Sir Jadunath Sarkar, (10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was a prominent

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty. Sarkar was educated in English literature and worked as a teacher for some time but later shifted his focus to history research writing. He had vast knowledge of

Persian language Persian ( ), also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Farsi (, Fārsī ), is a Western Iranian languages, Western Iranian language belonging to the Iranian languages, Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian subdivision ...

and all his books he wrote in English. He was vice-chancellor (VC) of

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...

from 1926 to 1928 and a member of Bengal Legislative Council between 1929 and 1932. In 1929 the British knighted him.

Early life and education

Sarkar was born on 10 December 1870 to a kayastha family in the village of Karachmaria in Chhatardighi, Singra,

Rajshahi district Rajshahi District () is a district in mid-western Bangladesh. It is a part of Rajshahi Division. The metropolitan city of Rajshahi is in Rajshahi District. Geography Rajshahi District is bounded by Naogaon District to the north, Natore Distric ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...

(now in Natore District,

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

). His father, Rajkumar Sarkar, was a local zamindar and owned a large library. His mother Harisundari Devi had seven sons and three daughters, with Jadunath being the fifth child and third son. In 1891, he graduated in English from Presidency College, Calcutta. In 1892, he topped the Master of Arts examination, in English at Calcutta University and in 1897, he received the Premchand-Roychand Scholarship.

Academic career

In 1893, he was inducted as a faculty of English literature at Ripon College,

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 ...

(later renamed Surendranath College). In 1898, he was appointed at Presidency College, Calcutta after getting selected in the Provincial Education Services. In between, from 1917 to 1919, he taught modern Indian history in

Benaras Hindu University Banaras Hindu University (BHU), formerly Benares Hindu University, is a collegiate, central, and research university located in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, India, and founded in 1916. The university incorporated the Central Hindu College, ...

and from 1919 to 1923, both English and history, at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. In 1923, he became an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society of London. In August 1926, he was appointed as the

Vice-Chancellor A vice-chancellor (commonly called a VC) serves as the chief executive of a university in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Australia, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Kenya, other Commonwealth of Nati ...

of Calcutta University. In 1928, he joined as Sir W. Meyer Lecturer in Madras University.

Historiography

Reception

He has been called the "greatest Indian historian of his time" and one of the greatest in the world, whose erudite works "have established a tradition of honest and scholarly historiography" by E. Sreedharan.A Textbook of Historiography, 500 B.C. to A.D. 2000, E. Sreedharan, p. 448 He has also been compared with

Theodor Mommsen Christian Matthias Theodor Mommsen (; ; 30 November 1817 – 1 November 1903) was a German classical scholar, historian, jurist, journalist, politician and archaeologist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest classicists of the 19th ce ...

and Leopold von Ranke. Arthur Llewellyn Basham calls him "the greatest Indian historian of his generation." He has also been described as "a star historian of modern India on medieval Indian history, who brilliantly caught the spirit of the age and devoted himself to the neglected field of Indian historiography." He has also been appreciated as "unquestionably the greatest Indian historian of his time and one of the greatest in the world". Sarkar's works faded out of public memory, with the increasing advent of

Marxist Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...

and

postcolonial Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and extractivism, exploitation of colonized pe ...

schools of historiography. Academically, Jos J. L. Gommans compares Sarkar's work with those of the Aligarh historians, noting that while the historians from the Aligarh worked mainly on the mansabdari system and

gunpowder Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium ni ...

technology in the

Mughal Empire The Mughal Empire was an Early modern period, early modern empire in South Asia. At its peak, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus River Basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to ...

, Sarkar concentrated on

military tactics Military tactics encompasses the art of organizing and employing fighting forces on or near the battlefield. They involve the application of four battlefield functions which are closely related – kinetic or firepower, Mobility (military), mobil ...

and

siege A siege () . is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or by well-prepared assault. Siege warfare (also called siegecrafts or poliorcetics) is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict charact ...

His treatment of

Shivaji Shivaji I (Shivaji Shahaji Bhonsale, ; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680) was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle dynasty. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the Sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the ...

was however criticised by N.S.Takakhav; as "his sympathies lay with the Moguls and the commanders of Mogul empire and the British factors of Surat and Rajapur." Also in a letter dated 25 November 1945 to historian Dr. Raghubir Sinh of Sitamau, Sarkar says, "Aurangzib is my life's work; Shivaji is only an incidental off-shoot of it."

Honours

In 1904, Sarkar was given the Griffith Prize by the

( Kolkata, Bengal). He was elected as a member of the Indian Historical Records Commission in 1919. In 1923, he was made an Honorary Member of the

Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland The Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, commonly known as the Royal Asiatic Society, was established, according to its royal charter of 11 August 1824, to further "the investigation of subjects connected with and for the encourag ...

(Hon. MRAS) and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal (Hon. FRASB).About Jadunath Sarkar
- website of the Jadunath Bhavan Museum of the CSSSC Sarkar was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) in the 1926 New Year Honours and knighted in the 1929 Birthday Honours by King

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

, then also Emperor of India. On 22 August 1929, he was invested with his knighthood at Simla by the acting Viceroy of India, George Goschen, 2nd Viscount Goschen. In 1935, he became a corresponding member of the

Royal Historical Society The Royal Historical Society (RHS), founded in 1868, is a learned society of the United Kingdom which advances scholarly studies of history. Origins The society was founded and received its royal charter in 1868. Until 1872 it was known as the H ...

( London, UK) and honorary member of the

American Historical Association The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world, claiming over 10,000 members. Founded in 1884, AHA works to protect academic free ...

( Washington, D.C., USA). In 1936 he received an honorary D.Litt. degree from the University of Dhaka and in 1944 from the University of Patna. When he reached his eightieth year, he was honoured in 1949 and 1950 by the literary associations Bangiya Sahitya Parishat and the Bangiya Itihas Parishad (both in Kolkata, West Bengal) for his lifetime achievements.

Legacy

The Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, an autonomous research center, has been established in his house, which was donated to the state government by Sarkar's wife. CSSC also houses the Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, a museum-cum-archive of primary sources.

List of works

Published works by Sarkar include: * ''Economics of British India'' (1900) * ''The India of Aurangzib'' (1901) * ''Anecdotes of Aurangzib'' (1912) * '' History of Aurangzib'' (in 5 volumes), (1912–24) * ''Chaitanya's pilgrimages and teachings, from his contemporary Bengali biography, the Chaitanya-charit-amrita: Madhya-lila'' (translation from the Bengali original by Krishnadasa Kaviraja, 1913) * ''Shivāji and his times'' (1919) * ''Studies in Mughal India'' (1919) * ''Mughal Administration'' (1920) * ''Nadir Shah in India'' (1922) * ''Later Mughals'' by William Irvine (in 2 volumes), (edited by Jadunath Sarkar, 1922) * ''India through the ages'' (1928) * ''A Short History of Aurangzib'' (1930) * ''The Fall of the Mughal Empire'' (in 4 volumes), (1932–38) * ''Studies in Aurangzib's reign'' (1933) * ''The House of Shivaji'' (1940) * ''The History of Bengal'' (in 2 volumes), (1943–1948) * ''Maāsir-i-ʻĀlamgiri: a history of the emperor Aurangzib-ʻl̀amgir'' (translation from the Persian original by Muḥammad Sāqī Mustaʻidd Khān, 1947) * ''Military History of India'' (1960) * ''A History of Jaipur, c. 1503–1938'' (1984) * ''A History Of Dasnami Naga Sanyasis''

References

Sources

External links

*
Sir Sarkar at Britannica Encyclopedia
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sarkar, Jadunath Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Bengali historians Bengali zamindars Academic staff of Presidency University, Kolkata Historians of South Asia 19th-century Indian historians People from Natore District Rajshahi College alumni University of Calcutta alumni Academic staff of the University of Calcutta Vice-chancellors of the University of Calcutta 1870 births 1958 deaths Companions of the Order of the Indian Empire Indian Knights Bachelor 20th-century Indian historians Scholars from Kolkata Historians from British India Bengali knights