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Vinay Lal is a historian of India. He is Professor of History and Asian American Studies at
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
. He writes widely on the history and culture of colonial and modern India, popular and public culture in India, cinema, historiography, the politics of world history, the
Indian diaspora Overseas Indians (IAST: ), officially Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCIs) are Indians who live outside of the Republic of India. According to the Government of India, ''Non-Resident Indians'' are citizens of Indi ...
, global politics, contemporary American politics, the life and thought of
Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
, Hinduism, and the politics of knowledge systems. He is known for his radical political views and for making his history lectures available for free on his
YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most vis ...
channel.


Youth

Lal was born to an Indian foreign service officer in (Delhi)India in 1961. Due to his father’s constant movement because of his diplomatic career, he grew up in
Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
, Tokyo,
Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java, the world's most populous island, Jakarta ...
, and
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
In Delhi he attended Springdales School. He spent four years in Tokyo, 1965–69, but has almost no memory of those years; and it is not until 1987 that he returned to Japan for a short visit, followed by a lengthier stay of four months in
Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...
in 1999 when he was a Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science at the National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku).


Academic career

He earned his BA and MA, both in 1982, from the Humanities Center at the
Johns Hopkins University Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consiste ...
and wrote his Master's thesis on
Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson (May 25, 1803April 27, 1882), who went by his middle name Waldo, was an American essayist, lecturer, philosopher, abolitionist, and poet who led the transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champ ...
and
Indian philosophy Indian philosophy refers to philosophical traditions of the Indian subcontinent. A traditional Hindu classification divides āstika and nāstika schools of philosophy, depending on one of three alternate criteria: whether it believes the Vedas ...
. Lal then studied cinema in Australia and India on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship before commencing his graduate studies at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the be ...
, where he was awarded a PhD with Distinction from the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations in 1992. He was William Kenan Fellow in the Society of Fellows in the Humanities at Columbia University in 1992–93, and since 1993 has been on the faculty of history at the
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...
(UCLA), where he also holds a joint appointment in Asian American Studies.


Publication

Lal is the author or editor of fifteen books. His first, ''The Empire of Knowledge: Culture and Plurality in the Global Economy'', argues that nothing has been more effectively, even insidiously, globalised than the knowledge systems of the West. ''The History of History: Politics and Scholarship in Modern India'', is a study of the politics of history-writing in India since the early 19th century; the book also makes an unusual argument, naturally not well received by historians, to the effect that ahistoricity has been one of the most characteristic features of Indian civilisation, at least until the beginning of Muslim dynasties. Unlike colonial writers, however, Lal does not even remotely construe the absence of histories as a lack. The book was reviewed widely in the Indian press, and in scholarly journals in India and abroad, and nearly full page excerpts appeared in the ''
Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh L ...
'' and the ''
Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932. It is published in Mumbai by the Indian Express Group. In 1999, eight years after the group's founder Ramnath Goenka's death in 1991, the group was split be ...
''. A new edition of the book, with a fresh foreword, appeared in 2005, and the book is in its sixth impression. ''
Introducing Introducing or Introducing... may refer to: Albums * ''Introducing'' (Bombay Rockers album), 2003 * '' Introducing... The Beatles'', 1964 * '' Introducing... Mari Hamada'', 1993 * '' Introducing...Rubén González'', 1997 * '' Introducing ... Tal ...
Hinduism'', illustrated by Borin van Loon, is Lal's contribution to the "Introducing" Series; the book has been translated into Spanish, Korean, and Finnish. The book was reissued in 2010 as ''Introducing Hinduism: A Graphic Guide''. ''Political Hinduism: The Religious Imagination in Public Spheres'' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009) is a collection of eight essays, but the book is not centrally concerned with the rise of Hindu nationalism as such; rather, it considers what a political Hinduism might be that is not
Hindutva Hindutva () is the predominant form of Hindu nationalism in India. The term was formulated as a political ideology by Vinayak Damodar Savarkar in 1923. It is used by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the ...
. Another of Lal's abiding interests is cinema, and his book on ''
Deewaar ''Deewaar'' () is a 1975 Indian Hindi-language action crime film directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim–Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar). It stars Shashi Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Neetu Singh, Nirupa Roy and Parveen Babi. The fi ...
'', the 1975 blockbuster Hindi-language film with
Amitabh Bachchan Amitabh Bachchan (; born as Amitabh Shrivastav; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor, film producer, television host, occasional playback singer and former politician known for his work in Hindi cinema. He is regarded as one of the most success ...
and some of the most memorable dialogues in Indian film history – "mere paas ma hain" ("I have mother") – was published by HarperCollins in 2011. His co-edited book, ''Fingerprinting Popular Culture: The Mythic and the Iconic in Indian Cinema'', appeared from Oxford University Press (2006). It is one of two books, along with ''The Future of Knowledge and Culture: A Dictionary for the Twenty-first Century'', he has co-edited with Ashis Nandy, arguably India's most prominent intellectual. Lal's engagement with the work of Nandy commenced in the late 1980s, and led eventually to the first serious assessment of Nandy's work, published as ''Dissenting Knowledges, Open Futures: The Multiple Selves and Strange Destinations of Ashis Nandy''. The range of Lal’s intellectual, cultural and political interests is perhaps best explored in his collection of eight essays, ''Of Cricket, Guinness and Gandhi: Essays on Indian History and Culture''.(Seagull Books, 2003; paperback reprint, Penguin Books, 2005) Writing on
cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
, the hijras, popular cinema,
Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
, the national-security state in India, notions of masculinity, and the obsession with the ''
Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
'', Lal argues that there is a tension between the idea of India as a nation-state and the idea of India as a civilisation. How India resolves this tension may well determine the course of India's future. Lal's most recent work is ''The Oxford Anthology of the Modern Indian City'' (Oxford, 2013) in two complementary volumes. The anthology draws upon the writings of nearly 100 writers, some of great eminence and some of whom are relatively little known. This is a very personal and yet critical anthology, prefaced by a long introduction, focused on how the city in India has been imagined, and the antinomies it invokes are of day and night, passion and reflection, exclusion and inclusion. The writers represented in it include Nirad Chauduri,
Gieve Patel Gieve Patel (born 18 August 1940) is an Indian poet, playwright, painter, as well as a physician. He belongs to a group of writers who have subscribed themselves to the ''Green Movement'' which is involved in an effort to protect the environmen ...
,
Premendra Mitra Premendra Mitra (4 September 1904 – 3 May 1988)Samsad Bengali Charitabhidhan Vol.II edited Anjali Bose, Published by Sagitta Samsad, Kolkata, Edition January,2019,Page-240 was an Indian poet, writer and film director in the Bengali language. ...
,
Nissim Ezekiel Nissim Ezekiel (16 December 1924 – 9 January 2004) was an Indian Jewish poet, actor, playwright, editor and art critic. He was a foundational figure in postcolonial India's literary history, specifically for Indian Poetry in English. He was ...
, Ananthamurthy,
Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He res ...
,
Pritish Nandy Pritish Nandy (born 15 January 1951) is an Indian poet, painter, journalist, parliamentarian, media and television personality, animal activist and maker of films, TV and streaming content. He was a parliamentarian in the Rajya Sabha from Mahara ...
,
Buddhadev Bose Buddhadeva Bose (; 1908–1974), also spelt Buddhadeb Bosu, was an Indian Bengali writer of the 20th century. Frequently referred to as a poet, he was a versatile writer who wrote novels, short stories, plays and essays in addition to poetry. ...
, Ravi Dayal,
Amitav Ghosh Amitav Ghosh (born 11 July 1956)Ghosh, Amitav
, '' Daya Pawar Daya Pawar or Dagdu Maruti Pawar (1935–20 September 1996) was an Indian Marathi language author and poet known for his contributions to Dalit literature that dealt with the atrocities experienced by the dalits or untouchables under the Hin ...
, Chandralekha, and Prakash Jadhav, and contemporary intellectuals such as
Thomas Blom Hansen Thomas Blom Hansen (born 22 January 1958 in Frederiksvaerk) is a Danish anthropologist and leading contemporary commentator on religious and political violence in India. Background Hansen has a BA in Sociology and an MA in political theory fro ...
, Shiv Viswanathan, Sumanta Banerjee, and Ashis Nandy. 53651197009921?s=19, ''literature''].


Contributions

Lal has been involved in various initiatives designed to enhance South-Asian cultural and political contacts, foster systematic critiques of dominant knowledge systems and the various imperialisms of the West, and suggest more ecumenical futures for all humanity. Prominently among these initiatives is Multiversity, an organisation of activists, scholars, and intellectuals from the Global South that has had four meetings in
Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...
, Malaysia, since 2002. Lal is the founding editor of the Dissenting Knowledges Pamphlet Series, under which eleven works have appeared so far, and also the ''Asian Thinkers'' (Pamphlet Series), launched in 2011. Both series are initiatives of Multiversity and Citizens International. He has also been associated with INCAD (International Network for Cultural Alternatives to Development), the Intercultural Institute of Montreal, and the Coalition for an Egalitarian and Pluralistic India (Los Angeles). For some years, Lal wrote a column for the ''Economic and Political Weekly'' (Mumbai) published as "Letter from America". He is an acerbic critic of American foreign policy and many aspects of American society. Lal is equally a critic of Hindu nationalism, and his op-ed piece in the ''Los Angeles Times'', "Coming Out From Gandhi's Shadow" (19 May 1998), was the first piece in a major American newspaper to sharply criticise India's nuclear explosions. Lal's views on American society and politics have earned him a place in David Horowitz's '' The Professors: The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America''


Books

* ''The Fury of Covid-19: The Passions, Histories, and Unrequited Love of the Corona Virus’' (Delhi: Pan Macmillan, 2020). * ''The Oxford Anthology of the Modern Indian City: Making and Unmaking the City—Politics, Culture, and Life Forms'' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013). * ''The Oxford Anthology of the Modern Indian City: The City In its Plenitude'' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2013). * (Edited) ''Mohandas K. Gandhi, Colonialism and the Call to Freedom'' (with an introduction by Vinay Lal) (Penang: Citizens International & Multiversity, 2011). * ''Deewaar: The Footpath, the City, and the Angry Young Man'' (Delhi: HarperCollins, 2011). * ''Introducing Hinduism: A Graphic Guide'' (London: Icon Books, 2010). * (Edited) ''Political Hinduism: The Religious Imagination in Public Spheres'' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009). * ''Empire of Knowledge: Culture and Plurality in the Global Economy'' (London: Pluto Press, 2002; new updated edition, Sage Publishers, 2005; Urdu translation, published as Ilm ki Sultanat, from Mashal Books, Lahore, 2009). * ''The Other Indians: A Political and Cultural History of South Asians in America'' (Los Angeles: Asian American Studies Center Press, UCLA and New Delhi: HarperCollins, 2008). * (Co-edited with Ashis Nandy) ''Fingerprinting Popular Culture: The Mythic and Iconic in Indian Cinema'' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006; Oxford India Paperback, 2007). * (Co-edited with Ashis Nandy)'' The Future of Knowledge and Culture: A Dictionary for the Twenty-first Century'' (Delhi: Viking Penguin, 2005; Kannada translation, 2007). * ''Of Cricket, Guinness and Gandhi: Essays on Indian History and Culture'' (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 2003; paperback ed., Penguin Books, 2005). * ''Introducing Hinduism'' (London: Icon Books, 2005). * ''The History of History: Politics and Scholarship in Modern India'' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003; new edition, 2005). * ''Empire and the Dream-Work of America.'' Dissenting Knowledges Pamphlet Series, no. 4 (Penang: Multiversity and Citizens International, 2004). * (Edited) ''Dissenting Knowledges, Open Futures: The Multiple Selves and Strange Destinations of Ashis Nandy'' (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000). * (Edited) ''The History of Railway Thieves'', by M. Pauparao Naidu (4th ed., 1915; reprint with critical introduction by Vinay Lal, Gurgaon, Haryana, Vintage Books, 1996). * ''South Asian Cultural Studies: A Bibliography'' (Delhi: Manohar Books, 1996).


Publications

*Implications of American Islamophobia, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 50, Issue No. 51, 19 Dec, 2015


Notes


External links


Official Website

YouTube channel
Webpage at the Department of History, UCLA: * http://www.history.ucla.edu/faculty/vinay-lal * http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/history/lal/ Web Portal on Historical Culture: * http://www.culturahistorica.es/lal.html World Academy of Art & Science: * http://www.worldacademy.org/home-demo/index.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Lal, Vinay 20th-century Indian historians American male writers of Indian descent 1961 births Living people Johns Hopkins University alumni University of California, Los Angeles faculty