Tapan Raychaudhuri (8 May 1926 – 26 November 2014) was a British-Indian

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 ...

specialising in British Indian history, Indian economic history and the

History of Bengal The history of Bengal is intertwined with the history of the broader Indian subcontinent and the surrounding regions of South Asia and Southeast Asia. It includes modern-day Bangladesh and the Indian states of West Bengal and Assam's Karimga ...

Early life and education

He was the son of Prativa and Amiya Kumar Raychaudhuri, the last ''

zamindar A zamindar (Hindustani: Devanagari: , ; Persian: , ) in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semiautonomous ruler of a province. The term itself came into use during the reign of Mughals and later the British had begun using it as ...

'' of Kirtipasha in Barisal district of eastern Bengal. He came from a well-known Baidya family. He was a nephew of

Kiran Shankar Roy Kiran may refer to: Names * Kiran (given name), an Indian given name used for men or women (including a list of persons with the name) * Kiran, an anglicised variant of the Gaelic given name Ciarán People * ''Kiran'', pseudonym of the Indian wri ...

Banglapedia: Kiron Shakar Roy
/ref> and Hem Chandra Roychaudhuri, through his paternal aunts.Sen Sharma, Tribhanga Mohan (1942). ''Kuladarpanam'', Behrampore: New Art Press. p.369 He was a student of

Ballygunge Government High School Ballygunge Government High School (BGHS) is a school in West Bengal, India. This is a boys' only school for secondary and higher secondary level students. Its medium of instruction is English. It was once considered one of the best Bengali medi ...

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

and Barisal Zilla School, Scottish Church College, Calcutta, where he completed his I.A. and finally Presidency College, Calcutta, where he completed his B.A. (Hons.) in history with a high first class. He completed his first D.Phil. in history at Calcutta University under the supervision of Sir Jadunath Sarkar, who was his Additional Supervisor and his second D.Phil. at Balliol College, Oxford, under the supervision of Major (Dr.) C.C. Davies.

Career

He started his career as a lecturer at the Department of Islamic History and Culture, Calcutta University. After his return from Britain, he became a deputy director of the National Archives of India. He was a reader and then professor of history and director of the Delhi School of Economics and professor and the head of the department of history of

Delhi University Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...

. He was a reader in modern South Asian history from 1973 to 1992 and then ad hominem professor of Indian history and civilization and fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford, from 1992 to 1993. He was an emeritus fellow of St. Antony's College, Oxford, after retirement. He also served on the inaugural Social Sciences jury for the Infosys Prize in 2009. He became a

national research professor The National Research Professorship is an Indian award given to scholars who have made exceptional contribution in their fields. Notable recipients * Satyendra Nath Bose * Suniti Kumar Chatterji * Jayanta Kumar Ray * C.S. Seshadri * S.R. Rangana ...

in India in 2010

Awards

* Watumull Prize awarded by the American Historical Association, 1982. (jointly with Irfan Habib) for the ''Cambridge Economic History of India''. * Doctor of Letters 1993,

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

* Doctor of Letters ''honoris causa'' by the University of Calcutta * Doctor of Letters ''honoris causa'' by the University of Burdwan * Padma Bhushan in 2007 in recognition to his contributions to history.

Death

He died at home in Oxford (England) on 26 November 2014, after suffering a stroke.

Publications

Books

* * * * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raychaudhuri, Tapan 1926 births 2014 deaths People from Barisal District 20th-century Indian historians Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Scottish Church College alumni Presidency University, Kolkata alumni Bengali historians Bengali zamindars Economic historians Fellows of St Antony's College, Oxford Harvard University staff Historians of South Asia Indian autobiographers People associated with Santiniketan Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in literature & education Scholars from Kolkata University of Calcutta faculty Delhi University faculty University of California, Berkeley staff University of Pennsylvania staff Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom People from Oxford British people of Bengali descent British autobiographers 20th-century British historians