Essays Of A Lifetime

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For the past forty years or more, the most influential, respected, and popular scholar of modern Indian history has been Sumit Sarkar. When his first monograph, The Swadeshi Movement in Bengal 1903–1908, appeared in 1973 it soon became obvious that the book represented a paradigm shift within its genre. As one eminent historian put it when the work was republished in 2010: “Very few monographs, if any, have ever rivalled the meticulous research and the thick description that characterised this book, or the lucidity of its exposition and the persuasive power of its overall argument.”

Ten years later, Sarkar published Modern India 1885–1947, a textbook for advanced students and teachers. Its synthesis and critique of everything significant that had been written about the period was seen as monumental, lucid, and the fashioning of a new way of looking at colonialism and nationalism.

Sarkar, however, changed the face not only of modern Indian history monographs and textbooks, he also radically altered the capacity of the historical essay. As Beethoven stretched the sonata form beyond earlier conceivable limits, Sarkar can be said to have expanded the academic essay. In his hands, the shorter form becomes in miniature both monograph and textbook. The present collection, which reproduces many of Sarkar’s finest writings, shows an intellectually scintillating, sceptical-Marxist mind at its sharpest.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sumit Sarkar

Sumit Sarkar retired as Professor of History, University of Delhi.  He was earlier the President of the Modern India section of the Indian History Congress, and Secretary of that body.  He has held visiting professorships at the universities of Oxford, Canberra, Paris, and Hawaii.  One of the foremost scholars of modern South Asian history, his publications include Swadeshi Movement in Bengal, 1903-1908 (1973), Modern India, 1885-1947(1983), A Critique on Colonial India (1985), Writing Social History (1999), and Beyond Nationalist Frames (2002).  His many books include Beyond Nationalist Frames: Relocating Postmodernism, Hindutva, History (Permanent Black paperback, 2003).

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Bibliographic information

Title
Essays Of A Lifetime
Author
Edition
1st. ed.
Publisher
ISBN
9788178245157
Length
640p.
Subjects