Rudrangshu Mukherjee is a historian and author of several history books. He was formerly the Opinions Editor for The Telegraph newspaper, Kolkata and the Chancellor for Ashoka University, where he also serves as Professor of History.[1] He was the founding Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka when the University began in 2014 and was succeeded in 2017 by Pratap Bhanu Mehta.[2]

Rudrangshu Mukherjee
Alma materOxford University
OccupationHistorian
1st Vice Chancellor of Ashoka University
In office
2014–2017
Succeeded byProf. Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Chancellor of Ashoka University
Assumed office
2017

Academics

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He studied at Calcutta Boys' School, Presidency College, Kolkata, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and St Edmund Hall, Oxford.[citation needed]

His 1980 D.Phil thesis at the University of Oxford was titled "The rebellion in Awadh, 1857-1858: a study in popular resistance".[3] He has revisited his view of the revolt from the native perspective in books including Awadh in Revolt 1857-58: A Study of Popular Resistance (Delhi, 1984, repr. 2002), Spectre of Violence: The 1857 Kanpur Massacres (Delhi, 1988), and Mangal Pandey: Brave Martyr or Accidental Hero? (Penguin India).[4]

Career

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He has taught history at the University of Calcutta and held visiting appointments at Princeton University, the University of Manchester, the University of California, Santa Cruz and the Young India Fellowship, New Delhi. At the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta (CSSSC), which he had joined as a Junior Research Fellow in 1975, he was involved in issues concerning the ascendancy of the North in the production of knowledge.[3] He has edited The Penguin Gandhi Reader (Delhi, 1993) and is the author of the Art of Bengal: A Vision Defined, 1955-75 (Kolkata, 2003), and co-edited Trade and Politics and the Indian Ocean World: Essays in Honour of Ashin Das Gupta (Delhi, 1998).

He has authored and edited several books on other themes, including The Penguin Gandhi Reader, Trade and Politics and, the Indian Ocean World: Essays in Honour of Ashin Das Gupta, Remembered Childhood: Essays in Honour of Andre Beteille, New Delhi: The Making of a Capital and Great Speeches of Modern India. His latest book is Nehru and Bose.[1]

He has also worked on the history of the leftist movement in India.[5] After the 2007 Nandigram episode, he was among those leftist intellectuals in Kolkata who protested the violent policies of the left.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b University, Ashoka. "Faculty/Staff | Ashoka University". Ashoka University. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
  2. ^ "Rudrangshu Mukherjee | The DSC Prize for South Asian LiteratureThe DSC Prize for South Asian Literature". dscprize.com. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  3. ^ a b Rudrangshu Mukherjee (September 2004). "Sephis e-magazine: Partha Chatterjee interview" (PDF). Vol. 1, no. 1. South-south Exchange programme for research on the history of development. Retrieved 17 December 2007. [dead link]
  4. ^ . The cover illustration of one book was drawn by Satyajit Ray. Rudrangshu Mukherjee (4 September 2005). "Clio Is Not For Worship:- History is best freed from nation-building". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 December 2005. Retrieved 18 December 2007.
  5. ^ Rudrangshu Mukherjee (July 2004). "A Mandate For Change: A symposium on the 2004 general elections". www.india-seminar.com/ Seminar, New Delhi, ed. Raj and Romesh Thapar].
  6. ^ Rudranghshu Mukherjee (10 January 2007). "Kiss of Death - The CPI(M)'s use of violence in Nandigram isn't surprising". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 8 February 2008. Retrieved 19 December 2007.(part of a three-article series)
Academic offices
Preceded by
New title
Vice-Chancellor of Ashoka University
2014-2017
Succeeded by
Preceded by
New title
Chancellor of Ashoka University
since 2017
Succeeded by
incumbent