authored with [[Bipan Chandra]] and Amalesh Tripathi,<ref name="telegraphindia1"/> was censored by the Indian government in 1977, revealing his unpopularity with the government that came to power at the Centre that year,<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> although he was equally well-known for his criticism of India's first emergency. [[Irfan Habib]], in his obituary of De, says that De was always committed to the left of the Indian political spectrum and, as General Secretary of the Indian History Congress at the Aligarh Session of 1975, he moved a resolution condemning the declaration of the Emergency that year.<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> This book has been translated into several Indian languages, including Bengali, which was done by the JNU historian, Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya.<ref>[http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article4385.html "Historian Barun De passes away - Panchanan Chattopadhyay"]. ''Mainstreamweekly''. Retrieved 2015-03-23.</ref>