A leading
scholar in early-twentieth-century India, Sir Jadunath Sarkar
(1870–1958) was knighted in 1929 and became the first Indian
historian to gain honorary membership in the American Historical
Association. By the end of his lifetime, however, he had been
marginalized by the Indian history establishment, as postcolonial
historians embraced alternative approaches in the name of democracy
and anti-colonialism. The Calling
of History examines Sarkar’s
career—and poignant obsolescence—as a way into larger questions
about the discipline of history and its public life.
Through close readings of more than twelve hundred letters to and from Sarkar, along with other archival documents, Chakrabarty demonstrates that historians in colonial India formulated the basic concepts and practices of the field via vigorous—and at times bitter and hurtful—debates in the public sphere. He shows that because of its non-technical nature the discipline as a whole remains susceptible to pressure from both the public and the academy even today. Methodological debates and the changing reputations of scholars like Sarkar, he argues, must therefore be understood within the specific contexts in which particular histories are written.
Through close readings of more than twelve hundred letters to and from Sarkar, along with other archival documents, Chakrabarty demonstrates that historians in colonial India formulated the basic concepts and practices of the field via vigorous—and at times bitter and hurtful—debates in the public sphere. He shows that because of its non-technical nature the discipline as a whole remains susceptible to pressure from both the public and the academy even today. Methodological debates and the changing reputations of scholars like Sarkar, he argues, must therefore be understood within the specific contexts in which particular histories are written.
Insightful
and with far-reaching implications for all historians, The
Calling of History offers a
valuable look at the double life of history and how tensions between
its public and private sides played out in a major scholar’s
career.
Dipesh Chakrabarty is the
Lawrence A. Kimpton Distinguished Service Professor of History and South
Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. He is
the recipient of the 2014 Toynbee Prize, which is given to a
distinguished practitioner of global history.
978-81-7824-469-3/ Hardback/ 314 pp/ Rs 795/ Rights: South Asia only
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