Om Prakash (born January 1940, 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 wi ...

) is an Indian economic

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

. He is noted for his work on the

Dutch East India company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock c ...

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, and also for his work on

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in orde ...

age,

precious metal Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements (see noble metal). They are usually ductile and have a high lu ...

trade, and other aspects of pre-colonial commerce between Europe and India. In 2005, he was knighted by the Dutch queen.

Early life and education

He did his M.A. from the Delhi School of Economics in 1961, ranking first, and continued with his PhD in Economic History. His thesis, ''The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630-1720'', is based on archival material from the Nationaal Archief at

the Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a list of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's ad ...

. It was published as a book by the

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent Academic publishing, publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, ...

in 1985.

Career

Subsequently, Prakash joined the Delhi School of Economics faculty from 1965 and 2005. His work is highly regarded in the Netherlands, where he is a Foreign Member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

, Haarlem (since 2000). In April 2005, he was honoured as a "Knight in the Order of the Netherlands Lion" by

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix is the eldest daughter of Queen Juliana and her hus ...

. He is also the author of ''European commercial enterprise in pre-colonial India'' (1998), published under

the New Cambridge History of India ''The New Cambridge History of India'' is a major multi-volume work of historical scholarship published by Cambridge University Press. It replaced '' The Cambridge History of India'' published between 1922 and 1937. The new history is being publi ...

series (part II, v.5).

References

External links

* 1940 births Delhi School of Economics alumni Delhi University faculty 20th-century Indian historians 20th-century Indian economists Economic historians Historians of India Living people Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Historians of the Dutch East India Company {{India-academic-bio-stub