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 an illustrious Bengali
Brahmo family.
His father, Major (Honorary) Basanta Kumar De, was a high-ranking officer of the BNR.
[ "Historian and Administrator" - Aniruddha Ray Retrieved 2015-03-03] His grandfather was
Brajendranath De, Esq. ICS.
[ Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 'Obituary' in the Victoria Memorial Newsletter, 2014] One of his eight paternal aunts was Saroj Nalini Dutt, M.B.E.
Uma Bose and
Subrata Mitra, both older than him, were his niece and nephew on the paternal side of his family
He studied at European School, Adra and St. Xavier's Collegiate School, Calcutta. He completed his higher studies at Presidency College, Calcutta, where he was a student of Professor Susobhan Sarkar.
He was Debate Secretary of Presidency College's Student Union.
He went to St. Catherine's Society, Oxford where he completed his 2nd B.A. (Honours School). He was awarded the Curzon Memorial Prize for his essay "Macaulay and India". He completed his D.Phil. thesis on "Henry Dundas and the Government of India, 1784–1801" under the supervision of Major (Dr.) C.C. Davies.[
] on a Beit studentship at Nuffield College, Oxford. As the holder of this scholarship he taught students of the college. He was Secretary, Treasurer and President of the Oxford India Majlis.[ "Historian Barun De dead" - The Statesman, 18 July 2013 Retrieved 2015-03-05.]
He formed a lasting friendship with Professor S. Nurul Hasan, the historian and Governor of West Bengal.
Career
De, who became a full professor at the age of 33, held various positions at various times, including a senior professorship of social and economic history and programme directorship of the Post-Graduate Training Programme of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta,
the founder-directorship of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta and the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies,
a membership, held for three terms, of the Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi, a membership of the West Bengal Higher Education Commission and an honorary state editorship of the West Bengal District Gazetteers.
[ "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" - Sabyasachi Bhattacharya Indian Historical Review. Retrieved 2015-03-15.]
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,[ "Historian Barun De dies at 80" - Business Standard Retrieved 2015-03-06.] He was secretary (1974–76), sectional president (1972) and general president (1988) of the Indian History Congress.
In 2004, he was appointed to a membership of the NCERT textbook review committee.[ India Today, 2004]
In his post-retirement years, he was chairman of the West Bengal State Archives, Calcutta,[ "Heritage Conservation Committee" p. 3. Retrieved 2015-03-23] The Times of India has described him as "a pioneer of the heritage movement of West Bengal",[ "The Times of India" - Staff Reporter Retrieved 2015-02-27.] From 2008 to 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 to 2008.
He was appointed as a Tagore National Fellow by the Government of India, which he held at the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta (2011–2013).[ "Obituary" in the Victoria Memorial Newsletter - Sabyasachi Bhattacharya Retrieved 2015-0317.]
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.
[ "A Conversationalist Intellectual - Sugata Bose" Retrieved 2015-03-27.] He was also concerned with the national movement: his popular textbook book,
Freedom Struggle, co-authored with
Bipan Chandra and Amalesh Tripathi,
was censored by the new Central government that came to power in India in 1977.
[ "Censorship of Historical Thought: A World Guide" - Antoon de Baets Retrieved 2015-02-21.] It has been translated into Bengali by Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya.
[ "Historian Barun De passes away - Panchanan Chattopadhyay". Mainstreamweekly. Retrieved 2015-03-23.] 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.
[ Irfan Habib, "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Volume 73, 2012, p. 1554] He was the editor of 24 Parganas and Darjeeling
District Gazetteers.
[ Irfan Habib, "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Volume 73, 2012, pp. 1553-1555] He contributed to the editing of the Jalpaiguri District Gazetteers.
[ 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.]
Views
De was well known for his criticism of the emergency of 1975–77.
[ Irfan Habib, "Professor Barun De (1932-2013)" in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 73, 2012, p. 1554]
Awards
Death and legacy
De died due to
renal failure in
Kolkata on 16 July 2013 aged 80.
The Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, Calcutta has instituted a Barun De Memorial Lecture.[ Barun De Memorial Lecture Retrieved 2015-02-27.] 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.[ Barun De Auditorium, CSSSC]
His son, Dr. Bikramjit Dey, is a professor of legal history at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.
Publications
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Secularism at Bay: Uzbekistan at the Turn of the Century (New Delhi, 2006)
[ "Secularism at Bay: Uzbekistan at the Turn of the Century" - Barun De Retrieved 2015-02-17.]
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(ed.) State, Development and Political Culture: Bangladesh and India, (New Delhi, 1997) (co-edited with Ranabir Samaddar)
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(ed.) Mukti Sangrame Banglar Chatra-Samaj ( Students of Bengal in the Struggle of Liberation) (in Bengali), (Calcutta: Paschim Banga Itihas Samsad, 1992)
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(ed.) West Bengal District Gazetteers, 24 Parganas, (Calcutta, 1983)
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(ed.) West Bengal District Gazetteers, Jalpaiguri, (Calcutta, 1981) (co-edited with Abani Mohan Kusari).
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(ed.) West Bengal District Gazetteers, Darjeeling, (Calcutta, 1980)
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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)
[ 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.]
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(ed.) Perspectives in Social Sciences, 1: Historical Dimensions (New Delhi, 1977)
[ 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][ Chandak Sengoopta, The Rays before Satyajit: Creativity and Modernity in Colonial India, (New Delhi, Oxford, 2016)]
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"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
[ Amiya P. Sen, "Rammohan Roy", in Mahendra Prasad Singh and Himanshu Roy, Indian Political Thought: Themes and Thinkers, (Delhi, Pearson, 2011), p. 68]
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(ed.) Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, (Calcutta: Jadavpur Session, 1974)
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(ed.) Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, (Aligarh: Aligarh Session, 1975)
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(et al. eds.) Essays in Honour of Professor Sushobhan Chandra Sarkar (New Delhi, 1975)
[ "Peasant Labour and Colonial Capital: Rural Bengal since 1770" - Sugata Bose 2015-02-19.]
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Freedom Struggle (New Delhi, 1972), (co-authored with Bipan Chandra and Amalesh Tripathi)
[ "Freedom Struggle" - Bipan Chandra, Amalesh Tripathi and Barun De Retrieved 2015-02-18.]
See also
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NCERT textbook controversies
External links
