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 Brajendranath Dey (23 December 1852 – 20 September 1932) was an early Indian member of the Indian Civil Service. Early life and education De studied at Hare School, Calcutta, and then Canning Collegiate School and Canning College, Lucknow. ...

, Esq. ICS.Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, 'Obituary' in the ''Victoria Memorial Newsletter'', 2014
/ref> 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 Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

. He completed his higher studies at Presidency College, Calcutta, where he was a student of

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Susobhan Chandra 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 Nuffield College () is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college specialising in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. N ...

. 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

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 Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

, 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 Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

as a visiting

associate professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a position ...

, the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies,

Shimla Shimla, also known as Simla ( the official name until 1972), is the capital and the largest city of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of British India. After independence, the city ...

, as a senior fellow, Fondation Maison des sciences de l'homme,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

as a directeur,

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

and

University of Milan The University of Milan (; ), officially abbreviated as UNIMI, or colloquially referred to as La Statale ("the State niversity), is a public university, public research university in Milan, Italy. It is one of the largest universities in Eu ...

as a visiting

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

, and the

University of World Economy and Diplomacy The University of World Economy and Diplomacy is located in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. It was founded on September 23, 1992, by the decree of the President Karimov to train future leaders of the country. The University of World Econ ...

Tashkent Tashkent (), also known as Toshkent, is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uzbekistan, largest city of Uzbekistan. It is the most populous city in Central Asia, with a population of more than 3 million people as of April 1, 2024. I ...

as the India Chair (in the rank of minister-counsellor) for three years, with attachment to the Indian Embassy of

Uzbekistan , image_flag = Flag of Uzbekistan.svg , image_coat = Emblem of Uzbekistan.svg , symbol_type = Emblem of Uzbekistan, Emblem , national_anthem = "State Anthem of Uzbekistan, State Anthem of the Republ ...

,."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 National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) () is an autonomous organisation of Ministry of Education, the Government of India. Established in 1961, it is a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies Re ...

textbook review committee. In his post-retirement years, he was chairman of the West Bengal State Archives, Calcutta, a vice president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and a member of the Heritage Conservation Committee of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, in which capacity he was among the several people who prepared a list of heritage buildings of West Bengal. ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' 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. He was also concerned with the national movement: his popular textbook book, ''Freedom Struggle'', co-authored with

Bipan Chandra Bipan Chandra (24 May 1928 – 30 August 2014) was an Indian Marxist historian, specialising in economic and political history of modern India. An emeritus professor of modern history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, he specialized on the Indian ...

and Amalesh Tripathi, was censored by the new Central government that came to power in India in 1977. It has been translated into Bengali by Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya. 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
/ref> 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
/ref> 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
/ref>

Awards

*D.Litt. (''Honouris Causa''), North Bengal University, 2000.Akanksha Sharma, 'Barun De, The Renowned Historian and Academician Passed Away at 80' in ''Jagran Josh'', 17 July 2013
/ref> *Banga Samman, 2008–09

Death and legacy

De died due to

renal failure Kidney failure, also known as renal failure or end-stage renal disease (ESRD), is a medical condition in which the kidneys can no longer adequately filter waste products from the blood, functioning at less than 15% of normal levels. Kidney fa ...

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

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 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
/ref> His son, Dr. Bikramjit Dey, is unfortunately a professor of legal history at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata.

Publications

*''Secularism at Bay: Uzbekistan at the Turn of the Century'' (New Delhi, 2006) *(ed.) ''State, Development and Political Culture: Bangladesh and India'', (New Delhi, 1997) (co-edited with Ranabir Samaddar) *(ed.) ''Mukti Sangrame Banglar Chatra-Samaj'' (''Students of Bengal in the Struggle of Liberation'') (in Bengali), (Calcutta: Paschim Banga Itihas Samsad, 1992) *(ed.) ''West Bengal District Gazetteers, 24 Parganas'', (Calcutta, 1983) *(ed.) ''West Bengal District Gazetteers, Jalpaiguri'', (Calcutta, 1981) (co-edited with Abani Mohan Kusari). *(ed.) ''West Bengal District Gazetteers, Darjeeling'', (Calcutta, 1980) *''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. *(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
/ref>Chandak Sengoopta, ''The Rays before Satyajit: Creativity and Modernity in Colonial India'', (New Delhi, Oxford, 2016)
/ref> * "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, 1975Amiya P. Sen, "Rammohan Roy", in Mahendra Prasad Singh and Himanshu Roy, ''Indian Political Thought: Themes and Thinkers'', (Delhi, Pearson, 2011), p. 68
/ref> *(ed.) ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', (Calcutta: Jadavpur Session, 1974) *(ed.) ''Proceedings of the Indian History Congress'', (Aligarh: Aligarh Session, 1975) *(et al. eds.) ''Essays in Honour of Professor Sushobhan Chandra Sarkar'' (New Delhi, 1975) *''Freedom Struggle'' (New Delhi, 1972), (co-authored with

and Amalesh Tripathi)"Freedom Struggle" - Bipan Chandra, Amalesh Tripathi and Barun De
Retrieved 2015-02-18.

References

External links

Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, CalcuttaMaulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies, CalcuttaLives Less Forgotten: Barun De
{{DEFAULTSORT:De, Barun 1932 births 2013 deaths 20th-century Bengalis Bengali Hindus Alumni of Nuffield College, Oxford Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford Bengali historians Bengali-language writers 20th-century Indian historians 20th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian scholars 20th-century Indian educational theorists Brahmos Deaths from kidney failure in India Economic historians Historians of South Asia Indian civil servants Indian Marxist historians Academic staff of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Indian political writers Indian institute directors Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Scientists from Kolkata Academic staff of the University of Calcutta Educators from West Bengal West Bengal academics