Bipan Chandra Age, Death, Wife, Children, Family, Biography & More

Bio/Wiki
Profession(s)	Autor, historian, professor
The Famous for	His book India’s Struggle is a notable Indian historian. for Independence
Career (Historian)
Specialization	Modern Indian History
Erste Publication	The Rising and Growth of Economic Nationalism India: Economic Policy of Indian National Leadership. Published 1966
The Last Publication	Modern India, From Marx to Gandhi and Orient Blackswan in 2000: The Making of Modern India
Honors, Awards and Achievements	• Padma Bhushan (2010) • The National Professorship (2007) • Itihas Ratna from Royal Asiatic Society of Bihar plaque (2013) • Chairmanship National Book trust (2008)
Personal Life
Date of birth	24 May 1928, Saturday
Place of Birth	Kangra (Punjab, British India; Now in Himachal Pradesh. India)
Date of death	30 August 2014
Ort of death	Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Age as at death	86 years
Death Cause	Chronic Illness [1]NDTV Note: He was asleep when he died.
Zodiac sign	Gemini
Nation	Indian
Hometown	Kangra, Himachal Pradesh
College/University	• Forman Christian College, Lahore • Stanford University, California, United States • University Of Delhi
Education Qualifications	• He did his graduation at Forman Christian College, Lahore in 1946. • He earned a master’s degree in history from Stanford University, California, United States (1948-49). • He earned his Ph.D. degree from the University Of Delhi in 1963.
Caste	His family was from Sud. [2]The Tribune
The Controversy	Bipan Chandra’s book India’s Struggle for Independence was published in 1987 and mentions Bhagat Sin as a revolutionary terrorist. Dinanath Batra, an activist for Hindutva sent Smriti Iraniani a 2006 letter requesting the publication of Independence. “banned, recalled from everywhere and destroyed.” He also demanded action against the officials and the authors of Delhi University’s Directorate of Hindi Medium Implementation for This article was made in Hindi. Bhagat Singh’s family also brought the same complaint. India’s Struggle for Independence”, by Bipan Chaudra. It is part of DU’s curriculum. for Over 20 years, Surya Sen and Chandrashekhar Azad were mentioned as “revolutionary terrors” in Chapter 20, along with Bhagat Singh and Surya Sing. Romila Thapar, Irfan Haibib and Amar Farooqi, famed historians, stated in 2016 that Delhi University’s ban on the sale of books about Bhagat Singh, a “revolutionary terror”, was an act of “ignorance” toward the victims. this term for themselves. Hindi Version of this The book, “Bharat Ka Swantrata Sangharsh”, was published in 1990 by Delhi University’s Directorate of Hindi Medium Implementation. [3]The Hindu
Relationships & More
Marital Status at the time of death	Widower
Family
Widow	Usha Chandra
Children	Two children were born to him.
Favourite things
Favorite Leader(s)	Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi

Bipan Chandra: Some less-known facts

• Bipan Chandra, an Indian historian and author, was a distinguished teacher. Professor of Modern History at Jawaharlal Naehru University was he emeritus. He was also an active member of the Indian Independence Movement and an author on Mahatma Gandhi.

• He was forced to flee Lahore after the partition of India. Bipan Chandra says that after leaving Lahore he began to gravitate towards Marxism with his intellectual friends. He subsequently gave up his engineering degree to study Economics and History.

• When he was studying at Stanford, he attended the lectures of Paul Baran, a well-known Marxist and the author of ‘The Political Economy of Growth,’ and he developed connections with some communists in the US; however, he was deported to India after he was caught during the anti-Communist campaign run by Senator McCarthy.
  

  Senator McCarthy discusses the communist reach within the United States

• He returned to India in 1950s and began lecturing at Hindu College. While completing his doctoral degree at Delhi University, he also taught at Hindu College. The dissertation of his doctoral study was titled ‘The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India” in which he restored the works of early Indian nationalists including Dadabhai Naoroji, R. C. Dutt, and G. V. Joshi who started India’s anti-colonial struggle and were regarded as the dismissed ‘petition wallahs’ because they repeatedly requested Britishers to treat Indians better.
  

  Bipan Chandra: The Growth and Rise of Economic Nationalism In India

• After completing his studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, in 1970, he began to teach as a professor. Mr. Chanrda was declared “Professor Emeritus” by the university after his retirement in 2007.

• In 1985, he was elected the general president for the Indian History Congress at Amritsar. He was named the UGC’s national professor in 1970. Between 2004 and 2012, Mr. Chandra served as the Chairman of the highly regarded National Book Trust. He was awarded Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2010. for His contributions to literature and education were significant.
  

  Bipan Chandra in a National Book Trust Seminar

• In the early 1950s, Mr. Chandra initiated the journal ‘Enquiry’ and had been a member of its editorial board for A long period of time. Amartya Sen, an Indian economist, also contributed to this journal.

• At Delhi University, he taught history. for His life span was approximately 43 years. He was popular with his students as well as students from other departments and colleges who could always be found in the corridor listening to his lectures. He was so full of new ideas and subject matter, that his lectures would lead to long discussions.

• One of his articles about Jawaharlal Nehru mentioned Nehru’s revolutionary years 1933-1936. This caused trouble among Indian capitalists, as well the rebels at Congress. This article examines the tactics used by Nehru to infuriate the capitalists during that period and their counter strategies.

•  Bipan Chandra, also known as for His extensive analysis of communalism which he did extensively in the 1970s. These findings were compiled into a book titled Communalism In Modern India (1984).
• Bipan Chandra, a master at relating past events to the current is an example of this. this can be found in his monograph titled ‘In the Name of Democracy: JP Movement and the Emergency’ (2003) in which he mentioned that although Indira Gandhi’s imposition of Emergency between 1975 and 1977 troubled him, Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement that had the support of communal faces was equally undesirable as it violated many principles of the constitution of India. Earlier, he had already mentioned this His book India After Independence (1999) is available.
  

  In the Name of Democracy JP Movement, and the Emergency By Bipan Chandra

• Bipan Chandra contributed extensively to the NCERT’s curriculum, particularly the books on Modern Indian History. for India’s senior secondary schools. Chandra has written many books that can be used to study NCERT textbooks. These are also useful for aspirants in competitive exams in India, such as the UPSC.

• In India, Chandra was an established historian by the 1980s. Later, his work inspired many scholars who took Chandra’s ideologies to incorporate into their doctoral studies. S. Irfan Habib, a noted Indian author and historian, is one of such scholars who was inspired by Dr. Chandra’s work. Habib spoke out in an interview.
  

  I also didn’t want to spend two years learning Persian. Bipan Chandra published a 1973 article about the ideological basis of radical terrorist movements. I discovered it while studying at JNU. That was what I decided to study. JNU was where I discovered the germ of my doctoral thesis. I expanded on Chandra’s article through archival research and field work.”

  

  Bipan Chandra and S I Habib

• Chandra’s first doctoral published work, ‘The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India’ in 1966, showed a strong nationalist spirit.

• Once, Chandra argued that the representatives of Indian Nationalism from 1880-1905 were not only ‘basically anti-imperialist’ but also tried to represent the interests of all classes of Indian society.

• In 1966, Bipan Chandra criticized the “Traditional Modernity Model” promoted by the Chicago school by terming it irrelevant because it overlooked the major historical features of colonial India.

• In 1978, he wrote a long essay on “Karl Marx-His Theories of Asian Societies and Colonial Rule,” which was the response to E J Hobsbawm’s edition of “Pre-capitalists Economic formations”, written from the untranslated early writings of Karl Marx. Chandra had the perception that at least the beginning of the essay by E J Hobsbawm should be made in the ‘scientific analysis of Marx’s views on colonialism and colonial rule that are yet to be made.’
  

  E J Hobsbawm’s edition of Pre-capitalists Economic formations

• Bipan Chandra in his book ”The Long Term Dynamics of the Indian National Movement” argued that-
  

  the Indian National Movement led by the Indian National Congress was as much a people’s struggle for liberation and had as much to offer to the world in terms of lessons in social transformation and bringing about change in the state structure as the ‘British, French, Russian, Chinese, Cuban and Vietnamese revolutions.’’

  He said that-

  Strategic practice of Gandhi-guided and Congress-led national movements [has] a certain significance in world history being ‘the only actual historical example of a semi-democratic or democratic-type state structure being replaced or transformed, of the broadly Gramscian theoretical perspective of a war of position being successfully practiced.’’

  Gramsci, the famous Italian Marxist Gramsci was evaluated this ‘as the only possible strategy’ for social modification ‘in the developed countries of the west’.

• The standard text Communalism in Modern India is one of his most important works. for Anyone who wishes to understand and learn how communalism developed in India in the second decade of the 20th century. for All those who are against the practice.

• Chandra argued in one of his writings ‘Gandhiji, Secularism, and Communalism’ that-
  

  it was because of Gandhiji’s total opposition to communalism and strong commitment to secularism that both Hindu and Muslim communalists hated him and conducted a virulent campaign against him, leading in the end to his assassination by a communal fanatic.’’

• He argued that in one of the most important contributions to economic history,
  

  colonialism did not lead to ‘partial modernization’ or ‘restricted growth’ and whatever little spurts of growth the colony witnessed during the colonial period were not a Result of colonialism but were a product of the breaks or the ‘loosening of the links’ from the colonial stranglehold, caused by various crises faced by the metropolitan countries such as the two World Wars and the Great Depression.”

• He was critical of colonialism, but he insisted that it would not become capitalism, industrialization or modernization. However, its destruction is a mandatory requirement for India to decide how it will position itself among advanced capitalist nations.

• Bipan Chandra’s name isn’t just remembered for He was also a part of Indian history-writing and his connections to Marxism. for Writing modern history: The scientific temper, secularism or ideological honesty. With a focus on Indian socio-economic history.

• An article says Chandra was energetic and confident. Chandra was an admirable professor. His lecture was loud and clear. With a characteristic Punjabi accent, he used to talk in Hindi and English. A great scholar, he was always prepared to defend his views and opinions and was an excellent communicator. for Intellectual discussions

• Reportedly, Chandra did not believe the reservation policy and spoke against the step taken by the government to exclude the ‘creamy layer’ from the OBC category, stating that imposing reservation would discourage the educated sections among the OBCs from the race to get a place in the universities and government jobs. ^[4]Forwardpress

• He said the following in an interview about capitalism and globalization.
  

  Globalization and capitalism were different phenomena and whereas we must embrace the former, the latter should be opposed.”

• In the 1980s, when Indian historiography began to bend towards ‘secondary’ contradictions of Indian society that is caste, tribe, class, and gender, Chandra found himself in the company of old-fashioned Congress. Jawaharlal Naehru, the Congress to which Chandra was drawn, died.

• An article states that Bipan Chandra started using the terminology used by Antonio Gramsci, an Italian communist, in the middle of the 1980s.
  

  Gandhi knew that colonial India was semi-hegemonic and thus, Gandhi could understand it. this better than anyone else; the fact that the Gandhian mass movements became weaker as time passed and failed to involve Muslims in large numbers was downplayed in his narrative of the Indian freedom struggle.”

• C P Bhambhri, a political scientist and politician said that Dr. Chandra died.
  

  He was a formidable scholar whose writings contested colonial and communal historiography.”

  In an interview with The Times of India Mridula Mukherjee, historian and former director of Nehru Memorial Museum and Library said on Dr. Chandra’s demise,

  His understanding of Moderates (1885-1905), which were until then considered ineffectual petitioners, was transformed. Chandra proved how they were actually the founding fathers of India’s economic nationalism. Bhagat Singh, in the same way, was first seen as revolutionary. He brought out Bhagat Singh, the thinker, and the intellectual, to the fore.”

  While speaking on Dr. Chandra’s demise Chiki Sarkar, the publisher at Penguin Books India, said,

  He was one of our (Penguin India’s) most respected authors and whose books on Indian history have been read by generations of readers. We mourn his passing.”

• Inquilab is a Hindi documentary written by Gauhar Raza. Inquilab’s 2008 script was read out to the actor. It featured an excerpt from Bhagat Sing, the Indian freedom fighter. Bipan Chandra was not the only prominent scholar and intellectual who narrated parts of the script.

• In 2016, Mridula Mukherjee and Aditya Mukherjee, who co-authored the book ‘India Since Independence’ by Bipan Chandra, came out with public statements on the remarks on Bhagat Singh as a revolutionary terrorist in Bipan Chandra’s book India’s Struggle for Independence; they said that before coming out with the term ‘Revolutionary Terrorism,’ Bipan Chandra had considered using some other terms like ‘Revolutionary Nationalism’ or Revolutionary Socialism,’ they said,
  

  Bipan Chandra had considered replacing the term ‘Revolutionary Terrorism’ with other expressions such as ‘revolutionary nationalism’ or ‘revolutionary socialism.”

  

• In 2017, on lifting the ban on Dr. Chandra’ book ‘India’s Struggle for Independence,’ the History Congress from Thiruvananthapuram, India said,
  

  The book describes them as revolutionary terrorists, making it clear that no pejorative meaning was intended in using the word ‘terrorists’, a description Bhagat Singh and his associates used for themselves, and “stifling” of scholarly work should not be allowed in the future.”